Bristol Cathedral School /

Bristol Cathedral Choir School (grid reference ST582726), until 2008 known as Bristol Cathedral School, is an Academy in Bristol, England. It is situated next to Bristol Cathedral, in the centre of the city. The choristers at Bristol Cathedral are all educated at the school, which has a strong musical tradition. The school is a day school and has no boarders. It has a house system made up of four houses - Abbots, Canons, Deans and Priors. Originally founded in 1140 as part of what was then Bristol Abbey, it was refounded by Henry VIII in 1542 after he had dissolved the monastery. A fee-paying school up until the Second World War, from 1944 to 1975 the school was a direct grant school. When direct grant schools were abolished, the school had to become an independent school once more in order to maintain its policy of selection by academic ability. It began accepting girls into the sixth form in 1982 and became fully co-educational in 2005. In April 2007, the school appointed a new headmaster, Mr Hugh Monro. In July of that year, the school moved towards ending a 30 year period as an independent, fee-paying institution, by applying to change its status to a publicly funded city