St_Andrew's_School,_Pangbourne

St Andrew's School, Pangbourne

St Andrew's School, Pangbourne

Private preparatory school in Pangbourne, Berkshire, England

St Andrew's School is an independent preparatory school in the hamlet of Buckhold, near Pangbourne, Berkshire, England. Together with its 'Pre-Prep – Early Years' department, the school educates girls and boys aged between three and thirteen. In 2011, there were 266 children at the school, of whom 155 were boys and 111 were girls. The school has a Christian ethos, and its chapel services are reported to be "broadly Anglican in style". The most important religious event of the school year is the Advent Carol Service, which because of the numbers attending is held not at the school but in the larger chapel of nearby Bradfield College.

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Scholarships are awarded to some children above the age of eleven, based on merit. St Andrew's has a School Council to involve its children in decisions affecting them.

In March 2011 an Independent Schools Inspectorate report endorsed the school's success.[2]

History

The school was founded in 1934 as a boarding school for boys, and consisted of just two staff and eight boys.[3] Historically, as the school grew, boys would leave to go onto schools such as Eton, Harrow and Winchester, however its ties with these schools slowly deteriorated after it first admitted girls in 1971, going on to become fully co-educational.[2] The school's main building, a listed Victorian Gothic country house called Buckhold, which was designed by Alfred Waterhouse in 1885 for Herbert Watney, is set in fifty-four acres of woods and playing fields.[2]

Catherine, Princess of Wales

The school's most famous alumna is Catherine "Kate" Middleton. Following her family's return to Berkshire from Amman when she was four years old, Middleton was enrolled at St Andrew's, and she boarded part-weekly at the school in her later years.[4] It was at this school in 1991 that Middleton first saw her future husband, Prince William, when he was part of a Ludgrove School hockey team that came to play a match at Middleton's school.[5]

The school today

The school has just under 300 pupils. It is co-educational. Its facilities include boarding houses, three science laboratories, music school, art studio and carpentry workshop, and a chapel. Sporting facilities include a 25-metre pool, all-weather astro playing field, sports hall, climbing wall, 9 hole golf course, 3 tennis courts (including one grass court) and rugby/football/cricket/lacrosse pitches.

Notable former pupils

See also: Category:People educated at St Andrew's School, Pangbourne

Former students of the school are called "Old St Andrew's", and there is an OSA Association.[6]

Notable staff

Headmasters

  • 1934 – 1954: R. W. Robertson-Glasgow
  • 1934 – 1945: Bill Ward-Clark
  • 1945 – 1975: Jack Llewellyn-Smith
  • 1952 – 1970: Rodney Stebbing
  • 1949 – 1952: Bill Berkley
  • 1975(?)- 1985: Bill Philipps
  • 1985 – 1995: Bob Acheson
  • 1995 – 2009: Jeremy Snow
  • 2009 – 2015: Dr David Livingstone
  • 2015 – 2021: Jonathan R. Bartlett
  • 2021–Present: Edward Graham

Notes

  1. [1]
    "St Andrew's School - GOV.UK". get-information-schools.service.gov.uk. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
  2. [2]
    ISI Report, March 2011, online
  3. [3]
    Donald P. Leinster-Mackay, The Rise of the English Prep School (1984), p. 340
  4. [4]
    "Duchess of Cambridge returns to St Andrew's School". BBC. 30 December 2012. Retrieved 29 February 2016.
  5. [5]
    Daily Telegraph Reporter, Kate Middleton 'first laid eyes on Prince William as a 10-year-old schoolgirl' dated 27 November 2010 at telegraph.co.uk
  6. [6]
    OSA page of St Andrew's School web site
  7. [7]
    LIDDELL HART, Adrian John (1922–1991) at aim25.ac.uk. Retrieved 3 May 2011
  8. [8]
    Harold Bloom, John le Carré (Chelsea House, 1987), p. 165
  9. [9]
    St Andrew's Celebrates the Royal Wedding at standrewspangbourne.co.uk
  10. [10]
    Julian Knight, The Royal Wedding for Dummies (2011), p. 10
  11. [11]
    Stacy, Danielle (6 February 2020). "Duchess Kate's former teachers reveal what she was really like at school". Hello!. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
  12. [12]
    Nick Curtis, Everything you never knew about Pippa Middleton dated 10 May 2011 at thisislondon.co.uk/lifestyle. Retrieved 29 April 2012
  13. [13]
    Middleton, Pippa. "Pippa Middleton's favourite mascarpone and rocket penne recipe". UK Daily Telegraph, 13 September 2013 to 29 March 2014. Archived from the original on 18 September 2013. Retrieved 15 February 2015.
  14. [14]
    Patrick W. Montague-Smith, Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (Debrett's Peerage Ltd., 1980), p. 200: "William Anthony Nugent, 13th Earl... Assist. Master, St Andrew's Sch., Pangbourne".
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