Roedean School
Roedean School | |
---|---|
Address | |
Roedean Way , , BN2 5RQ England | |
Coordinates | 50°48′43″N 0°05′06″W / 50.812°N 0.085°W |
Information | |
Type | Private day and boarding school |
Motto | Honneur aulx dignes ("Honour the worthy") |
Religious affiliation(s) | Church of England |
Established | 1885 |
Local authority | Brighton and Hove |
Department for Education URN | 114616 Tables |
President of Trustees | Lady Patten of Barnes |
Headmistress | Niamh Green |
Gender | Female |
Age | 11 to 18 |
Enrolment | 600 |
Houses | 6 |
Colour(s) | Blue and White |
Former pupils | Old Roedeanians |
Website | www |
Roedean School (
The school incorporates dance studios, music classrooms, a 320-seat theatre, a heated indoor swimming pool, a golf course, a private tunnel to the beach, a farm and a chapel, as well as a range of workshops, studios, laboratories and sports pitches. It is also well-provisioned with a variety of classrooms.
Roedean School is a member of the
In the 2023 A-Levels, the school saw 55.2% of its candidates score A*/A.[5]
History
The school was founded in 1885 as Wimbledon House by three women:
The school motto, Honneur aulx dignes, is in Norman French, and means "Honour the worthy". When pronounced, it sounds like "Honour Roedean".[9]
In 1924 the Lawrence sisters were replaced by Emmeline Mary Tanner who became the new head. She had been poached from Bedford High School by Penelope Lawrence as their successor.[10]
During the Second World War, the students and staff, including classics teacher Mary Creighton Bailey,[11][12] were temporarily evacuated to Keswick, in the north of England. The school buildings in Brighton, Sussex were used by the Admiralty.[13][14] They adapted it for use by Navy cadets attending the Mining and Torpedo School (known as HMS Vernon (R)). Roedean is one of the few girls' schools in the country to have an Old Boys' Association.[15]
The artist Percy Shakespeare was killed by a German bomb while serving at Roedean.[16]
Absorption of St Mary's Hall
Inspired by his friend William Carus-Wilson, who founded Cowan Bridge School, Reverend Henry Venn Elliott proposed to found a similar school for the county. St Mary's Hall was opened in 1836 and was the second-oldest girls' school in the United Kingdom before it was closed in 2009.[17] At that time, its junior section became Roedean's junior school while many senior girls transferred to Roedean. The junior school was closed in 2011 as the school administration decided to focus on secondary and sixth form education.[18][19]
Location
Roedean School is set in 118 acres (48 ha) of grounds off Roedean Way, at the top of a cliff on the
Academic results
In 2023, the school achieved 55% of all A-Level grades A*-A and 74.3% of GCSE grades 9-7.[20]
Houses
The school community is divided into houses.
The Lawrence and Tanner House (with Senior and Junior wings) system, introduced in 2005, was reversed starting in 2010. A numbered house system was reintroduced. Roedean school has the longest corridor in England.[citation needed]
Year 7 to Year 11 students are spread out amongst Houses 1, 2, 3, and 4. These are named after the house numbers 1–4 of Lewes Crescent, where the School was located prior to moving in 1898 to this campus built for it.
Sixth form (Years 12–13) are admitted to Keswick House and Lawrence House, which are detached from the main school building.
In the 1960s, the houses were: Junior House; House Number 1; House Number 2; House Number 3; House Number 4; and a Sanatorium. In 1966 part of the Sanatorium was made into rooms for 6th form girls, two 6th form girls from every numbered house. The School retains a sanatorium wing (now known as a health centre) to this day.
Admission procedures
Roedean is a selective school, and entry to the school is based upon the School's own entrance examinations, interviews and reports from the students' previous schools.[21]
Notable alumni
Arts
- Vera Stanley Alder, painter
- Pauline Boumphrey, sculptor
- Enid Marx, designer
- Beatrix Ong MBE, fashion accessories designer
- Phyllis Pearsall MBE, artist, writer and publisher
- Clare Pooley, blogger and novelist
- Edith Pretty, philanthropist and magistrate
- Zina Saro-Wiwa, video artist and filmmaker
- Jillian Becker, author
- Dorothy Theomin, philanthropist and art collector
Business
- Marjorie Abbatt, toy-maker and businesswoman[22]
Healthcare and education
- Dame Cicely Saunders, nurse, social worker, physician and writer
- Olive Willis, founder of Downe House School
Journalism and literature
- Alison Adburgham, fashion editor of The Guardian, author and social historian
- Jani Allan, journalist, broadcaster
- Tessa Dahl, novelist and daughter of Roald Dahl
- Adèle Geras, writer
- Zerbanoo Gifford, writer and human rights campaigner
- Naseem Khan (activist), journalist and activist
- Noo Saro-Wiwa, author
- Nancy Spain, journalist, author and broadcaster
- Katharine Whitehorn, journalist, writer, and columnist
Military and sport
- Barbara Calder (1924–2018), yachtswoman[23]
- Elizabeth Devereux-Rochester, member of SOE F Section
- Tanya Streeter,[24] world champion freediver
- Philippa Tattersall,[24] soldier and first female to complete the All Arms Commando Course
Politics and activism
- guerrilla fighter in Burma during World War II
- Jill Braithwaite, Lady Braithwaite, anthropologist, diplomat and social reformer
- Anna Campbell, activist
- Lynda Chalker, Baroness Chalker, politician
- Dame Margaret Cole, politician and writer
- Flick Drummond, Conservative Party politician
- Helen Millar Craggs, suffragette
- Birgit Cunningham, campaigner[citation needed]
- Layla Moran, Liberal Democrat politician[25]
Science
- Helen Dick Megaw, crystallographer
Theatre, television, and film
- Marisa Abela, actress
- Jill Balcon, actress
- Hermione Cockburn, broadcaster
- Noel Dyson, actress
- Lucy Griffiths, actress
- Rebecca Hall, actress
- Jessica Hester Hsuan, actress
- Verity Lambert OBE, television producer, known for being the original producer of Doctor Who.
- Sarah Miles, actress
- Rhona Mitra, actress, model and singer-songwriter
- Honeysuckle Weeks, actress
- Perdita Weeks, actress
- Jessica Claire, actress
Roedeanians in fiction
- Sophie (bohemian and perpetually dissatisfied single mother in David Kane's film This Year's Love, 1993)
- Chummy Browne (Camilla Fortescue-Cholmondeley-Browne) in Call the Midwife
- Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward (heroine in the marionette series Thunderbirds)
- Dawn Drummond-Clayton (Tarzan's great-granddaughter in the Bundukiseries)
- Emily James (Head of PR, Hotel Babylon)
- Lucy Saxon, a character in the science fiction series Doctor Who. Both Emily James and Lucy Saxon are portrayed by Alexandra Moen.
- Scarlett Papava in the James Bond novel Devil May Care
- Lady Constance, as well as Monica Simmons and her five sisters, in the Blandingsseries.
- Cecilia Tallis in the novel Atonement
- Lady Mary Wimsey in Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey novels
- Evelyn Caldessa in Mike Carey's Felix Castor novels
- Phyllida Erskine-Brown (née Trant) in the Rumpole of the Bailey series
- Saffron Courtney (daughter of Leon Courtney) in Wilbur Smith's novel "War Cry" attends Roedean in South Africa and England
- Emma Holmes in Elly Griffiths' Magic Men mystery novels
- Charlotte Lacon, daughter of Oliver Lacon in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, attends Roedean on a scholarship.
- Florence Davenport (daughter of Lord Justice Neville Langbourne and stepdaughter of title character) in Gretta Mulrooney's The Lady Vanished attended Roedean.
- The School is mentioned in the episode of the hit British comedy Only Fools and Horses called The Russians Are Coming.
See also
References
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
- ^ StudyLink, Britannia (9 September 2019). "Top Girls Boarding Schools In The UK (Updated 2023)". Britannia StudyLink Malaysia: UK Study Expert. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
- ^ "The Good Schools Guide to choosing a school. Which school? Independent, state, public, private, prep, junior, senior, primary, special, private and public schools and educational and SEN - the Good School Guide". Archived from the original on 22 April 2009. Retrieved 13 October 2008.
- ^ "ISI Inspection 2016". roedean.co.uk. Retrieved 1 July 2016.
- ^ "Roedean School: Reviews, Rankings, Fees, And More". Retrieved 1 July 2023.
- ^ required.)
- ^ Crawford, E. "Woman and Her Sphere - 'Painting Days at School of Art are perfect bliss: the manuscript diary (1892-1914) of Sarah Madeleine Martineau, art student and craft worker'". Woman and Her Sphere. Retrieved 3 January 2024.
Lena Martineau and her sister Lucy, [daughters of David Martineau (died 1911)] who was three years older, had been boarders at Roedean school in Sussex, which, recently founded, was much favoured by the daughters of the wealthy non-conformist middle class. When Lena begins her diary in an exercise book in January 1892 one of the first entries relates that Barbara Shore Smith, who had been a contemporary at Roedean...
- ^ History of Roedean Archived 3 September 2014 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Parent, independent school (29 August 2013). "Do you know what your school motto means? | independent school Parent". independent school Parent. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
- required.)
- ^ Senechal, Mr (2023). "Our History: 1960-1974". langtonsixthform.co.uk. Simon Langton Girls' Grammar School. Retrieved 5 December 2023. (PDF version)
- ^ England and Wales Register, for Keswick, Cumbria. London: H.M. Government. 1939. p. 2. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
Bailey, Mary C., born 19 Sept '13., single, schoolmistress
- ^ "WW2 – The Second World War: Keswick Hotel during the Second World War".
- ^ "obituary:Lieutenant Claude Holloway". The Daily Telegraph. 16 May 2012. Retrieved 16 May 2012.
- ^ Roedean Old Boys' Association Archived 13 August 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Percy Shakespeare Collection". Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council. Archived from the original on 19 September 2012. Retrieved 3 November 2012.
- ^ "St Mary's Hall Association". 125 years of Roedean. 12 December 2009. Archived from the original on 12 December 2009. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
- ^ Junior School Archived 19 August 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Roedean Junior School". roedean.co.uk. 2 June 2012. Archived from the original on 2 January 2012. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
- ^ "Roedean School: Reviews, Rankings, Fees, And More". Britannia UK. 7 August 2023. Retrieved 2 October 2023.
- ^ "Entry Process - Roedean School". www.roedean.co.uk. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/49549. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ "Obituary: Barbara Calder, pioneering yachtswoman". scotsman.com. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
- ^ a b Milner, Catherine; de Burton, Simon (30 June 2002). "Daisy pulls it off – with a spanner". The Daily Telegraph.
- ^ Devlin, Kate (16 September 2018). "Roedean past of '11-plus hater' MP". Express.co.uk.
External links
- Official website
- St Mary's Hall Association Website
- Profile on the ISC website
- ISI Inspection Reports