Garden House School is a leading London
day school offering Kindergarten, Pre-Prep and Prep schooling for girls and
boys from 3 years to 11 years. We teach our boys separately from our girls,
except in Kindergarten. We strongly believe girls and boys learn most
effectively apart but have much to offer one another in the broader school
environment. This is a structure rarely seen elsewhere in the English education
system. The Boys' School and the Girls' School are housed together in Turks
Row, a purpose-designed and almost perfect space in central London. Chelsea is
an exceptional area in which to run a school. The Royal Borough's unique
association with Art and Literature filters through the curriculum; we are
inspired by the history, the architecture, the style, the greenness and
busyness as well as the nearness to the River Thames. There are few schools in
Central London able to boast their own garden, delightfully situated in the
historic grounds of the Royal Hospital.
Moreover, we play sport in the magnificent South Grounds and green
spaces of Burton Court, fringed by the impeccably Georgian St. Leonard's
Terrace to the north and Sir Christopher Wren's and Sir John Soane's Royal
Hospital to the south. Our school plays
are staged at The Royal Court Theatre, a leading national theatre in Sloane
Square. All this is on our doorstep.
History of Garden House School:
A SHORT HISTORY OF GARDEN HOUSE SCHOOL -
1951 TO DATE
Margery
de Brissac Bernard
(1896-1994)
founded Garden House pre-prep school in 1951. During her 20 year tenure as Head Mistress,
Miss de Brissac educated the children and grand-children of diplomats and Prime
Ministers including Winston Churchill and Alec Douglas-Home. Although she had no formal training as a
teacher, she had great experience of life, having worked at the Admiralty
during World War One. Further to such an
endeavour, Miss de Brissac trained as a nurse with the Red Cross. Following the end of the Second World War,
having taught ballet in London in one room in a private house, she was
persuaded to consider setting up her own school. As a ballerina, her style and personal
discipline and moral stance appealed to teachers and parents alike. In many
ways, little has changed at the heart of Garden House from the essential values
established in the early years.
Goodness, kindness and forgiveness are tenets of the behaviour expected
of our pupils. Miss de Brissac was a living memorial to dance, music, singing,
learning and loving and these remain the pivotal values around which Garden
House School thrives and develops.
In
1973 at the age of 77, Miss de Brissac handed over the ownership of Garden
House School to Mrs Jillian Oddy, a parent and teaching assistant at the school
and now the Principal. Garden House has grown gradually since 1973. Originally
primarily a pre-school for boys and girls with just a smattering of older
girls, it has developed into what you see today; a Kindergarten at Sedding
Street, two major pre-prep and prep schools, one for boys and one for girls at
Turks Row with boys from 8 years of age at Holbein Mews. Mrs Oddy also
established two pre-schools in New York City and another in Westchester County.
Mrs Oddy always aspired to combine the entire school under one roof as it was,
by then, occupying four houses in Sloane Gardens and two in Pont Street,
Chelsea. The dream was fulfilled in 2004 when the school moved into a single,
purpose-designed building to the south side of the new Duke of York’s
development. For the first time, the girls and boys were together, while
continuing to be taught separately.
The
school remains family-run and privately-owned. It is considered to be among the
most prestigious pre-prep and prep schools in central London. The school
celebrated its half-centenary in 2001 with a large Summer fun-fair for past and
present families in Ranelagh Gardens. The school marked this anniversary by
introducing a school motto ‘Non sibi sed omnibus', translated as 'Not for One,
for All'. While respectful of our history, Garden House is very much grounded
in the present yet always looking towards the future for our children. Garden
House prides itself on the long-term commitment of its core staff, and the fact
that alumni return as parents themselves or as teachers. The school has an
aesthetic that celebrates the appreciation of beauty in all its forms, with
kindness as key.
Website: http://www.gardenhouseschool.co.uk/
Phone:
+44 20 7730 1652
Location: Turk's Row, London, England, United
Kingdom.
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