Truth Conquers All: A history of Reading Blue Coat School
Peter van Went
Aug 2013 · Bloomsbury Publishing
Ebook
64
Pages
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About this ebook
Reading Blue Coat School was opened in 1660 to teach twenty 'children of honest poore men', according to the bequest of merchant Richard Aldworth. Despite his and subsequent bequests, the school was initially housed in a dilapidated former inn, and it was a constant struggle to make ends meet and keep the school open. In the mid-nineteenth century the perseverance of the school was rewarded with a new home, 42 Bath Road, and the school began to thrive, with entrance examinations, new subjects, and day boys. The world wars and the inadequacies of the site for a growing school posed new challenges, culminating with the threat of closure if the school didn't meet the government's new criteria in 1944. But the school emerged in triumph with the move to Holme Park. Here the school has grown, offering more facilities and opportunities for pupils, ever raising standards, and creating a sixth form. While one may struggle to see a link between twenty blue-coated boys in an old inn and Reading Blue Coat School today, this history shows how the school has conquered every difficulty to continue to fulfil Aldworth's aim of creating 'good citizens'.
About the author
Peter van Went was born in Rugby, Warwickshire in 1947. Educated at Reading Blue Coat School, he read History at St. John's College, Cambridge. He was a teacher for thirty-eight years, returning to his old school in 1974, where he is now the archivist.
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