King Edward VI School, Stratford upon Avon

King Edward VI School is a state-funded Academy Trust selective school for boys with a co-educational Sixth Form. Established by the Guild of the Holy Cross, the School can trace its origins to May 1295, when the Register of Deacons of the Diocese of Worcester recorded the ordination of Richard as rector scholarum, to teach the basics of learning the alphabet, psalters, and religious rites to boys. The School was endowed independently by Thomas Jolyffe, a chaplain of the Guild, in June 1482. He gave to the Guild all the lands in Dodswell and Stratford; the income from them was to be used, under certain conditions, on behalf of the School. Although the Guild of the Holy Cross survived the reign of Henry VIII, it was suppressed by his son, Edward VI. When Royal commissioners visited Stratford in 1545 – 1546, they made note of the School in the Guildhall, leading to the King granting the old Guild properties to the corporate hands of the townspeople. He granted a Royal Charter in 1553, making the Guildhall their headquarters, and assuring the future of the School. In the 1570s, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, William Shakespeare was educated in a room in the Upper Guildhall. In what is still known as ‘Big School’, from the age of seven Shakespeare was taught Latin, Rhetoric and (probably) Greek. Lessons began with prayers at six o’clock in the morning during summer, and continued until 5 o’clock in the afternoon. In winter, although boys were expected to bring their own candles, the poor light meant a shorter day lasting from seven o’clock. By the end of the 19th century the School’s numbers had grown, leading to the acquisition of the Guildhall, new buildings, boarders – and its status as one of the UK’s leading Grammar Schools.