Клифтон-колледж: История и современность британской школы-пансиона.

Public school in Bristol, Englandthe school in England

Clifton College is a public school in the city of Bristol in South West England, founded in 1862 and offering both boarding and day school for pupils aged 13–18. In its early years, unlike most contemporary public schools, it emphasised science rather than classics in the curriculum, and was less concerned with social elitism, for example by admitting day boys on equal terms and providing a dedicated boarding house for Jewish boys, called Polack's House. Having linked its General Studies classes with Badminton School, it admitted girls to every year group (from pre prep up to Upper 6th, excepting 5th form due to potential O levels disruption) in 1987, and was the first of the traditional boys' public schools to become fully coeducational. Polack's House closed in 2005 but a scholarship fund open to Jewish candidates still exists. Clifton College is one of the original 26 English public schools as defined by the Public Schools Yearbook of 1889. The school was also the headquarters of the US army in Britain during part of the Second World War. General Omar Bradley used the school's buildings as a staff office from October to November 1944. Clifton College is one of the few schools in the UK to have educated several Nobel laureates: Sir John Kendrew, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1962; Sir John Hicks, winner of the 1972 Nobel Prize in Economics; and Sir Nevill Francis Mott, who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1977.

The school takes boys and girls aged between 13 and 18. It has its own preparatory school, Clifton College Preparatory School (known as the 'Pre'), for children from 8 to 13 which adjoins the school and shares many of the same facilities; there is also a pre preparatory school for younger children aged 3 to 8 called Butcombe. To distinguish it from the junior schools, Clifton College proper is referred to as the 'Upper School'. There are around 720 children in the Upper School of whom about a third are girls. At the start of the 2004 – 2005 school year, a new boarding/day house for girls (Hallward's House) was opened. In 2005, the school was one of fifty of the country's leading independent schools which were found guilty of running an illegal price fixing cartel, exposed by The Times, which had allowed them to drive up fees for thousands of parents. Each school was required to pay a nominal penalty of £10,000 and all agreed 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 was shared.

During World War II the heavy bombing of Bristol caused the students to be evacuated to Bude. In February 1941 the buildings were used by the Royal Army Service Corps as an Officer Cadet Training Unit. In 1942 they were replaced by the United States Army who established it as the headquarters of V Corps and then the First Army. Staff were involved in preparations for the Normandy landings under General Omar Bradley. After D Day the college was taken over as headquarters of the Ninth Army under General William Hood Simpson.

The school's present buildings have evolved in various phases. In early Percival years, the nucleus of the school buildings was laid down. In 1880, the school's East Wing was completed as far as the staircase (this had yet to be linked to the library by the Wilson Tower) and added a science lecture room (which is the reason for the curious 'stepped' windows), a laboratory and several classrooms. In 1886, a porters' lodge and what is now the staff common room were added by enlarging what had been the original science school. On the ground floor was the school tuck shop and above this (in what is now the Upper Common Room) was a drawing school. The day boys were provided for in Town Rooms for both North and South Town. The East Wing was then completed by carrying it beyond the staircase and then creating an additional classroom at each end. The ground floor classroom (then Room 12) is now known as the "Newbolt Room" and has been furnished by the Old Cliftonian Society, which still uses it for reunions. Between 1890 and the start of the First World War, the new Music School (1897) was added and the Chapel rebuilt (1910). Dr John King, whose headmastership spanned the war years, had little scope for building after 1914, but he did oversee the development of the playing fields at Beggar's Bush, the building of the Memorial Arch, the neo classical cricket pavilion and the opening of the new Sanitorium in Worcester Road. On 3 December 1918, the former headmaster John Percival died and was buried in the vault of the school Chapel. In 1921, a special memorial chapel was created and consecrated about his tomb. Norman Whatley was the headmaster between 1923 and 1938; his tenure saw the opening of the Preparatory School and the building of the Science School on the site of the previous Junior School. Designed by A. E. Munby, it was opened in 1926. Also at this time, the school acquired Hugh Ray Easton's new east windows. The windows also contain a curiosity: beneath the representation of the heavenly Jerusalem is depicted a game of cricket on the Close – with one of Whatley's sons taking part. In 1965–1967, the theatre was built by the architects Whicheloe and MacFarlane. In 1982, on the site of the old swimming pools, the new Sports Hall, remedial gym and a new covered swimming pool were built; previously boys used the outdoor Victorian pool and its outdoor covered changing cubicles. The 1980s also saw the building of the Coulson Centre which links together two previously separate classroom blocks, at Muir and Birdwood houses. As a result of the improvements in modern medicine, the Sanitorium in Worcester Road was unnecessarily large for the school's needs, and so the old pre 1921 Sanatorium on the Close has been refitted to serve this purpose, whilst the Worcester Road sanitorium has been refitted as the headmaster's house. More recently, in the latter 2000s, the Music School building in Guthrie Road was refurbished and extended.

At the side of College Road, opposite what was Dakyns' boarding house (now East Town and North Town), is the college's memorial arch designed by Charles Holden, which commemorates teachers and pupils who died in the two World Wars. Traditionally, the removal of headgear is expected when walking through the arch. There is also a school rule that states hands must be out of pockets when walking through the arch. It is now grade II listed. The college's buildings, mainly School House, were used as the main HQ where the D Day landings were planned. The college played a major part in both World Wars; Field Marshal Douglas Haig was an Old Cliftonian who went on to command the British armed forces in the First World War. Through the memorial arch and in front of School House is a life size statue of Haig. At the edge of the quad is a memorial to those killed in the South African Wars.

The college ground, known as the Close, played a role in the history of cricket and witnessed 13 of W G Grace's first class hundreds for Gloucestershire in the County Championship. Grace's children attended the college. The Close featured in a well known poem by O. C. Sir Henry Newbolt – Vitaї Lampada ("There's a breathless hush in the Close to night")

The college employs a master called "The Marshal", whose sole job is to enforce discipline, attendance at classes and other school rules (such as dress code, drinking, smoking and hair length) along with the general maintenance of safety of the pupils at the college. Many public houses near the school had photos of the Marshal, who was permanently banned so as not to discourage the attendance of pupils who were regular patrons. The current Marshal is Christopher Hughes who took his position in the term starting September 2010. The previous Marshal was Major Paul Simcox MBE. By tradition, a Marshal's name is not added to the plaque listing the names of the school's Marshals until after his death.

Clifton College has its own theatre, originally known as the Clifton College Theatre, but later renamed in honour of old boy actor Michael Redgrave. The theatre was built in the 1960s and has a seating capacity of 323. As well as school productions, the venue hosts visiting small scale productions including many by the nearby Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

Jonathan Thomson Glover, a housemaster and former pupil, pleaded guilty to making covert films of children aged twelve to seventeen showering, changing, going to the toilet and conducting private acts, in the college itself and at an address in Cornwall. He was convicted at Taunton Crown Court and sentenced to three years and nine months' imprisonment after admitting to 36 counts of taking, making and possessing indecent images of children. Clifton College subsequently commissioned an independent expert to undertake a thorough review of safeguarding at the school, culminating in a report which it published in full. The report contained a number of recommendations, all of which were then implemented. This, together with a complete change in the school's leadership in 2016, led to a wholesale transformation in safeguarding culture and practices at the school.

P1. September 1862 – Francis Charles Anderson (14 November 1846 – 1881)