Claires Court School
| Claires Court School | |
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| Type | Independent school |
| Established | 1960 |
Claires Court School is a co-educational independent school situated in Maidenhead in Berkshire. It educates about 1000 students aged 3 to 18.[1]
History
Founded in 1960 by David and Josephine Wilding, as a day and boarding school for boys aged 7 to 13, Claires Court grew quickly to 200 pupils from the early 1970s. Ridgeway opened as a junior preparatory school for Claires Court, which extended its age range to 18-year-olds.
In 1981, their son James was appointed as Master in charge of the Senior School, and shortly afterwards the family business was joined by Hugh as Bursar. In 1993, the Wildings acquired Maidenhead College, a Girls' Independent School, formerly known as the Convent of the Nativity. In January 2005, the school is still thriving. a co-ed Nursery leads to separate single sex boys and girls sections providing education to 16+, the co-ed Sixth form, now in its 12th year with 112 students completes the picture. Now there are 3 schools- Claires Court Senior Boys, Claires Court Senior Girls and Junior Girls (The College) and also Claires Court Junior Boys (Ridgeway).
On June 23, 2016 the local Maidenhead Advertiser covered plans to coalesce the three schools to the site of the Junior Boys school. The converged site has a capacity of just under 1100 students. On both July 21, 2016 and July 29, 2016 the Maidenhead Advertiser subsequently reported on a petition and Cox Green campaign group that have been set up to fight these plans.
Notable former pupils
Notable alumni include: Farah Zeynep Abdullah, Ali Bastian, Simon Dennis, Chris Cracknell, Michael Geoghegan, Amber Hill, Nick Kennedy, Nils Mordt, James (Lord) O'Shaughnessy, Mark Richardson, and Ben Sneesby.
Current status
There are some 120 teachers on roll, teaching 980 pupils and supported by a further 120 support staff. The school has a successful athletics program, and several students have become national champions. [2]
References
- ^ MacErlean, Neasa (September 1, 2012). "Hard lessons for private schools as the recession bites:Parts of the sector are going through a crisis, reports Neasa MacErlean". The Independent. London. Retrieved August 15, 2015.
- ^ Mayo, Nick (June 25, 2013). "Claires Court School athletes are national champions". Maidenhead Advertiser. Retrieved August 15, 2015.