- Source: St Christopher School
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
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.
There is no uniform, and all in the school are called by their first names.
History
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.
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.
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.
The school's early years were much influenced by Krishnamurti's book. 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".
By 1918, all children were members of a pupil forum called the Moot, which greatly influenced the running of the school.
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.
In 1928, the school was consolidated onto the Barrington Road site.
From 1925 to 1953, Lyn Harris and his wife Eleanor Harris were joint heads of the school. They were followed by Nicholas King-Harris, in post from 1954 to 1980.
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.
Heads
1915–1918: Dr J. H. Armstrong Smith
1919–1925: Beatrice Ensor and Isabel King
1925–1953: Lyn and Eleanor Harris
1954–1980: Nicholas King-Harris
1981–2004: Colin Reid
2004–2006: Donald Wilkinson
2006–2020: Richard Palmer
2020–2022: Emma-Kate Henry
2023– : Rich Jones
Notable staff
Ernest Elmore (1901–1957), sports and drama master
Dame Mary Marsh (born 1946), deputy head in 1990s
Notable former pupils
Ed Asafu-Adjaye (born 1988), footballer
Rufus Keppel, 10th Earl of Albemarle (born 1965), designer
Catherine Bearder (born 1949), politician
Peter Blegvad (born 1951), musician
Gavin Campbell (born 1946), actor and presenter
Neil Coles (born 1934), professional golfer
Jacqui Dankworth (born 1963), singer
Julia Darling (1956–2005), author
Jenny Diski (1947–2016), author
JJ Feild (born 1978), actor
Sonia Friedman (born 1965), theatre producer
A. A. Gill (1954–2016), journalist
Connie Glynn (born 1994), author
Paul Hamlyn (1926–2001), publisher
David Horovitch (born 1945), actor
Stephen Howarth (born 1981), poet, artist, and actor
Elizabeth Jenkins (1905–2010), writer
George Lamb, broadcaster
Rolf Landsberg (1920–2003), physicist and University Rector
Prince Rupert Loewenstein (1933–2014), manager of The Rolling Stones
Olly Mann, comedian and writer
Anthony Moore (born 1948), musician and composer
Neil Murray (born 1950), musician
Roger Phillips (1932–2021), photographer
Freya Ridings (born 1994), singer, songwriter
Shawn Slovo (born 1950), writer
Richard Walker (1918–1985), angler
Michael Winner (1935–2013), film producer and director
References
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
External links
ISI Inspection Reports
School web site
Old Scholars: St Christopher Club
January 1915: the first St Christopher pupils, oldscholars.info
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