King's School was a secondary school in

Gütersloh Gütersloh () is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, in the region of Ostwestfalen-Lippe and the administrative region of Detmold (administrative region), Detmold. Gütersloh is the administrative centre for a Gütersloh (distric ...

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, between 1960 and 2019. Serving the children of British military families stationed in the area, it was the largest school in

Service Children's Education Service Children's Education (SCE) was an organisation of the United Kingdom government responsible for the education of the children of British Armed Forces families and Ministry of Defence (MoD) personnel serving outside of the United Kingdo ...

(SCE). It was the only SCE secondary school in the area and also served children from bases in

Bielefeld Bielefeld () is a city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 341,755, it is also the most populous city in the administrative region () of Detmold (region), Detmold and the L ...

Herford Herford (; ) is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, located in the lowlands between the hill chains of the Wiehen Hills and the Teutoburg Forest. It is situated in the cultural region of Ostwestfalen-Lippe (OWL) and the Detmold (administrat ...

Detmold Detmold () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, with a population of . It was the capital of the small Principality of Lippe from 1468 until 1918 and then of the Free State of Lippe until 1947. Today it is the administrative center of ...

Lippstadt Lippstadt () is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the largest town within the district of Soest. Lippstadt is situated about 60 kilometres east of Dortmund, 40 kilometres south of Bielefeld and 30 kilometres west of Paderborn. Geo ...

, and

Paderborn Paderborn (; Westphalian language, Westphalian: ''Patterbuorn'', also ''Paterboärn'') is a city in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn (district), Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pade ...

History

King's School opened its doors to its first pupils on 19 September 1960 in what was then

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

. The first headteacher was Mr Jack Reynish. Later heads included Mr D.D. Rooney, Mr Ken Jones, Mr Rob McGraw and Mrs Sheila Hargreaves. Boarding accommodation at King's Hall opened in September 1994.

Campus

Situated within Mansergh Barracks, the school buildings were originally barrack blocks but were modernised throughout to provide spacious teaching accommodation. The school also housed the Gütersloh Music Centre which provided weekly instrumental tuition for about 200 young people. The playing fields, including astro-turf, were extensive, with pitches for hockey, football, rugby, netball, cricket and athletics. Two gymnasia were complemented by the Army gymnasium / Sports Hall. The school also had access to a nearby swimming pool and a tartan surface athletics track for Sports Day.

Curriculum

The school followed the

National Curriculum A national curriculum is a common programme of study in schools that is designed to ensure nationwide uniformity of content and standards in education. It is usually legislated by the national government, possibly in consultation with state or othe ...

Extracurricular activities

Student organisations and activities included art club, chess, dance, digital photography, drama, the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme, fashion design, film club, gardening, jogging and fitness club, juggling, Language Ambassadors, lawn games, karate, printmaking, quilting, remote control cars, study support, textiles, ultimate frisbee, Warhammer, World Challenge, and yearbook. Sports included athletics, basketball, football, golf, hockey, netball, rugby, and tennis. Students competed in lunchtime inter-form competitions, SCE inter-school festivals and GISST, the International Schools Group competitions. The school was recognised with the

Sportsmark Sportsmark is Sport England's accreditation scheme for secondary schools. The scheme recognises a school's out of hours sports provision.Tim Montgomerie Timothy Montgomerie (born 24 July 1970) is a British political activist, blogger, and columnist. He is best known as the co-founder of the Centre for Social Justice and as creator of the ConservativeHome website, which he edited from 2005 unt ...

, co-founder of the

Centre for Social Justice The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) is an independent centre-right think tank based in the United Kingdom, co-founded in 2004 by Iain Duncan Smith, Tim Montgomerie, and Philippa Stroud. Political positions The organisation's stated aim is to "p ...

, creator of the

ConservativeHome ConservativeHome is a politically conservative news website and events company. It was first established by Tim Montgomerie in 2005 with the aim of arguing for a broad conservative spectrum, which is serious about both social justice and a fair ...

website, columnist at ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' newspaper, blogger and political activist * Cpl Gordon Pritchard, the 100th British servicemember killed in the Iraq War

References

External links

British international schools in Germany Schools in North Rhine-Westphalia Educational institutions established in 1960 Gütersloh Service Children's Education 1960 establishments in West Germany {{NorthRhineWestphalia-struct-stub