Christ Church Cathedral School

Christ Church Cathedral School is an independent preparatory school for boys in Oxford, England. It is one of three choral foundation schools in the city and educates choristers of Christ Church Cathedral, and the Chapels of Worcester College and Pembroke College. It is a member of the IAPS and the Choir Schools Association. History Now a Church of England School, it was originally housed within the College itself. Today its premises are located across from Christ Church at 3 Brewer Street and Cardinal Wolsey's house is still used for teaching. In the 19th century, the Dean of Christ Church, Henry Liddell (father of Alice, who was immortalised in the books of Lewis Carroll) arranged for the building of a new choir school on its present site. In 1938, Wilfrid Oldaker took over as headmaster, finding a school with only nineteen boarders, and set out to enlarge it, roughly trebling the school's size in five years. He was resisted in this by the Dean and Chapter, who did not want a larger prep school on their hands. Oldaker made other big changes, such as joining the IAPS, which meant preparing all boys for Common Entrance, appointing prefects, dividing the school into houses called Wolsey, Sayers, and Carroll, and introducing the teaching of Greek. In 1939, he launched a school magazine called The Cardinal's Hat. In 1945, Oldaker moved on to King's School, Canterbury, with Oxford seeing the move as being caused by the Dean and Chapter giving him little support in his development plans.