A public school founded 300 years ago by slave trader Edward Colston will be renamed in September, it has announced.
From the start of the new school year, Colston School will be known as Collegiate School, Bristol.
In response to the fall of the Edward Colston statue, a consultation on the future of his name began in July.
The school joins a number of Bristol institutions that have sought to distance themselves from the controversial figure.
- Colston’s Girls’ School chooses a new name
- New bid to drop the venue’s “slave trader” link
- Should Colston’s School be renamed, the poll asks
Colston School governors stressed that the name change was not an attempt to alter or deny the school’s history and its connections to the slave trade.
Colston School Chief Executive Nick Baker said it was important that students continue to be educated about the history of the school.
“To support this, some historical aspects of the school, such as the coat of arms and motto, will be retained and explained rather than removed,” he said.
The poll to change the school’s name received more than 2,500 responses, including 1,096 from the general public.
Four out of five members of the public who took part in the survey said the school should keep the Colston’s name.
But students, alumni and staff said the school’s name change was a positive step.
The school said it chose the name Collegiate School, Bristol from hundreds of suggestions from students, parents, staff and alumni.
The school governors said that collegiate, meaning a collection of colleges or campuses, is a “strong contender” because of the school’s history.
In 1991 the school merged with the Collegiate School at Winterbourne, becoming co-educational after almost three centuries as a boys’ school.
For a time it was known as “Colston’s Collegiate”.
Headmaster Jeremy McCullough said the new title would help become “an increasingly inclusive and welcoming community”.
“Increasingly, our student and parent body reflects the diverse nature of Bristol and we aim to continue working with our local communities to expand access to our school as much as possible,” he said.
From September the name of the school will officially change.
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