Summer Fields School
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Summer Fields is a boys' preparatory school based in Summertown, Oxford, England. Originally called Summerfield, it became a Boys' Preparatory School in the 1864 with seven pupils. Its owner, Archibald Maclaren, was a fencing teacher who ran a gymnasium in Oxford. He strongly believed in the importance of physical fitness. His wife, Gertrude, was a classical scholar and teacher. The school motto is 'mens sana in corpore sano', a healthy mind in a healthy body.
It is Maclaren who lends his name to one of the four leagues into which the boys are organised; others include Moseley, after Henry Moseley, Case and Congreve, named after William La Touche Congreve. Each league has its own identifying colour, Case with red, Congreve with yellow, Maclaren with green, and Moseley with blue. In their leagues the boys wear a polo shirt in the league colour, along with the rest of the uniform, blue crod-du-rois, and brown shoes. On special days, such as the School Concert, and the end of term, boys wear a tweed jacket, with a light blue coloured shirt, black shoes, and grey flannel trousers. Again, they wear their tie in their league colour.
The school remained in the hands of the Maclaren, Williams and Alington families for its first 75 years. In 1955, to ensure the School's future, it became a charitable trust with a board of governors, including Harold Macmillan, who was at the school as a boy and was soon to become Prime Minister. Other famous alumni include the England cricketer, Gubby Allen, and the Dracula actor, Christopher Lee.
In 1975 Nigel Talbot Rice took over as headmaster. He put the school on a sound financial footing through a series of appeals which financed an ambitious building programme: new classrooms, the Macmillan Hall and Music Centre, an indoor swimming-pool, the Wavell Arts and Technology Centre (named after the first Earl Wavell), and the Sports Hall. In 1997, Talbot Rice retired and was succeeded by Robin Badham-Thornhill.
The school has traditionally been a rival of the Dragon School, also located in North Oxford.
The school prides itself on its academic excellence, evidenced by the numerous scholarships won by its boys, and is proud of its high standards of pastoral care. Among the schools it sends its boys to are Eton College, Winchester College, Harrow School, and Radley College.
There is another school named Summer Fields School in New Delhi, India. Official Website http://www.summerfieldsdelhi.com/
[edit] Notable alumni
- Harold Macmillan
- John G.W. Husted Jr. - First fiance of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
