Wells Cathedral School celebrates its 1,111th anniversary this week, with pupils, teachers and staff celebrating with cake on St Andrew's Day, the annual anniversary of the school's patron saint.

This year, of all years, the school's long history of education has had unwelcome disruptions due to Covid-19, yet despite the physical closure of the school during the summer lockdown, Wells certainly knows how to bounce back.

Since its foundation in 909, Wells Cathedral School has been forced to close on at least four previous occasions: during the persistent Viking raids on Somerset between 1010 and 1015; in late 1642 when, in the English Civil War, the Cavaliers used Wells as headquarters for their offensives against Bath and Bristol, and again in 1645 when the Roundheads drove the Cavaliers out of Somerset; and almost certainly during the 1685 Monmouth Rebellion when the cathedral was ransacked by the rebels, leading to the infamous 'Bloody' Judge Jeffreys sentencing more than 300 of them to death in the Market Square.

Each and every time, the school reopened and it is looking forward to the next 1,111 years.