Rugby School#Houses

{{Infobox school

| name = Rugby School

| logo = Rugby School crest.png

| logo_size = 100px

| image = Rugby School 06.jpg

| image_size = 270px

| caption = Rugby School, seen from 'The Close' playing field.

| coordinates = {{coord|52.3675|-1.2611|type:edu_region:GB-WAR_dim:100|display=inline,title}}

| motto = Latin: Orando Laborando
(through work and through prayer)

| established = {{start date and age|1567}}

| closed =

| sister_school = Rugby School Thailand
Rugby School Japan

| type = Private boarding school in the UK

| religion = Church of England

| president =

| head_label = Head

| head = Gareth Parker-Jones

| chair_label = Executive Head Master

| chair = Peter Green

| founder = Lawrence Sheriff

| specialist =

| address = Lawrence Sheriff Street

| city = Rugby, Warwickshire

| country = England

| postcode = CV22 5EH

| local_authority =

| urn = 125777

| ofsted =

| staff =

| enrolment = 865

| capacity = 885

| gender = Co-educational

| lower_age = 13

| upper_age = 18

| houses = 16

| colours = {{color box|#ccdfe8}} Duck Egg Blue

| publication =

| alumni = Old Rugbeians (ORs)

| free_label_3 = School song

| free_3 = Floreat Rugbeia

| website = {{URL|www.rugbyschool.co.uk}}

}}

Rugby School is a private boarding school for pupils aged 13–18, located in town of Rugby, Warwickshire in England.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pFU4AAAAMAAJ&q=history+of+rugby+school|title=Rugby Since Arnold: A History of Rugby School from 1842|first=John Barclay Hope|last=Simpson|date=6 February 1967|publisher=Macmillan|via=Google Books|access-date=6 February 2023|archive-date=6 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230206214614/https://books.google.com/books?id=pFU4AAAAMAAJ&q=history+of+rugby+school|url-status=live}}

Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain.{{cite web|title=Gabbitas|url=http://www.emetis.com/primer/oldest.htm|access-date=26 August 2015|archive-date=9 February 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120209152900/http://www.emetis.com/primer/oldest.htm|url-status=dead}} Up to 1667, the school remained in comparative obscurity. Its re-establishment by Thomas Arnold during his time as Headmaster, from 1828 to 1841, was seen as the forerunner of the Victorian public school.{{cite news|title=The truth about Flashman: an old Rugbeian writes|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|url=http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewmcfbrown/100087567/the-truth-about-flashman|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514121753/http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewmcfbrown/100087567/the-truth-about-flashman/|url-status=dead|archive-date=14 May 2011|access-date=16 October 2015}} It was one of nine schools investigated by the Clarendon Commission of 1864 and later regulated as one of the seven schools included in the Public Schools Act 1868. Originally a boys' school, it became fully co-educational in 1992.{{cite news |title=Rugby pupils long to keep old-fashioned skirts |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/education/article/pupils-long-to-keep-old-fashioned-skirts-c885c2wsw |work=The Times |access-date=2 February 2023 |archive-date=2 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230202005405/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/pupils-long-to-keep-old-fashioned-skirts-c885c2wsw |url-status=live }}

The school's alumni – or "Old Rugbeians" – include a UK prime minister, a French prime minister, several bishops, poets, scientists, writers and soldiers.

Rugby School is the birthplace of rugby football.[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-25946757 "Six ways the town of Rugby helped change the world"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140304074207/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-25946757 |date=4 March 2014 }}. BBC. Retrieved 29 January 2015.

History

{{see also|Grammar school#History|Latin school|Neo-Latin#Latin in school education 1500–1700}}

File:Drawing depicting Lawrence Sheriff.jpg, founder of Rugby School]]

=Foundation and early growth=

Rugby School was founded in 1567 as a provision in the will of Lawrence Sheriff, who had made his fortune supplying groceries to Queen Elizabeth I of England.[https://books.google.com/books?id=15cWAAAAIAAJ Rugby] by Henry Christopher Bradby In the last few months of his life, Sheriff had drawn up a will which stipulated that his fortune should be used to found almshouses and a free grammar school "to serve chiefly for the children of Rugby and Brownsover... and next for such as be of other places hereunto adjoyneing.". Shortly before his death, Sheriff added a codicil to his will reducing the amount of money he left to the school, possibly due to a family financial problem, but instead leaving his eight acre Conduit Close estate in Middlesex: At the time this seemed like a poor exchange, as the estate consisted of undeveloped farmland on the edge of London, however, in time this endowment made Rugby School a wealthy institution due to the subsequent development of the area and rise in land values. The area of what is now the Rugby Estate includes much of what is now Great Ormond Street, Lamb's Conduit Street and Rugby Street in the London district of Bloomsbury.{{cite web |title=About the Rugby Estate |url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bloomsbury-project/streets/rugby.htm |publisher=University College London |access-date=17 May 2021 |archive-date=20 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211020172756/https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bloomsbury-project/streets/rugby.htm |url-status=live }}{{cite book |last1=Osbourne |first1=Andy |first2=Eddy |last2=Rawlins|title=Rugby: Growth of a Town |date=1988}}

Up to 1667, the school remained in comparative obscurity. Sheriff's endowment was not fully realized for some time, due to a challenge over the provisions of the will from the Howkins family, to whom Sheriff was related through his sister, Bridget. Its history during that trying period is characterised mainly by a series of lawsuits between the Howkins family, who tried to defeat the intentions of the testator, and the masters and trustees, who tried to carry them out. A final decision was handed down in 1667, confirming the findings of a commission in favour of the trust, and henceforth the school maintained a steady growth. Under the headmastership of Henry Holyoake (from 1688 to 1731) the school became more than simply a local concern, and began to take on national importance.{{Cite NIE |wstitle= Rugby School |volume= XVII | page = |short=1}} By the end of the 17th century, there were pupils from every part of England attending the school.{{cite web |last1=Waite |first1=Rev W. O. |title=RUGBY: PAST & PRESENT, WITH AN HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF NEIGHBOURING PARISHES. |url=http://access.bl.uk/item/pdf/lsidyv2ae4164a |access-date=26 December 2022 |pages=76 |date=1893 |archive-date=26 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406212122/http://access.bl.uk/item/pdf/lsidyv2ae4164a |url-status=dead }} [http://access.bl.uk/item/pdf/lsidyv2ae4164a Alt URL]

The school was originally based in a wooden schoolhouse on Church Street opposite St Andrew's Church, which incorporated Lawrence Sheriff's former house. By the 1740s this building was in poor condition, and the school looked to relocate to new premises. In 1750, the school moved to its current location to the south of the town centre, when it purchased a former Manor House at the south of High Street; this became the Master's house, a new schoolhouse was built alongside. The current school buildings date from the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Henry Ingles, who was Headmaster between 1794 and 1806, was known for his strict discipline and gained the nickname "The Black Tiger". His time as Headmaster is most notable for the 'Great Rebellion' of 1797: It started when Ingles heard one of the boys shoot a cork gun, and the boy told him that Mr Rowell, a grocer, had supplied the gunpowder. Mr Rowell denied this, and as a result the boy Astley was flogged by Ingles, the boys retaliated by smashing Mr Rowell's windows and Ingles insisted that the boys pay for the damage. This provoked a full-scale riot, in which the boys blew off doors, smashed windows and burned furniture and books. As the other Masters were away, Ingles called on help from the townsfolk. A party of recruiting soldiers and some townsfolk advanced on the rioters, who retreated onto a moated island in the school grounds. The Riot Act was read out by a local justice of the peace, calling on the boys to surrender, and while this caused a distraction a group of soldiers waded across the moat from the rear and took the boys prisoner.

=Victorian period=

File:Thomas_Arnold_by_Thomas_Phillips.jpg, Headmaster from 1828 to 1841]]

Rugby School's most famous headmaster was Thomas Arnold, from 1828 to 1841, whose emphasis on moral and religious principle, was widely admired and was seen as the blueprint for Victorian public schools. Arnold's period as headmaster is immortalised in Thomas Hughes's 1857 novel Tom Brown's School Days. In the Victorian period, Rugby School saw several further Headmasters of some distinction, these included Frederick Temple (1858–1869) who would later become the Archbishop of Canterbury, John Percival (1887–1895) after whom the Percival Guildhouse is named, and Herbert Armitage James (1895–1910)

In 1845, a committee of Rugby schoolboys, William Delafield Arnold, W. W. Shirley and Frederick Hutchins,{{cite book|last=Curry|first=Graham|url=https://lra.le.ac.uk/bitstream/2381/7821/1/391137.pdf|title=Football: A Study in Diffusion|publisher=University of Leicester|year=2001|location=Leicester|page=28|access-date=14 May 2019|archive-date=2 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181102015200/https://lra.le.ac.uk/bitstream/2381/7821/1/391137.pdf|url-status=dead}} wrote the "Laws of Football as Played At Rugby School", the first published set of laws for any code of football.{{cite wikisource|title=Laws of Football as played at Rugby School (1845)}}

Rugby was one of the nine prestigious schools investigated by the Clarendon Commission of 1861–64 (the schools under scrutiny being Eton, Charterhouse, Harrow, Shrewsbury, Westminster, and Winchester, and two day schools: St Paul's and Merchant Taylors). Rugby went on to be included in the Public Schools Act 1868, which ultimately related only to the seven boarding schools.

From the early days of the school the pupils were divided into "Foundationers" i.e. boys who lived in Rugby and surrounding villages who received free schooling, as per Sheriff's original bequest, and "Non-Foundationers", boys from outside the Rugby area who paid fees and were boarders. Non-Foundationers were admitted from the early history of the school as they helped to pay the bills. Gradually, as the school's reputation grew, fee-paying Non-Foundationers became dominant and local boys benefited less and less from Sheriff's original intentions. By the latter half of the 19th century it was considered no longer desirable to have local boys attending a prestigious public school and so a new school – Lawrence Sheriff Grammar School – was founded in 1878 in order to continue Sheriff's original bequest for a free school for local boys.

On several occasions in the late 19th century Rugby School was visited by the French educator Pierre de Coubertin, who would later cite the school as one of the main inspirations for his most notable achievement, the founding of the modern Olympic Games in 1896.{{cite web |title=Rugby school inspired founder of modern Games |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/olympics-london-rugby-idINDEE83H01A20120418 |publisher=Reuters |access-date=27 February 2023 |date=18 April 2012 |archive-date=27 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230227172543/https://www.reuters.com/article/olympics-london-rugby-idINDEE83H01A20120418 |url-status=live }}{{cite web |title=Rugby School welcomes the Olympic Torch |url=https://www.itv.com/news/central/2012-07-02/rugby-school-welcomes-the-olympic-torch |publisher=ITV |access-date=27 February 2023 |date=2 July 2012 |archive-date=27 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230227172549/https://www.itv.com/news/central/2012-07-02/rugby-school-welcomes-the-olympic-torch |url-status=live }}

=Modern history=

File:Rugby School, Rugby match (1) 3.23.jpg

In 1975 two girls were admitted to the sixth form and the first girls' house opened three years later, followed by three more. In 1992 the school became fully co-educational when the first 13-year-old girls arrived, and in 1995 Rugby had its first-ever Head Girl, Louise Woolcock, who appeared on the front page of The Times. In September 2003 the last girls' house was added. The houses are all slightly different in terms of feel and some even come with their own ghosts. The famous MaMac ghost is said to walk the dorm corridors of School House and even one of the house masters apparently committed [https://www.ukcolumn.org/blogs/fight-the-good-fight-two-unforgotten-welshmen suicide] in the 1990's. Today, total enrolment of day pupils, from forms 4 to 12, numbers around 800.{{cite web|author=University of Oxford student|title=Rugby School|url=http://www.prepreview.com/school/Rugby_School.html|access-date=26 August 2015|archive-date=20 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150920042919/http://www.prepreview.com/school/Rugby_School.html|url-status=live}} The BBCs [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Qr_fKgB5Rg changing places] give a good view into life in the school.

=Branches overseas=

In 2017, Rugby School opened their first ever overseas franchise in Chonburi Province, Thailand, called Rugby School Thailand.{{cite web | title=Rugby School Japan bridges nations, generations | website=Sustainable Japan by The Japan Times | date=1 March 2024 | url=https://sustainable.japantimes.com/lr/108 | access-date=8 December 2024}} In 2023, the school opened another branch in the city of Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, Rugby School Japan.

Rugby football

File:WWEplaque 700.jpg plaque]]

File:Webb-Ellis-at-Rugby,.jpg

The game of Rugby football owes its name to the school.

The legend of William Webb Ellis and the origin of the game is commemorated by a plaque on the school grounds. The story is that Webb Ellis was the first to pick up a football and run with it, and thus invent a new sport. However, the sole source of the story is Matthew Bloxam, a former pupil but not a contemporary of Webb Ellis. In October 1876, four years after the death of Webb Ellis, in a letter to the school newspaper The Meteor he quotes an unknown friend relating the story to him. He elaborated on the story four years later in another letter to The Meteor, but shed no further light on its source. Richard Lindon, a boot and shoemaker who had premises across the street from the school's main entrance in Lawrence Sheriff Street, is credited with the invention of the "oval" rugby ball, the rubber inflatable bladder and the brass hand pump.{{cite web|url=http://www.richardlindon.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070311213720/http://www.richardlindon.com/|url-status = dead|archive-date=11 March 2007|title=richardlindon.com|access-date=26 August 2015}}

There were no standard rules for football in Webb Ellis's time at Rugby (1816–1825) and most varieties involved carrying the ball. The games played at Rugby were organised by the pupils and not the masters, the rules being a matter of custom and not written down. They were frequently changed and modified with each new intake of students.

Rugby fives

File:Rugby Fives.jpeg

Rugby fives is a handball game, similar to squash, played in an enclosed court. It has similarities with Winchester fives (a form of Wessex fives) and Eton fives.

It is most commonly believed to be derived from Wessex fives, a game played by Thomas Arnold, Headmaster of Rugby, who had played Wessex fives when a boy at Lord Weymouth's Grammar, now Warminster School. The open court of Wessex fives, built in 1787, is still in existence at Warminster School although it has fallen out of regular use.

Rugby fives is played between two players (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles), the aim being to hit the ball above a 'bar' across the front wall in such a way that the opposition cannot return it before a second bounce. The ball is slightly larger than a golf ball, leather-coated and hard. Players wear leather padded gloves on both hands, with which they hit the ball.

Rugby fives continues to have a good following with tournaments being run nationwide, presided over by the Rugby Fives Association.{{cite web|url=http://www.rfa.org.uk/|title=Welcome|publisher=Rugby Fives Association|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204060224/http://www.rfa.org.uk/|archivedate=4 February 2012|url-status=usurped}}

Cricket

File:Rugby - Rugby School - geograph.org.uk - 158546.jpg

The school has produced a number of cricketers who have gone onto play Test and first-class cricket. The school has played host to two major matches, the first of which was a Twenty20 match between Warwickshire and Glamorgan in the 2013 Friends Life t20.{{cite web |url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Grounds/11/2005_tt.html |title=Twenty20 Matches played on Rugby School Ground, Rugby |publisher=CricketArchive |access-date=2020-10-20 |url-access=subscription |archive-date=15 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210815042453/https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Grounds/11/2005_tt.html |url-status=live }} The second match was a List-A one-day match between Warwickshire and Sussex in the 2015 Royal London One-Day Cup, though it was due to host a match in the 2014 competition, however this was abandoned.{{cite web |url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Grounds/11/2005_a.html |title=List A Matches played on Rugby School Ground, Rugby |publisher=CricketArchive |access-date=2020-10-20 |url-access=subscription |archive-date=28 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200928084509/https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Grounds/11/2005_a.html |url-status=live }} In the 2015 match, William Porterfield scored a century, with a score of exactly 100.{{cite web |url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Grounds/11/2005/a_Centuries.html |title=Rugby School Ground, Rugby - Centuries in List A matches |publisher=CricketArchive |access-date=2020-10-20 |url-access=subscription |archive-date=21 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210921112553/https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Grounds/11/2005/a_Centuries.html |url-status=live }} Warwickshire will return to Rugby School in 2024 to play three matches in the One-Day Cup.{{cite web |last1=Scott |first1=Ged |title=Warwickshire to play three One-Day Cup games at Rugby School |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/68489458 |publisher=BBC Sport |access-date=11 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240311202121/https://www.bbc.com/sport/cricket/68489458 |archive-date=11 March 2024 |date=6 March 2024 |url-status=live}}

Houses

Rugby School has both day and boarding-pupils, the latter in the majority. Originally it was for boys only, but girls have been admitted to the sixth form since 1975. It went fully co-educational in 1992. The school community is divided into houses.

House ! Founded {{sup\|†}} ! Girls/Boys
class="wikitable sortable"
Cotton	1836{{cite web\|title=Rugby School – Cotton\|url=https://www.rugbyschool.co.uk/school-life/houses/boys/cotton/\|access-date=28 March 2017\|archive-date=24 November 2015\|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151124051750/http://www.rugbyschool.co.uk/school-life/houses/boys/cotton/\|url-status=dead}}	Boys
Kilbracken	1841{{cite web\|title=Rugby School – Kilbracken\|url=https://www.rugbyschool.co.uk/school-life/houses/boys/kilbracken/\|access-date=28 March 2017\|archive-date=24 November 2015\|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151124051548/http://www.rugbyschool.co.uk/school-life/houses/boys/kilbracken/\|url-status=dead}}	Boys
Michell	1882{{cite web\|title=Walter Gorden Michell Biography\|url=http://www.devon-mitchells.co.uk/getperson.php?personID=I12&tree=Bruton\|access-date=28 March 2017\|archive-date=26 February 2021\|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210226222713/http://www.devon-mitchells.co.uk/getperson.php?personID=I12&tree=Bruton\|url-status=live}}	Boys
School Field	1852{{cite web\|title=Rugby – School Field\|url=https://www.rugbyschool.co.uk/school-life/houses/boys/school-field/\|access-date=28 March 2017\|archive-date=24 November 2015\|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151124051801/http://www.rugbyschool.co.uk/school-life/houses/boys/school-field/\|url-status=dead}}	Boys
School House	1750{{cite web\|title=Rugby School – School House\|url=https://www.rugbyschool.co.uk/school-life/houses/boys/school-house/\|access-date=28 March 2017\|archive-date=24 November 2015\|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151124051805/http://www.rugbyschool.co.uk/school-life/houses/boys/school-house/\|url-status=dead}}	Boys
Sheriff	1930{{cite web\|title=Rugby School – Sheriff\|url=https://www.rugbyschool.co.uk/school-life/houses/boys/sheriff/\|access-date=28 March 2017\|archive-date=24 November 2015\|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151124051811/http://www.rugbyschool.co.uk/school-life/houses/boys/sheriff/\|url-status=dead}}	Boys
Town House	1567{{cite web\|title=Rugby School – Town House\|url=https://www.rugbyschool.co.uk/school-life/houses/boys/town-day/\|access-date=28 March 2017\|archive-date=24 November 2015\|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151124051554/http://www.rugbyschool.co.uk/school-life/houses/boys/town-day/\|url-status=dead}}	Boys (Day)
Whitelaw	c.1790{{cite web\|title=Rugby School Register, 1675–1842\|url=https://rugbyschoolarchives.co.uk/PDFViewer/web/viewer.html?file=%2fFilename.ashx%3ftableName%3dta_schoolregisters%26columnName%3dfilename%26recordId%3d1\|access-date=18 May 2021\|archive-date=18 May 2021\|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210518154005/https://rugbyschoolarchives.co.uk/PDFViewer/web/viewer.html?file=%2FFilename.ashx%3FtableName%3Dta_schoolregisters%26columnName%3Dfilename%26recordId%3D1\|url-status=live}} The Rugby School Register records on pp. xxii–xxiii that Whitelaw House, then run by Christopher Moor was in existence about 1790. The first boy to board out with Christopher Moor was Edward Watkin in 1796. The Moors opened the present House on its Hillmorton Road site in 1811.	Boys
Bradley	1830 (1992){{cite web\|title=Rugby School – Bradley\|url=https://www.rugbyschool.co.uk/school-life/houses/girls/bradley/\|access-date=28 March 2017\|archive-date=25 December 2015\|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151225152720/http://www.rugbyschool.co.uk/school-life/houses/girls/bradley\|url-status=dead}}	Girls
Dean	1832 (1978){{cite web\|title=The History of Dean House\|work=Rugby School Living Book \|url=https://livingbook.rugbyschool.net/book/the-history-of-dean-house\|access-date=28 March 2017\|archive-date=28 March 2017\|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170328195857/https://livingbook.rugbyschool.net/book/the-history-of-dean-house\|url-status=live}}	Girls
Griffin	2003{{cite web\|title=The History of Griffin House\|url=https://livingbook.rugbyschool.net/book/the-history-of-griffin-house\|access-date=28 March 2017\|archive-date=28 March 2017\|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170328200051/https://livingbook.rugbyschool.net/book/the-history-of-griffin-house\|url-status=dead}}	Girls
Rupert Brooke	1860 (1988){{cite web\|title=Rugby School – Rupert Brooke\|url=https://www.rugbyschool.co.uk/school-life/houses/girls/rupert-brooke/\|access-date=28 March 2017\|archive-date=24 November 2015\|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151124051836/http://www.rugbyschool.co.uk/school-life/houses/girls/rupert-brooke/\|url-status=dead}}	Girls
Southfield	1993{{cite web\|title=Rugby School – Southfield (Day)\|url=https://www.rugbyschool.co.uk/school-life/houses/girls/southfield-day/\|access-date=28 March 2017\|archive-date=24 November 2015\|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151124051841/http://www.rugbyschool.co.uk/school-life/houses/girls/southfield-day/\|url-status=dead}}	Girls (Day)
Stanley	1828 (1992){{cite web\|title=Rugby School – Stanley\|url=https://www.rugbyschool.co.uk/school-life/houses/girls/stanley-6th-form-only/\|access-date=28 March 2017\|archive-date=24 November 2015\|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151124051720/http://www.rugbyschool.co.uk/school-life/houses/girls/stanley-6th-form-only/\|url-status=dead}}	Girls
Tudor	1893 (2002){{cite web\|title=Rugby School – Tudor\|url=https://www.rugbyschool.co.uk/school-life/houses/girls/tudor/\|access-date=28 March 2017\|archive-date=24 November 2015\|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151124051846/http://www.rugbyschool.co.uk/school-life/houses/girls/tudor/\|url-status=dead}}	Girls

{{unbulleted list

| {{sup|†}} Numbers in brackets indicate date of conversion to a Girls' house where applicable

}}

Academic life

Pupils beginning Rugby in the F Block (first year) study various subjects.{{Cite web |title=F Block Curriculum Guide |url=https://www.rugbyschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/12040-Rugby-F-Block-curriculum-guide-2022-online-AW%C6%92.pdf |url-status=live |access-date=2022-03-11 |website= |language=en-GB |archive-date=1 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220401221538/https://www.rugbyschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/12040-Rugby-F-Block-curriculum-guide-2022-online-AW%C6%92.pdf }} In a pupil's second year (E block), they do nine subjects which are for their GCSEs, this is the same for the D Block (GCSE year).{{Cite web |title=E and D Block Curriculum Guide |url=https://www.rugbyschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/12022-Rugby-Middle-School-Curriculum-Guide-2022-online-AW%C6%92-ALT21.pdf |url-status=live |access-date=2022-03-11 |language=en-GB |archive-date=1 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220401221838/https://www.rugbyschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/12022-Rugby-Middle-School-Curriculum-Guide-2022-online-AW%C6%92-ALT21.pdf }} The school then provides standard A-levels in 29 subjects. Students at this stage have the choice of taking three or four subjects and are also offered the opportunity to take an extended project. The School also offers taking the IB Diploma Programme.{{cite web |title=Upper School Curriculum Guide |url=https://www.rugbyschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/12021-Rugby-Upper-School-Curriculum-Guide-2022-online-AW%C6%92-ALT21.pdf |url-status=live |access-date=2022-03-11 |archive-date=11 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220311225341/https://www.rugbyschool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/12021-Rugby-Upper-School-Curriculum-Guide-2022-online-AW%C6%92-ALT21.pdf }} Oxbridge acceptance percentage in 2007 was 10.4%.{{Cite web | url=http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Education/documents/2007/09/20/100topoxbridge.pdf | title=Top 100 schools by Oxbridge admissions hit rate |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150219025546/http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Education/documents/2007/09/20/100topoxbridge.pdf | archive-date=19 February 2015 }} In 2023, 68% of students that took A-levels at Rugby School scored A*/A while 83% of GCSE students scored 9/7.{{Cite web |last=StudyLink |first=Britannia |date=2020-07-22 |title=Rugby School Guide: Reviews Rankings, Fees and More |url=https://britannia-study.com.my/uk-boarding-school/rugby-school |access-date=2024-04-17 |website=Britannia StudyLink Malaysia: UK Study Expert |language=en-GB}}

=Scholarships=

The Governing Body provides financial benefits with school fees to families unable to afford them. Parents of pupils who are given a Scholarship are capable of obtaining a 10% fee deduction, although more than one scholarship can be awarded to one student.

Fees

Boarder fees per term: £13,970{{cite web |title=Tatler fees guide |url=https://www.tatler.com/article/rugby-school-tatler-school-guide |website=Tatler |date=16 October 2020 |accessdate=1 February 2023 |archive-date=1 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230201204938/https://www.tatler.com/article/rugby-school-tatler-school-guide |url-status=live }}
Day pupil fees per term: £8,770

Former pupils

File:Rugby school.jpg

There have been a number of notable Old Rugbeians, including the purported father of the sport of Rugby William Webb Ellis, the inventor of Australian rules football, Tom Wills, the war poets Rupert Brooke and John Gillespie Magee, Jr., Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, author and mathematician Lewis Carroll, poet and cultural critic Matthew Arnold, the author and social critic Salman Rushdie (who said of his time there: "Almost the only thing I am proud of about going to Rugby school was that Lewis Carroll went there too."[https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2011/jun/26/salman-rushdie-luka-fatwa-tim-adams Salman Rushdie: The Arab spring is a demand for desires and rights that are common to all human beings] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170301215340/https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2011/jun/26/salman-rushdie-luka-fatwa-tim-adams |date=1 March 2017 }}, The Daily Telegraph) and the Irish writer and republican Francis Stuart. The Indian concert pianist, music composer and singer Adnan Sami also studied at Rugby School.{{cite web|url=https://www.india.com/topic/adnan-sami/|title=Adnan Sami|website=India.com|access-date=29 April 2019|archive-date=23 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190423055629/https://www.india.com/topic/adnan-sami/|url-status=live}} Matthew Arnold's father Thomas Arnold, was a headmaster of the school. Philip Henry Bahr (later Sir Philip Henry Manson-Bahr), a zoologist and medical doctor, World War I veteran, was President of both Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and Medical Society of London, and vice-president of the British Ornithologists' Union.{{cite web|title=Sir Philip Henry Manson-Bahr|url=http://munksroll.rcplondon.ac.uk/Biography/Details/2934|website=Lives of the fellows : Munk's Roll : Volume VI|publisher=Royal College of Physicians of London|access-date=3 December 2014|archive-date=5 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141205193407/http://munksroll.rcplondon.ac.uk/Biography/Details/2934|url-status=live}}{{cite journal|title=Obituary Notices: Sir Philip Manson-Bahr, C.M.G., D.S.O., M.A., M.D., F.R.C.P., D.T.M.&H.|journal=British Medical Journal|year=1966|volume=2|issue=5525|pages=1332–1334|doi=10.1136/bmj.2.5525.1332|pmid=5332525|pmc=1944321}} Richard Barrett Talbot Kelly joined the army in 1915, straight after leaving the school, earned a Military Cross during the First World War, and later returned to the school as Director of Art.{{cite web |title=Lieutenant Richard Talbot Kelly |url=http://ww1.nam.ac.uk/stories/lieutenant-richard-talbot-kelly/ |website=National Army Museum, London |access-date=6 May 2019 |archive-date=5 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190505230822/http://ww1.nam.ac.uk/stories/lieutenant-richard-talbot-kelly/ |url-status=live }} The diplomat Sir Frank Kenyon Roberts was a pupil at Rugby in the 1920s.{{Cite book |last=Colman |first=Jonathan |url=https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526180964/ |title=Britain's 'Mr X': Sir Frank Roberts and the Making of British Foreign Policy, 1930-68 |publisher=Manchester |year=2025 |isbn=9781526180964 |pages=15–16}}

=Rugbeian Society=

The Rugbeian Society is for former pupils at the school.{{cite web|url=http://www.rugsoc.com/|title=Rugby School – (Development Office)|access-date=26 August 2015|archive-date=19 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151119065715/http://rugsoc.com/|url-status=dead}} An Old Rugbeian is sometimes referred to as an OR.

The purposes of the society are to encourage and help Rugbeians in interacting with each other and to strengthen the ties between ORs and the school.

In 2010 the Rugbeians reached the semi-finals of the Public Schools' Old Boys' Sevens tournament, hosted by the Old Silhillians to celebrate the 450th anniversary of fellow Warwickshire public school, Solihull School.

Buildings and architecture

The buildings of Rugby School date from the 18th and 19th century with some early 20th-century additions. The oldest buildings are the Old Quad Buildings and the School House the oldest parts of which date from 1748, but were mostly built between 1809 and 1813, designed by Henry Hakewill, these are grade II* listed.{{NHLE |desc=OLD QUAD BUILDINGS AT RUGBY SCHOOL |num=1035021 |access-date=3 September 2019}}{{NHLE |desc=SCHOOL HOUSE AT RUGBY SCHOOL |num=1183930 |access-date=3 September 2019}}

Most of the current landmark buildings date from the Victorian era and were designed by William Butterfield: The most notable of these is the chapel, dating from 1872, which is topped by an octagonal tower {{convert|138|ft|metre}} tall, and is grade I listed.{{NHLE |desc=CHAPEL AT RUGBY SCHOOL|num=1183714|access-date=8 June 2021}}{{cite book |last1=Pernell |first1=Sarah |title=Rugby |date=2006 |publisher=Francis Frith Collection |isbn=1-85937-620-7}} Butterfield's New Quad buildings are Grade II* listed and date from 1867 to 1885. The Grade II* War Memorial chapel, designed by Sir Charles Nicholson, dates to 1922.{{NHLE |desc=NEW QUAD BUILDINGS AT RUGBY SCHOOL |num=1035020 |access-date=3 September 2019}}{{NHLE |desc=WAR MEMORIAL CHAPEL AT RUGBY SCHOOL|num=1365005 |access-date=3 September 2019}} Nicholson was educated at the school from the late-1870s.{{NHLE |desc=Tombstone of Sir Charles Nicholson and family|num=1472162 |access-date=2 October 2022}}

The Temple Speech Room on Barby Road was named after former Rugby headmaster, Frederick Temple,{{cite web |title=A brief history of Rugby School, Flourishing in the 20th Century |url=https://www.rugbyschool.co.uk/about/history/ |access-date=25 December 2022 |archive-date=25 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221225190708/https://www.rugbyschool.co.uk/about/history/ |url-status=live }} It was opened on 3 July 1909 by King Edward VII.{{cite web|title=Rugby School. Temple Speech Room, Opening|url=https://www.ourwarwickshire.org.uk/content/catalogue_wow/rugby-school-temple-speech-room-opening|access-date=1 January 2023|archive-date=1 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230101022620/https://www.ourwarwickshire.org.uk/content/catalogue_wow/rugby-school-temple-speech-room-opening|url-status=live}} Designed by Thomas Graham Jackson, it is grade II listed.{{cite web |title=Temple Speech Room at Rugby School A Grade II Listed Building in Rugby, Warwickshire |url=https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101365016-temple-speech-room-at-rugby-school-rugby-eastlands-ward |publisher=British Listed Buildings |access-date=25 December 2022 |archive-date=25 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221225190706/https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101365016-temple-speech-room-at-rugby-school-rugby-eastlands-ward |url-status=live }} The Macready Theatre is based in a prominent Victorian building on Lawrence Sheriff Street which was built as classrooms in 1885, in 1975 it was converted into a theatre, in 2018, it was opened to the general public.{{cite web |title=First professional theatre in Rugby to open next week |url=https://rugbyobserver.co.uk/news/first-professional-theatre-in-rugby-to-open-next-week/ |publisher=Rugby Observer |accessdate=25 December 2022 |date=28 November 2018 |archive-date=25 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221225191845/https://rugbyobserver.co.uk/news/first-professional-theatre-in-rugby-to-open-next-week/ |url-status=live }}

School House, Rugby School 10.21.jpg|The School House, of 1813

Rugby School .jpg|Old Quad Buildings of 1809-13

Rugby School buildings from Warwick Street 9.21 (2).JPG|From left to right; New Quad Buildings, Chapel and War Memorial Chapel.

Temple Speech Room, Rugby, 6.19.jpg|Temple Speech Room

Macready_Theatre,_6.19.jpg|Macready Theatre

Head Masters

Richard Seele – 1600
Nicolas Greenhill – 1602
Augustus Rolfe – 1606
Wiligent Greene – to 1642
Raphael Pearce – 1642 to 1651
Peter Whitehead
John Allen – to 1669
Knightley Harrison – 1669 to 1674
Robert Aahbridge – 1674 to 1681
Leonard Jeacocks – 1681 to 1687
Henry Holyoake – 1687 to 1730
John Plomer – 1731 to 1742
Thomas Crossfield – 1742 to 1744
William Knail – 1744 to 1751
John Richmond – 1751 to 1755
Stanley Burrough – 1755 to 1778
Thomas James – 1778 to 1794
Henry Ingles – 1794 to 1806
John Wooll – 1806 to 1827
Thomas Arnold – 1828 to 1842
Archibald Campbell Tait – 1842 to 1848
Meyrick Goulburn – 1849 to 1857
Frederick Temple – 1858 to 1869
Henry Hayman – 1870 to 1874
Thomas William Jex-Blake – 1874 to 1887
John Percival – 1887 to 1895
Herbert Armitage James – 1895 to 1910John Barclay Hope Simpson, Rugby Since Arnold: A History of Rugby School from 1842, Published by Macmillan, 1967
Albert Augustus David – 1910 to 1921
William Wyamar Vaughan – 1921 to 1931
Percy Hugh Beverley Lyon – 1931 to 1948
Arthur Frederic Brownlow fforde – 1948 to 1957
Walter Hamilton – 1957 to 1966
James Woodhouse – 1967 to 1980
Brian Rees −1980 to 1985{{cite web|url=https://www.rugbyschool.co.uk/?o=1|title=Rugby School – Home|website=rugbyschool.co.uk|access-date=29 April 2019|archive-date=19 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210119221807/https://www.rugbyschool.co.uk/?o=1|url-status=live}}
Richard Bull – 1985 to 1990
Michael Mavor – 1990 to 2001
Patrick Derham – 2001 to 2014{{cite web|url=http://www.rugbyschool.net/new-post-for-head-master|title=New Post for Head Master|access-date=26 August 2015|url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924092704/http://www.rugbyschool.net/new-post-for-head-master|archive-date=24 September 2015}}
Peter Green 2014 – 2020{{cite web|url=http://www.rugbyschool.net/New-Head-Master-Announced|title=New Head Master Announced|access-date=26 August 2015|url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924092635/http://www.rugbyschool.net/New-Head-Master-Announced|archive-date=24 September 2015}}
Peter Green (Executive Head Master) 2020–
Gareth Parker Jones (Head) 2020–{{cite web|url=https://www.rugbyschool.co.uk/about/welcome-from-the-executive-head-master/rugby-school-senior-management-team/|access-date=26 August 2015|title=Rugby School - Rugby School Senior Management Team|archive-date=30 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200930161902/https://www.rugbyschool.co.uk/about/welcome-from-the-executive-head-master/rugby-school-senior-management-team/|url-status=live}}

=Thomas Arnold=

File:Rugby_School_-_ex_libris.tif from Rugby School. From BEIC]]

Rugby's most famous headmaster was Thomas Arnold, appointed in 1828; he executed many reforms to the school curriculum and administration. Arnold's and the school's reputations were immortalised through Thomas Hughes' book Tom Brown's School Days.

David Newsome writes about the new educational methods employed by Arnold in his book, 'Godliness and Good Learning' (Cassell 1961). He calls the morality practised at Arnold's school muscular Christianity. Arnold had three principles: religious and moral principle, gentlemanly conduct and academic performance. George Mosse, former professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, lectured on Arnold's time at Rugby. According to Mosse, Thomas Arnold created an institution which fused religious and moral principles, gentlemanly conduct, and learning based on self-discipline. These morals were socially enforced through the "Gospel of work". The object of education was to produce "the Christian gentleman", a man with good outward appearance, playful but earnest, industrious, manly, honest, virginal pure, innocent, and responsible.

=John Percival=

In 1888 the appointment of Marie Bethell Beauclerc by Percival was the first appointment of a female teacher in an English boys' public school and the first time shorthand had been taught in any such school. The shorthand course was popular with one hundred boys in the classes.

Controversy

In September 2005, the school was one of fifty independent schools operating independent school fee-fixing, in breach of the Competition Act, 1998. All of the schools involved were ordered to abandon this practice, pay a nominal penalty of £10,000 each and to make ex-gratia payments totalling three million pounds into a trust designed to benefit pupils who attended the schools during the period in respect of which fee information had been shared.{{Cite news|last=Halpin|first=Halpin|title=Independent schools face huge fines over cartel to fix fees|newspaper=The Times|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/education/article/independent-schools-face-huge-fines-over-cartel-to-fix-fees-rcwcznjnvnt|access-date=2020-02-29|issn=0140-0460|archive-date=12 September 2012|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120912214704/http://www.pressmon.com/cgi-bin/press_view.cgi?id=991819|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|date=21 December 2006|title=Office of Fair Trading Press Release|url=https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20100402135855tf_/http://www.oft.gov.uk/news/press/2006/182-06|access-date=29 Feb 2020|website=National Ara chive|archive-date=29 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200229203612/https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20100402135855tf_/http://www.oft.gov.uk/news/press/2006/182-06|url-status=live}}

The head of the Independent Schools Council declared that independent schools had always been exempt from anti-cartel rules applied to business, were following a long-established procedure in sharing the information with each other and that they were unaware of the change to the law (on which they had not been consulted). She wrote to John Vickers, the OFT director-general, stating "They are not a group of businessmen meeting behind closed doors to fix the price of their products to the disadvantage of the consumer. They are schools that have quite openly continued to follow a long-established practice because they were unaware that the law had changed."{{cite news | url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1455730/Private-schools-send-papers-to-fee-fixing-inquiry.html | title = Private schools send papers to fee-fixing inquiry | newspaper = The Daily Telegraph | location = London | date = 3 January 2004 | access-date = 13 May 2021 |url-status = live| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130625070958/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1455730/Private-schools-send-papers-to-fee-fixing-inquiry.html | archive-date = 25 June 2013 | df = dmy-all }}