Bristol school founded by Edward Colston changes it's name

A private school in Bristol founded by Edward Colston have agreed to change their name after Black Lives Matter rioters toppled his statue due to his involvement in historic slave trading.

Colston's School, which was founded by the philanthropist in 1710, will be renamed the Collegiate School from September.

Last year, the school launched a consultation over the future of its name - almost a year after a statue of Edward Colston was toppled and thrown into the harbour in Bristol.

A survey on whether the school’s name should be changed received more than 2,500 responses – including 1,096 from the general public.

A total of 81% of the members of the public who took part in the survey said the school should retain the name of Mr Colston’s.

Despite that, the majority of people have been ignored and a new name has been chosen in an act of appeasement and an attempt to erase British history.

'Collegiate' was a strong contender due to its previous connection with the school. After merging with the Collegiate School in Winterborne in 1991, the school became Colston's Collegiate and fully co-educational.

Nick Baker, chair of the board, said: “Collegiate not only represents the inclusive nature of the school, but the way in which the different sections of the school and the school community work together."

Jeremy McCullough, the school's headteacher, welcomed the announcement, saying: “Increasingly our student and parental body reflect the diverse nature of Bristol and we want to continue to work with our local communities in order to widen access to our school as much as possible. 

“We believe that moving forwards with this new name will help us to become an ever more inclusive and welcoming community.” 

The independent school in Stapleton will formally be known as the Collegiate School from the start of the autumn term in September.

Colston gave an exceptionally large amount of money to charity both locally and nationally. Having already given extensively during his life, at his death he bequeathed around £71,000 to charity – an immense sum at the time, and nearly as much as the £100,000 that he left to his family. 

Despite his generosity, a number of schools and venues connected to Edward Colston have also changed their names in the wake of the toppling of the statue by unruly thugs.

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