Oundle School - Facilities

Facilities

Oundle School's facilities include the following:

• Teaching Facilities. There are a number of different teaching buildings located throughout the town which house classrooms, studios and science and language laboratories. Many lessons take place in the Cloisters which are located in the heart of the town, other main teaching buildings include the Scott, the Gascoigne, the Needham, Old Dryden, the Patrick Centre and the newly built Scitec.

• Sporting Facilities. The school has numerous sporting facilities which cater for a wide variety of different sports. Among these are two sand filled astroturf pitches, a six lane synthetic athletics track, a swimming pool and in excess of twenty tennis courts. The Sports Centre houses two fully equipped sports halls, indoor squash and fives facilities, a climbing wall and well equipped gymnasia. All of these have been rebuilt or refurbished in recent years. There are also extensive playing fields and boating facilities on the nearby River Nene.

• Various CCF buildings including two shooting ranges. There are a number of CCF buildings including the Armoury (the main administrative building and rifle store), and various other smaller buildings used primarily for rifle and first aid training. Situated approximately two miles from Oundle, outside the hamlet of Elmington on the Ashton estate, is Oundle School’s full bore outdoor range. At 500 yards (460 m) long, the range is one of the few of its size in the country to be owned by a school. Rifles can be fired from firing points at either 100, 200, 300 or 500 yards (460 m). There is another, smaller .22 shooting range situated next to the school armoury which is used for day to day use.

• The Great Hall was constructed in 1908, with the North and South Wings added shortly afterwards. The Great hall is located prominently in the center of the town adjacent to the Cloisters and School House, it is used for a variety of functions throughout the year including concerts, receptions, lectures, debates and assemblies. The building also houses the offices of the headmaster and the school admissions department.

• The Chapel of Saint Anthony, consecrated in 1923, was built as a memorial to the fallen of the First World War. It contains some of the most important and influential stained glass in the country including the Piper windows of 1954. The Chapel is where the school community meets. It links past and present, and bears witness, both in itself and in its art and worship, to the abiding values of the Christian Faith. The chapel houses two organs, a classical instrument built in 1984 by Frobenius of Denmark has three manuals and pedals, thirty-five speaking stops and mechanical action. It is situated in the Gallery at the West end. A romantic instrument installed by Copeman Hart in 2000 and situated at the East end of the Chapel provides accompaniment for the Chapel Choir, and leads the whole school singing. It has three manuals and pedals with a West end solo division.

• The Yarrow Gallery is the school's private art gallery, which puts on approximately half a dozen exhibitions every year. The space is adaptable and suitable for activities such as poetry readings, plays and small concerts as well as exhibitions. The purpose of the museum is that it should house a collection of pictures, specimens and models to illustrate "the history, development and beauty of the various branches of knowledge". The genealogical tree of the aeroplane and the Durham miner were charted and exhibits such as the skeleton of the white horse which used to draw the School ambulance to the Sanatorium were featured. The statue by Kathleen Scott entitled "Here Am I, Send Me" is erroneously held to be modelled on her son Peter Scott.

• The Stahl Theatre opened in 1980 and runs from a converted church on West Street, it can seat an audience of over 400. The Stahl Theatre is owned and managed by Oundle School, run by the Drama Department staff, many of whom have a professional theatre background. It houses both the School productions and visiting professional theatre companies. It acts as the local community theatre used by the local junior and middle schools for their annual productions, by the Oundle Literature and Organ Festivals and by groups such as the Gilbert and Sullivan Society.

• The Patrick Centre specialises in design technology, automobile engineering and other manual crafts. The school has had a strong reputation for science and engineering since the days of F. W. Sanderson, and this is reflected in the excellent facilities and equipment located within these buildings. Opened in 1998 after a generous donation from an old boy, the Patrick Centre plays an important role in the academic and extra-curricular activities of many pupils. Year after year Oundelians continue to build cars and other forms of automobile the parts of which are manufactured almost entirely in the workshops.

• The Cripps Library was opened in 1988. It houses approximately 22,000 books encompassing all subjects. The Library is staffed throughout the school day and is open to the whole school for research, information or borrowing for academic work and leisure reading. The library was completely refurbished in 2011, with study spaces named in honour of inspirational former teachers at the school. The Peter Ling Room houses the new display cabinets for the Greek pots, the Dudley Heesom Room has been equipped with computer projection facilities for classes and meetings, the Clive Jacques Rare Book Room now houses the rare book collection in sycamore cabinets. It also contains an increasingly wide-ranging School Archive in the form of photographs, newspaper cuttings and record books, the most notable being the earliest register of pupils of 1626.

• OSCAR Radio. The school houses its own radio station which broadcasts from newly converted studios in Old Dryden. Over 2000 pupils and local children have taken part in OSCAR broadcasts since 1998.
• SciTec. The first phase of a new science and technology centre was completed in summer 2007. In September 2007 it was officially opened by the Duke of Gloucester. It is set to be completed in three phases costing around £20 million in total. SciTec is the School's millennium project which upon completion will create a distinctive, new centre to combine the Sciences, Art and Design and Technology. The first stage houses the Chemistry and Biology departments.