51°58′05″N0°13′36″W / 51.96806°N 0.22667°W /51.96806; -0.22667
| St Christopher School | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Location | |
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Barrington Road ,, SG6 3JZ | |
| Information | |
| Type | Independent day and boarding |
| Motto | The utmost for the highest |
| Established | 1915 |
| Head | Rich Jones |
| Gender | Co-educational |
| Age | 3 to 18 |
| Houses | Gernon, Godwin, Lytton |
| Colours | Yellow, red and blue |
| Website | http://www.stchris.co.uk/ |
St Christopher School is aprivateday andboarding school inLetchworth Garden City,Hertfordshire, England.
Established in 1915 as theGarden City Theosophical School, it has long been a flagship ofprogressive education. The present name was adopted in 1919.
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 asixth form.[1]
There is no uniform, and all in the school are called by their first names.[1]
The origins of the school lie inTheosophy, and some seeds were sown in a lecture byGeorge Arundale on 26 December 1912 at aTheosophical Society Adyar convention inAdyar,Madras State,British India. The subject was "Education as Service", and Arundale referred to a book with that title byJiddu 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, andJosephine 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 werevegetarianism, 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 ofLaurence Olivier, whose father was Rector.[6]
In 1928, the school was consolidated onto the Barrington Road site.[3][4]
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 theSisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary to become the Middle School Building, theatre, and gymnasium of the newSt Francis' College, Letchworth.[3][9]