St Albans School, Hertfordshire

Public school in St Albans, Hertfordshire, England

St Albans School is a public school (traditional English fee charging day and former boarding school) in the city of St Albans in Hertfordshire. Entry before Sixth Form is for boys only, but the Sixth Form has been co educational since 1991. Founded in 948 by Wulsin (Abbot Ulsinus), St Albans School is not only the oldest school in Hertfordshire but also one of the oldest in the world. The school has been called "Britain's oldest public school" by the Daily Mail. Nicholas Carlisle, in 1818, described the school as "of very ancient origin, and of great celebrity" and the Good Schools Guide describes St Albans as a "traditional public school, with a rich history". Among its famous alumni are Pope Adrian IV, Colin Renfrew, Jack Goody, Stephen Hawking, and Ian Grant. The current headmaster, Jonathan Gillespie, was appointed in 2014, and was previously headmaster of Lancing College.

The school coat of arms is composed of the cross of Saint Alban together with the School motto. The cross of Saint Alban is a gold saltire (a cross, signifying that Alban was martyred, but diagonal, as he was beheaded, not crucified) on a blue field (or, in heraldic terms, Azure, a saltire Or). The current school motto is Non nobis nati ("Born not for ourselves"). This dates back to the family of the 12th century Geoffrey de Gorham (Master and subsequently Abbot of St Albans), deriving from Cicero's ("Non nobis solum nati sumus"; "We are not born for ourselves alone"), and was used until the Reformation. It was re introduced in 1994, thereby stressing the link between the School before and after the dissolution of the monastery in 1539. Non nobis nati replaced the previous motto Mediocria firma ("The middle road is best"), used between the 16th and 20th centuries. This was the motto of the Bacon family at Gorhambury (including Sir Nicholas and Sir Francis Bacon). This formed part of the Bacon coat of arms, which for instance can still be seen outside the Verulam Arms public house in nearby Welclose Street and inside St Mary's Church, Redbourn.

The school was founded within St Albans Abbey by Abbot Wulsin in 948 and was the first school in the world to accept students not intending to join a religious order, being the first school open to the wider public. By the 12th century, the School had built for itself such a reputation that the famous Norman scholars Geoffrey de Gorham and Alexander Neckam applied for the post of Master. By the 12th century, the school was one of the largest in the British Isles. On 16 September 1309, the school was given new statutes, including scholarships for poor students. The school and Abbey were sacked in 1381 during the Peasants' Revolt. (The revolt's leader John Ball, was also a former pupil of the school.) By the 15th century, the school was located in buildings in Romeland and inside the Abbey Gateway, which from 1479 housed schoolmaster's press. The St Albans Press continues today, in a semi dormant form, as "John Insomuch Schoolmaster Printer 1479 Ltd", making the school the oldest extant presses in the world.

The school still maintains links with St Albans Cathedral, which doubles as the school's chapel. Services are held there every Monday and Friday morning during term time, and special events held there include the annual Founders' Day and two carol services, led by the school choir, who still wear black and blue gowns in the same style as worn by undergraduates at Trinity College, Cambridge and similar to those worn by monks at the Abbey in medieval times. In addition, the school's music staff are usually linked with the Abbey's musical staff. Andrew Parnell, organist and harpsichordist, was assistant master of music at the Abbey as well as being master of music and choirmaster at the school from 1976 to 2001. Simon Lindley also held these posts a few years earlier; John Rutter's 1974 carol Jesus Child bears a dedication "for Simon Lindley and the choir of St Albans School".

The school also has a long scientific tradition, stretching back to the Norman era, when Alexander Neckam became master of the school. Since the advent of modern science, the school has produced many famous scientists and mathematicians including cognitive scientist Colin Cherry, physicist Ian Grant, cosmologist Stephen Hawking (inspired by Dikran Tahta, a teacher at the school who later worked at the Open University), and mathematician Christopher Budd. In the light of its long scientific heritage, the school was awarded a large sum of money in 2007 by the Wolfson Foundation to rebuild its physics laboratories to university standards. It has maintained a reputation for being a science and maths oriented school.

St Albans School has also produced some notable historians and historiographers. In medieval times, the school and one of its alumni, Matthew Paris, were closely associated with the St Albans school of medieval historiography, and developed one of the first consistent methods of historical writing. More recently; two teachers in the award winning Ancient History department published a book on Roman sources in 2010.

John Whethamstede (or Bostock) (c. 1392–1465), scholar, writer and Abbot of St Albans Abbey

Josh de Caires (b. 2002), cricketer
Charlie Bracken (b.2003), rugby union player for Saracens