Sir Thomas Rich’s School is a grammar school and academy for boys with a coeducational sixth form, located in Longlevens, Gloucester. It was founded in 1666 through the will of Sir Thomas Rich, who left his home and a substantial endowment to establish a school for twenty poor boys in the city. The original institution, known as the Blue Coat Hospital, opened in 1667. Its pupils wore the traditional blue coats and caps associated with charity schools of the period.
Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the school went through several periods of reorganisation as educational expectations changed. Governance shifted from the original charitable trustees to the Municipal Charity Trustees in the 1830s, leading to modernisation of the curriculum and administration. In 1882 the school was formally renamed Sir Thomas Rich’s School, adopting a more academic programme while still maintaining its charitable roots. A move to Barton Street in 1889 marked a period of expansion as enrolments grew with the city.
The school relocated again in 1964 to its present site in Longlevens. Since then, the campus has expanded significantly with new buildings, classroom quadrangles, a sports hall, swimming pool, music and language blocks, a sixth form centre and a pavilion. Further modernisation took place from the 1990s onward, including a major refurbishment in 2013. In 2020 the school opened an Economics, Entrepreneurship, Careers and Outreach Centre with support from the Clive and Sylvia Richards Charity.
Today the school provides facilities for academics, sciences, arts and sport. The sports complex includes a sports hall opened in 1999 and a fitness suite available to students. Sir Thomas Rich’s offers a broad curriculum from ages eleven to eighteen and admits girls into the sixth form. The house system is structured around the historic city gates of Gloucester: Northgate, Eastgate, Southgate, Westgate and Newgate.
The school maintains long-standing traditions, including the Tommy Psalm, a historic school song sung at major ceremonies such as speech day. Its coat of arms, granted in 1962, reflects symbols associated with Sir Thomas Rich and the original charitable foundation.
Former pupils have gone on to careers in politics, academia, the church, engineering, science and sport. Notable alumni include Sam Underhill, Ian Smith, Philip Giddings, Bill Hook and Barry Legg, among others.
Sir Thomas Rich’s remains one of Gloucestershire’s seven grammar schools and continues to operate as a selective state-funded academy with a strong academic record and a long history rooted in charitable education dating back more than three centuries.