Ravenscroft School, Somerset

Name	Type of School	School Motto	Pupils	Status
Ravenscroft School	Preparatory/Special	Audi et Aude	Co-educational	Closed in 1998

Ravenscroft School (founded 1935, and until 1978 called Ravenscroft Preparatory School) was an independent day and boarding school, initially for boys only but from 1964 co-educational, in Somerset, England. The school evolved into Farleigh College.

History and Background

File:Ravenscroft.GIF

School badge

Ravenscroft was founded by Mr H.F. Bailey as a preparatory school for boys in Devon in the years before the Second World War and had at least three different homes.

From 1945 to 1970, the school occupied Beckington Castle, in the village of Beckington, Somerset.

In February, 1966, a major fire began in the Castle's boiler room and much of the interior was destroyed. Ravenscroft closed for a week, then continued to operate in its outbuildings while the extensive damage was made good.

In the year 1970, growing numbers of pupils led to a move to a large country house called Farleigh House near the village of Farleigh Hungerford. It had previously been owned by Earl Cairns and the Hely-Hutchinson family, a cadet branch of the Earls of Donoughmore.

In the late 1960s, while still at Beckington, the school had established a specialist unit which taught children who were dyslexic, and during the 1970s this unit increased in size until by 1980 the school was reclassified as a special school for children with dyslexia and other learning difficulties.

During the 1980s, the age range of children taught changed. As a preparatory school, the range had been from five to thirteen, at which point children proceeded to secondary schools. As a special school, 'O' Level courses (later GCSE) were introduced, and children stayed at Ravenscroft until the age of sixteen or seventeen.

By the year 1995, the school's age range was from eleven to seventeen. The number of pupils was then sixty-six, of whom eleven were girls, and expenditure per pupil was £21,609, with a pupil:teacher ratio of 3.4 to one. All children were boarders and lived either at the main school or at Houlton Hall or two houses owned by the school in the neighbouring town of Trowbridge. There was a Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme, and some pupils attended courses at Trowbridge College.

In 1998, the school was closed and most of the staff and pupils transferred to a new educational institution called Farleigh College, now located near Mells, Somerset.

Heads of Ravenscroft

Headmasters

• c. 1935-1950 Mr H.F. Bailey
• 1950-1962 Mr Grantham-Hill
• 1962-1981 Mr J.F.R. Gillam, M.A. (Dublin) (previously a master at Hawtreys School)

Head Teachers

• 1981-1993 Mrs Anne-Marie Gillam, M.A., B.Ed.
• 1993-1998 Mr S. Bradshaw, B.Ed.

Portrait of Anne-Marie Gillam

School Badge

The badge (which until the 1970s was worn on the school's blazers and caps) was a black raven facing to the left.

School Motto

The motto Audi et aude means in Latin Learn and dare.

Former pupils

Former Ravenscroft students (Old Ravens) include -

• Adrian Arnold-Smith - Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry
• Guy Hands - international financier
• Christopher Newbury - Council of Europe
• David Darling - founder of Codemasters
• Richard Darling - founder of Codemasters

See also

• Farleigh College
• List of mottos

References

• Ravenscroft School Ofsted Report 1995
• Beckington Businesses

External links

• Photograph of Beckington Castle at FrancisFrith.com