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St Christopher School

51°58′05″N 0°13′36″W / 51.96806°N 0.22667°W / 51.96806; -0.22667

St Christopher School
Address
Map
Barrington Road

Letchworth Garden City
,
Hertfordshire
,
SG6 3JZ

England
Information
TypeIndependent day and boarding
MottoThe utmost for the highest
Established1915
HeadRich Jones
GenderCo-educational
Age3 to 18
HousesGernon, Godwin, Lytton
Colour(s)Blue, gold and white      
Websitehttp://www.stchris.co.uk/

St Christopher School is a private day and boarding school in Letchworth Garden City, Hertfordshire, England.

Established in 1915 as the Garden City Theosophical School, it has long been a flagship of progressive education. The present name was adopted in 1919.

Character

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The school is co-educational, taking both day and boarding pupils between the ages of three and eighteen. It has a Montessori School, a Junior School, and a Senior School, with a sixth form.[1]

There is no uniform, and all in the school are called by their first names.[1]

History

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The origins of the school lie in Theosophy, and some seeds were sown in a lecture by George Arundale on 26 December 1912 at a Theosophical Society Adyar convention in Adyar, Madras State, British India. The subject was "Education as Service", and Arundale referred to a book with that title by Jiddu Krishnamurti. A group of those present then wrote to the Theosophical Society in England, asking for a school on Theosophical lines to be established. Fund-raising began in 1913, and the project was supported by Arundale, Annie Besant, and Josephine Ransom.[2]

Letchworth was chosen as the site of the school, as it had a flourishing theosophical community. Two houses were bought, 28 and 30 Broadwater Avenue, and the Garden City Theosophical School opened on 20 January 1915, with Dr John Horace Armstrong Smith, a theosophical physician, as head, and with fourteen children enrolled. By the autumn term, the number had risen to 41.[2]

The school soon took over some buildings on Barrington Road, built in 1909 for a short-lived school called Letchworth School. In 1919, a new building was built at the junction of Spring Road and Broadway, and the school adopted its current name. The Barrington Road site was then used for boarders.[3][4]

The school's early years were much influenced by Krishnamurti's book.[2] Key principles from the outset were vegetarianism, physical health achieved through exercise, a belief in the benefits of beautiful surroundings, and racial toleration. Exam results were to be "a private matter between teacher and pupil".[5]

By 1918, all children were members of a pupil forum called the Moot, which greatly influenced the running of the school.[5]

In 1920, the Theosophical Educational Trust bought a lease of the historic Rectory of Letchworth, to which children were moved from Brackenhill Home School, in Kent, another of the trust's foundations. It later became a house of the St Christopher School called Arunwood and is now used by the Montessori department. The Rectory was one of the childhood homes of Laurence Olivier, whose father was Rector.[6]

In 1928, the school was consolidated onto the Barrington Road site.[3][4]

 
Hockey at Arundale House, 1924

From 1925 to 1953, Lyn Harris and his wife Eleanor Harris were joint heads of the school.[7] They were followed by Nicholas King-Harris, in post from 1954 to 1980.[8]

In 1934, the school's former buildings on Broadway were sold to the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary to become the Middle School Building, theatre, and gymnasium of the new St Francis' College, Letchworth.[3][9]

Heads

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  • 1915–1918: Dr J. H. Armstrong Smith[10]
  • 1919–1925: Beatrice Ensor and Isabel King[10]
  • 1925–1953: Lyn and Eleanor Harris[7]
  • 1954–1980: Nicholas King-Harris[8]
  • 1981–2004: Colin Reid[11]
  • 2004–2006: Donald Wilkinson[11]
  • 2006–2020: Richard Palmer[12]
  • 2020–2022: Emma-Kate Henry
  • 2023– : Rich Jones

Notable staff

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Notable former pupils

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See also: Category:People educated at St Christopher School

References

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  • L. B. Pekin, The Way of Life at St Christopher School, Letchworth (1939)
  • Reginald Snell, St Christopher School 1915–1975 (1975) ISBN 978-0950414409
  • A. A. Gill, The Angry Island: Hunting the English (2005) ISBN 978-0-297-84318-4
  • Chris McNab, St Christopher School: a short history (Shire Publications, 2014) ISBN 978-0747813200

Notes

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  1. ^ a b St Christopher School, Independent Schools Council, accessed 7 May 2023
  2. ^ a b c McNab (2014), pp. 7–8
  3. ^ a b c Johnson (1976), p. 77
  4. ^ a b "History", stchris.co.uk, accessed 7 May 2023
  5. ^ a b McNab (2014), p. 10
  6. ^ Alison Baigent, David Cursons, "Arunwood, a brief history", archive.org, accessed 7 May 2023
  7. ^ a b "Through war and peace 1925–53", McNab (2014), pp. 27–36
  8. ^ a b "Changing times 1954–80", McNab (2014), pp. 37–46
  9. ^ St Francis' College, Letchworth, Independent Schools Inspectorate Inspection Report
  10. ^ a b McNab (2014), pp. 11–22
  11. ^ a b "Fresh visions 1981–2006", McNab (2014), pp. 47–56
  12. ^ McNab (2014), p. 5
  13. ^ "BBC News – Vote 2001 Candidates: Catherine Bearder, BBC News, 2001, accessed 7 May 2023
  14. ^ a b Peter Blegvad biography, Calyx: The Canterbury Website, accessed 7 May 2023
  15. ^ Jackie Kay, "Julia Darling" (obituary), The Guardian , 25 November 2018, accessed 7 May 2023
  16. ^ "Julia Darling (1956–2005)", Literary Winchester, accessed 7 May 2023
  17. ^ AA Gill: Sunday Times critic dies after cancer diagnosis, BBC, 10 December 2016, accessed 7 May 2023
  18. ^ "Horovitch, David" in Who's Who on Television (ITV Books, 1981)
  19. ^ Dieter Hoffmann, Bernd-Rainer Barth, "Landsberg, Rolf * 28.2.1920, † 27.12.2003 Chemiker, Rektor der Technischen Hochschule für Chemie Leuna-Merseburg", in Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur: Biographische Datenbanken, 21 March 2015
  20. ^ Adam Sweeting, "Prince Rupert Loewenstein obituary" The Guardian, 22 May 2014, archived, accessed 7 May 2023
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