Taunton School is a co-educational independent school in the county town of Taunton in Somerset in South West England. It serves boarding and day-school pupils from the ages of 13 to 18. The current headmaster is Lee Glaser, appointed in the autumn of 2014. The school campus also includes Taunton School International for overseas students; Taunton Preparatory School, serving boarding and day-school pupils aged 7 to 13; Taunton Pre-Prep School, serving day-school pupils aged 4 to 7, and Taunton Nursery, serving pupils aged 0 to 4. History Taunton School was founded in 1847 as Independent College, a boys-only school for dissenters - those who were not members of the Church of England. In the 1870s, the school's governors purchased a site at the northern end of Taunton, on Staplegrove Road. They had built, by Joseph James, a gothic-influenced building, in the prevailing style of the period. The school is constructed in a C-plan, with a high tower. Grey stone came from Somerset's Mendip Hills. This large building still dominates the school's campus today. It is a Grade II listed building. The school was a founding member of the World Individual Debating and Public Speaking Championships and has hosted the tournament numerous times. A chapel was built in 1907 in contrasting style to the rest of the school. Its sponsor was the wealthy William Wills, 1st Baron Winterstoke. Wills was a director of Bristol-based tobacco firm, W.D. & H.O. Wills. Two features in the chapel were especially of note: the organ and the mosaics. In 2007 on the centenary of the founding of the chapel the original pipe organ was broken up, it being replaced by a new digital organ which was funded in part, by donations from Old Tauntonians. In September 1971, Taunton School began the merger with Weirfield School, an independent boarding and day school for girls, which was also situated on Staplegrove Road, by admitting girls into the Sixth Form. Then in 1976 Taunton School completed this merger with the rest of the senior section of Weirfield School. This became one of the earliest fully co-educational independent schools in England. Additional buildings were erected on the original Taunton School campus, and Weirfield continued as a girls-only junior school. In 1990, in order to create closer links between the two junior schools and Taunton School, Taunton Junior School (originally known as Thone) and Weirfield were renamed Taunton Junior Boys