The Blue School, Wells

The school was founded in 1641 as one of the first free schools in the country. The name Blue comes from the early uniforms which were blue in colour. Some visitors to Wells have expected the school itself to be blue in colour, but this is not the case. In 1654, Margaret, widow of Ezekiel Barkham of Wells, purchased a farm in Yenston, to endow a school in Wells. The Blue School retained the farm for nearly 350 years until it was sold in 1990 and 1992. The income from the endowment was to be used for paying a schoolmaster's salary of £20 pa. and the residue for apprenticing the boys when they could 'read, write and cast accounts'. The school owned a number of properties in the area scattered…

The Blue School was the first pilot for an innovative approach to school councils based on self-selection called Learning to Lead. The School Community Council received praise in the School's 2007 Ofsted report. More recently, in 2013, a block (named Barkham) was built, on the disused swimming pool. A Sixth Form Centre has also been added.