 It is Britain's oldest public school; and is arguably the oldest continuously operating school in the world, having been founded in AD 597.The school originated as a medieval cathedral school said to have been founded during the Late Antiquity in 597 AD, a century after the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, by Augustine of Canterbury, considered the "Apostle to the English" and a founder of the English Church, therefore making it arguably the world's oldest extant school.This is based on the fact that St Augustine founded an abbey (within the current school's grounds) where it is known that teaching took place.