Brambletye School

Coordinates: 51°7′5.03″N 0°0′30.05″E / 51.1180639°N 0.0083472°E

Brambletye School
Established 1919
Type Preparatory day and boarding
Religion Church of England
Headmaster Nigel Westlake
Location East Grinstead
West Sussex
RH19 3PD
England
DfE number 938/6251
DfE URN 126150 Tables
Students 280~
Gender Coeducational
Ages 2–13
Houses Nelson, Wellington, Drake, Malborough
Colours pink grey
Former pupils Old Brambletyeans
Website www.brambletye.co.uk

Brambletye School is a coeducational day and boarding preparatory school in East Grinstead, West Sussex, England. Originally founded as a small boys' boarding school in Kent between the World Wars, it moved to West Sussex and has since become coeducational.

History

Brambletye was founded at Sidcup Place, Kent in 1919.[1] It moved to its present location in the Sussex countryside on the southern outskirts of East Grinstead in 1933. The main school building, which is in its own wooded estate of 100 acres, overlooks Ashdown Forest and Weir Wood Reservoir. The school became a charitable trust in 1969[2] with a board of Governors. In September 1986, the first girl was admitted and the school is now completely coeducational.

Recent building developments have included a seven classroom block,[3] a purpose built arts centre including a 270 seat theatre, a sports hall, a Pre-Prep building and the redevelopment of the science laboratories. The Blencowe Centre won the Downland Prize for Architecture, Education, (joint winner) in 2010.[4]

The Brambletye School Trust, a registered charity,[2] created legal precedent in the UK with a Value Added Tax ruling.[5]

Academics

Pupils may join the Nursery class at the age of two before moving to Reception at four and to the Preparatory Department at seven. Brambletye prepares children at thirteen for transfer to senior schools. In addition to the examined subjects at Common Entrance, pupils study Art, Music, Design Technology, ICT and Drama.

Facilities

Sports facilities include a sports hall, tennis and netball courts, squash courts, a swimming pool, a golf course and playing fields.

Notable alumni

References

  1. ↑ "School History". Retrieved 9 December 2010.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Brambletye School, Registered Charity no. 307003 at the Charity Commission
  3. ↑ "Brambletye School, new classrooms, Michael McKechnie.". This Is Sussex. 5 November 2009. Retrieved 19 May 2012. Past pupils chipped in to provide the next generation with new classrooms at Brambletye School. A block of seven new classrooms was opened this summer with the help of money raised from old boys and girls and current parents.
  4. ↑ Downland. "Downland Prize 2010". RIBA. Retrieved 19 May 2012.
  5. ↑ "House of Lords - Principal and Fellows of Newnham College in the University of Cambridge (Respondents) v Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (Appellants)". House of Lords. pp. section 26. Retrieved 19 May 2012. The Commissioners relied upon an earlier decision of the Tribunal in Brambletye School Trust Ltd v Commissioners of Customs and Excise (2002) VAT Decision 17688. This concerned a somewhat similar scheme used in connection with the construction of a new sports hall for a preparatory school. The Tribunal found that the school was in occupation of the hall because whenever the children used the hall, they were under the supervision of teachers employed by the school. It was the teachers who exercised control over the premises.
  6. ↑ Moss, Michael S. "Nigel Broackes". Oxford Dictional of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 14 March 2013. Nigel was sent at first to Brambletye School in Sussex and then to Stowe School.
  7. ↑ "Brambletye School - Senior Verse Speaking Competition". Brambletye School. 26 November 2009. Retrieved 14 March 2013. Mr Fowler-Watt reminded us that many professional actors first ‘cut their teeth’ on the Brambletye stage, including Benedict Cumberbatch and alternative comedian Will Adams Dale.
  8. ↑ Shirley, John (18 September 2007). "Obituary: Major General Sir Jeremy Moore - UK news - The Guardian". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 May 2012. Moore was born the son of Lieutenant Colonel Charles Percival Moore, MC, and his wife Alice (née Bibby). He was educated at Brambletye school, East Grinstead, and Cheltenham college, and joined the Royal Marines in 1947, straight from school.
  9. ↑ "Wace, Nigel Morritt - biography". Australian National Herbarium. Retrieved 19 May 2012. He was the only son of Sir Blyth Wace, Commissioner and Secretary to the Government of the Punjab. The family claims descent from Wace, the 12th-century Jerseyman andchronicler of the House of Normandy. Young Nigel attended Brambletye School in Sussex before going to Sheikh Bagh preparatory school in Kashmir, where a strong emphasis on outdoor activities left him, he said, with "a continuing delight and inquisitive interest indifferent sorts of landscape and people".

External links

Boarding Brambletye pupils have the choice of being a day pupil, a day boarder (flexy boarding) or being a full boarder.