King William's College

King William's College (Colleish Ree Illiam in Manx) is a leading world International Baccalaureate HMC independent school for ages 3 to 18, situated near Castletown on the Isle of Man. The College is located on two sites in Castletown; the main estate which takes pride of place on the shore of Castletown Bay, and The Buchan School which is the College's preparatory school, located in the Westhill part of Castletown, some two miles from the main campus. The College, known as KWC or to the local people as King Bill's, widened entry from boys-only to co-educational in the 1980s. Today there are roughly 500 pupils, many of whom are international.

History

The College was founded with financing from the Bishop Barrow Trust originally set up in 1668 to fund education in the Isle of Man, but was eventually used to found the College in 1833, which opened with only 46 boys. The coat of arms in the centre of the College's crest is that of Bishop Isaac Barrow. The school was named after King William IV who is said to have offered the founders "my most valuable possession, my name" when asked for a financial contribution.

The school features, thinly disguised, in the Victorian schoolboy book Eric, or, Little by Little by Dean Farrar who had been a student at the school.

General Knowledge Paper (GKP)

right|thumbnail|250px|King William's College as seen across the runway from the passenger terminal at Since 1904, the College has set an annual general knowledge test, known as......
Read More