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Prior Park College AI simulator
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Prior Park College AI simulator
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Prior Park College
Prior Park College is a co-educational public school for both boarding and day pupils in Bath, south-west England. Its main building, Prior Park, stands on a hill overlooking the city and is a Grade I listed building. The adjoining 57-acre (23 ha) Prior Park Landscape Garden was donated by Prior Park to the National Trust.
The school's parent body is Prior Park Schools, which also runs the Paragon Junior School (Bath) and Prior Park School Gibraltar.
Prior Park College provides co-educational schooling for students aged 11 to 18. Founded in 1830 to be England's first Catholic university, it was established by the Benedictine, Bishop Baines, as a seminary. The school kept its links with the Catholic diocese – which meant pupils were required to study Religious Education to GCSE level – until 2024. By that time the proportion of students of the Catholic faith had decreased to 18%, and the school is now described as Christian.
In July 2009, Giles Mercer retired. He had been head teacher since 1996, and with his previous position as head of Stonyhurst College, he became the "longest serving Catholic senior school headmaster in England". His successor was James Murphy-O'Connor, nephew of former Prior Park pupil Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor. Since 2019, Ben Horan has been the headmaster, after Murphy-O'Connor took up a new position at the Monmouth Schools.
The school is part of the Prior Park Foundation which includes the Paragon Junior School, also in Bath, and Prior Park School Gibraltar, in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar.
The Palladian hillside mansion housing Prior Park College was designed and built by John Wood, the Elder in 1742. He was commissioned by Ralph Allen: "To see all Bath, and for all Bath to see". The mansion was designated as Grade I listed in 1950.
One wing of the mansion includes a chapel of our Lady of the Snows, built in 1863 by Scoles and Son, which is also Grade I listed; there is also a chapel in the original house. The chapel is unfinished, with the pillars at the back remaining unsculpted as they were in 1863.
Prior Park Landscape Garden was laid out between 1734 and 1744, with the Allens benefiting during the first phase from the advice of their friend Alexander Pope. The Palladian bridge and the lake that it spans were added in 1755; the final phase with the green slopes from the house to the lake is thought to have been planned by Capability Brown in the 1760s. The garden is now owned by the National Trust.
Prior Park College
Prior Park College is a co-educational public school for both boarding and day pupils in Bath, south-west England. Its main building, Prior Park, stands on a hill overlooking the city and is a Grade I listed building. The adjoining 57-acre (23 ha) Prior Park Landscape Garden was donated by Prior Park to the National Trust.
The school's parent body is Prior Park Schools, which also runs the Paragon Junior School (Bath) and Prior Park School Gibraltar.
Prior Park College provides co-educational schooling for students aged 11 to 18. Founded in 1830 to be England's first Catholic university, it was established by the Benedictine, Bishop Baines, as a seminary. The school kept its links with the Catholic diocese – which meant pupils were required to study Religious Education to GCSE level – until 2024. By that time the proportion of students of the Catholic faith had decreased to 18%, and the school is now described as Christian.
In July 2009, Giles Mercer retired. He had been head teacher since 1996, and with his previous position as head of Stonyhurst College, he became the "longest serving Catholic senior school headmaster in England". His successor was James Murphy-O'Connor, nephew of former Prior Park pupil Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor. Since 2019, Ben Horan has been the headmaster, after Murphy-O'Connor took up a new position at the Monmouth Schools.
The school is part of the Prior Park Foundation which includes the Paragon Junior School, also in Bath, and Prior Park School Gibraltar, in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar.
The Palladian hillside mansion housing Prior Park College was designed and built by John Wood, the Elder in 1742. He was commissioned by Ralph Allen: "To see all Bath, and for all Bath to see". The mansion was designated as Grade I listed in 1950.
One wing of the mansion includes a chapel of our Lady of the Snows, built in 1863 by Scoles and Son, which is also Grade I listed; there is also a chapel in the original house. The chapel is unfinished, with the pillars at the back remaining unsculpted as they were in 1863.
Prior Park Landscape Garden was laid out between 1734 and 1744, with the Allens benefiting during the first phase from the advice of their friend Alexander Pope. The Palladian bridge and the lake that it spans were added in 1755; the final phase with the green slopes from the house to the lake is thought to have been planned by Capability Brown in the 1760s. The garden is now owned by the National Trust.
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