Sunningdale School

Sunningdale School is a family run boys’ prep school of 110 pupils in Berkshire. Founded in 1874 it stands in 25 acres of mature gardens and grounds. The school is excellently situated just 45 minutes from London, 20 minutes from Heathrow and 15 minutes from the M3, M4 and M25 Motorways. Sunningdale’s aim is to provide a happy and supportive environment in which boys can prosper both as individuals and as members of the school community. We also aim to prepare boys both academically and socially for life at public school. Our record at Common Entrance is outstanding and boys from Sunningdale have gained 10 scholarships to public schools in the last three years.

The school has its own chapel. It also has a house in Normandy to which each boy goes for a week three times during his time at Sunningdale.

Sunningdale is a traditional boarding prep school but we are always looking to the future. We aim to instil traditional values of good manners, hard work, involvement in school life and kindness in all the boys.

We encourage the boys to develop six key qualities:

• Kindness
• Honesty
• Courage
• Resilience
• Self-discipline
• Zest for life

We believe that these qualities set the foundation for a happy and successful life.

For every boy at the school, we want to find the things they love, their ‘spark’. We want to help them develop their strengths and be the best that they can be. This builds confidence and encourages them to try new things without fearing failure.

Good teaching and learning is at the heart of what we do. We want the boys to be enthusiastic about their learning, actively participate in the lessons, ask questions and develop lifelong love of learning.

We firmly believe that outstanding extra-curricular provision is an essential part of a child’s education. We are committed to offering the boys a wide range of opportunities in sport, music, art, drama and other fields. We also aim to include all the boys in as much as possible, thereby ensuring that every boy has the chance to shine.

We believe that children should develop a happy way of being together, that their self-respect leads to a respect for the rights and needs of other children and adults from their own culture and other cultures.

We aim to do this in the context of a warm and welcoming Christian ethos so that all will develop strong Christian values.

Our smaller size means that we get to know the boys incredibly well. We understand what makes them laugh, what they enjoy, what they are good at and what they need help with. We tell them when they have done something well and we help them when they have found something more difficult. We are a big family in which every single member is valued.

This makes a huge difference in the classroom as well and our academic record rivals any other prep school in the country. We are not academically selective but we get the absolute best out of every boy. We aim high, sending them on to the best public schools in the land.

They all get the chance to try new things and to excel at the things that they enjoy. We have a huge programme of sport, art, music, drama and other activities and it is our aim to find each boy’s passion and help him develop it.

We are a boarding school that does boarding properly but we also understand the need to be flexible. Boys may weekly board until Year 7 but we are 70% full at weekends, which are packed with fun things to do. We also have a small number of day boys who are fully integrated into the life of the school.

The school is non-selective and boys may enter in any of the three terms. We set high academic standards, though and expect all the boys to do their best and to be ambitious. One of the most important things we do is to build academic confidence. We encourage the boys to take risks in the classroom, to give an answer even if they are not certain it is the right answer. It is so important that the boys take an active part in the lessons as they will enjoy them and learn a great deal more.

We structure our forms in a unique way, operating a form of ladder system. Boys move through our form system as they develop academically and not simply because of their age. This means that boys for whom learning is easier are stretched and challenged and boys who find it a little more difficult are given the time and support to develop at their own pace.

In their last two years, the boys sit a full set of Common Entrance or Scholarship papers in their internal examinations so that by the time they sit the real thing, they know exactly what to expect.

Sunningdale was founded in 1874 by Canon William Girdlestone. At that time it was a school for some thirty boys. In 1880 a Chapel was built and Canon Girdlestone was given special dispensation to conduct acts of worship in the School Chapel.
In 1900 F.L. Crabtree took over as Headmaster and he was joined two years later by D.M. Smith who was joint Headmaster until 1924.

In 1933 G.D. Fox became Headmaster. He was to do twenty years in the job. He did have five years away during the war, during which time he was awarded the Military Cross. Mr Crabtree held the reins in his absence.

C.E.W. Sheepshanks was headmaster from 1953 to 1967. He and his wife Mary, who is a novelist, ran the school until twin brothers Nick and Tim Dawson acquired the school in 1967.

The Dawson twins ran the school for 38 years during which time the school went from strength to strength. Tim’s wife Prue was very involved in the domestic side of the school. In 2005, the current Headmaster, Tom Dawson took over and his wife Elisabeth is also heavily involved.