Our story

Oundle has long shown itself to be open to innovation and change. At the beginning of the 20th century, it experienced significant expansion and investment under the leadership of its most famous headmaster, FW Sanderson, whose innovations put Oundle at the forefront of science and engineering education, establishing a reputation still renowned today. In 1876, the Grocers’ Company divided the School into two parts; Laxton Grammar School and Oundle School. In 2000, following a long period of integration, the Grocers’ Company formally united the two schools under the common name of Oundle School and retained the name of Laxton for one of the two senior day Houses. Oundle has been fully co-educational since the early 1990s, a move championed by the revered Headmaster David McMurray. 

Originally known as the Guild of Pepperers, whose earliest records date from 1100, the Grocers’ Company was formed as a religious and social fraternity of merchants and moneyers who traded in spices, gold, and other luxury goods from Byzantium and the Mediterranean. Their use on occasion of pepper as a currency gave rise to the expression “peppercorn rent”. The Grocers’ Company gives generously to charity and continues to support the School through the provision of bursaries, scholarships and grants.

History of the Grocers’ Company

Following a series of major capital developments including SciTec, the Cripps Library and the Adamson Centre for Modern Languages, Oundle completed its full SciTec vision in 2016. This united Science, Mathematics, Design, Technology and Engineering (STEM) both physically and philosophically, enabling pupils to move seamlessly from theory to practice and from pure science to the achievement of a workable technology. The resulting renowned STEM facility, including the Patrick Engineering Centre, was developed with the support of both Imperial College London and Swansea University Engineering department.

Further recent developments have focused on resourcing a modern, thoughtful vision of sport as part of an education which informs pupils’ lives long after they have left school. Sports facilities now support sport at a top competitive level whilst catering for a multitude of sports and leisure activities at all levels. The flagship building is the Sports Centre, which houses a fifty-metre swimming pool, an eight court hall, a separate fitness suite with seventy stations and several multipurpose studios. Dual use has been factored into the development to ensure that there is year-round community and sports clubs’ access.