Our plans to celebrate the school's foundation in 1666 took a new turn in 2003.
In the future a series of events will be scheduled for the end of term around March/April, and will include:-
showing our Year 7 pupils the sites where the school started (St John's Northgate, the Cathedral, the Guildhall and The Old School House) and explaining their significance;
a week of assemblies in which aspects of the school's history will be explained;
fund-raising to support our link with the Parvatiben Muljibhai Madhvani Girls' School, in Jinja, Uganda.
The idea behind the latter is that our pupils should be more actively involved in doing something to commemorate the school's foundation. The school was founded in the will of Sir Thomas Rich, made on 16th May 1666. In this he bequeathed to the Mayor and Council of Gloucester "the sum of six thousand pounds to be disbursed by them in purchasing land that shall be of the yearly value of three hundred pounds or upwards", which was to be spent on "the yearly maintenance for ever of twenty poor boys with diet, lodging, washing, clothing and other necessaries in blue coats and caps" and an annual payment to "an honest, able schoolmaster" who was to reside in the Hospital and teach the boys to write and read. It seems appropriate that, in the spirit of Sir Thomas Rich's generosity, we emulate his benevolence by raising funds to enable twenty poor children to receive an education. In the UK education up to the age of 16 is compulsory and free - however that is not the case in Uganda. We would like to provide funding which will allow twenty children to go to our link school who would otherwise not be able to do so.
We estimate that we would need to raise the equivalent of between £12 and £15 per month per child. The intention is to receive reports of the children so that our pupils can see the benefits of their activity. Possibilities of exchanges/visits also exist.
During 2003 we set about the process of finding out more about the Uganda school - Mr Seales and Mr Crewe spent two weeks there before Easter and we hosted the Headmistress Petronella Lujwala and the Head of ICT & Physics Ben Ligwale during the final 2 weeks of term in July. Both were very rewarding experiences for the participants and with the news that our pupils had responded magnificently and raised well over £3500 by the time the summer holidays came around, we were able to declare the Link between both schools well and truly forged!