Leighton Park School

Leighton Park School is a co-educational private school for both day and boarding pupils in Reading in South East England. The school's ethos is closely tied to the Quaker values, having been founded as a Quaker School in 1890. The school's ethos is described as achievement with values, character and community. It is one of seven Quaker schools in England.

Overview

The school is based in a parkland estate just south of Reading town centre, next to the University of Reading's Whiteknights Park campus. The school has been a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference since 1932. It offers both the International Baccalaureate and A Levels at Sixth Form.

Matthew Judd has been the headmaster since September 2018.

At A level in 2019, pupils' progress score was Well Above Average with students gaining 0.6 of a grade on average across their subjects. No data were published by the Department for Education for the school at GCSE level.

The School was inspected by the Independent Schools Inspectorate in November 2021 and was found to be excellent for both the quality of pupils’ personal development and the quality of their academic progress.

There are 27 music teachers covering a range of instruments. The school offers dance with a new studio built in 2020 and a GCSE and A Levels qualifications available. The school's music and media centre opened in 2019. It offers a BTec in Digital Media Production at both level 2 and level 3 and works with nearby Pinewood Studios.

Old School and attached laboratories at Leighton Park are Grade II listed buildings. Grove House was designed by Victorian architect Alfred Waterhouse, who also designed the Natural History Museum in London.

History

Leighton Park was opened in 1890 by members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), as a public school for boys. It was founded after Grove House School, also a Quaker school, closed in 1877. Grove House School had educated notable personalities such as Lord Lister, Alfred Waterhouse and Thomas Hodgkin.

Leighton Park grew from four boys in 1890 to 103 in the 1920s. The junior school became the independent Crosfields School, making Leighton Park solely a senior school. By 1970 the school had 300 pupils, and in 1975 girls were admitted to the sixth form. In 1993 the school became fully coeducational. Today the school is home to around 520 pupils drawn from over 44 different countries.

In 2015, the school celebrated its 125-year anniversary.

In March 2016, the school was granted planning permission to develop the main hall and music department into the Music and Media Centre (MMC) which will enhance the facilities for teaching Music and Media at the school. The building officially opened in March 2019. The school is currently redeveloping the historic Grove House to be a new Sixth Form Study Centre and School Library - due to open in early 2024.

Press

Leighton Park appeared on the BBC One Show in 2020, featuring the school's production of PPE for health workers during the Covid-19 pandemic
Leighton Park was featured on the BBC Politics Show, which was hosted at the site in December 2010.

In April 2005, Quaker-based Sunday Worship was broadcast live from Leighton Park on BBC Radio 4. Heard by an estimated 1.75 million listeners, the sequence of readings, music, ministry and silence "reflected the essence of Quaker values to the wider world."

In November 2011 thieves stole Maverick the Harris hawk from a teacher's aviary. Maverick was used "to build a more adventurous curriculum for pupils" and helped students learn physics. Pupils were left distraught after the theft as a core team of pupils had been trained to handle him.

Former pupils

Notable old pupils include:

*Sir John Adye, former director of the GCHQ
*Crispin Aubrey, civil rights campaigner
*Sir Tony Baldry, former MP
* Julian Bell, poet and Bloomsbury member
*Quentin Bell, Bloomsbury member, artist and writer
* Eliza Bennett, actress
*Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, composer and jazz pianist
*Michael Binyon, journalist
*Sir John Birch, former ambassador
* Derek Brewer, Secretary and Chief Executive of Marylebone Cricket Club
*Jim Broadbent, Oscar winning actor
* Basil Bunting, poet
*Egbert Cadbury, businessman in chocolate firms Fry's and Cadbury's and decorated First World War pilot
*Kristian Callaghan, British pistol shooter, winner of Bronze Medal 2014 Commonwealth Games
*Professor Edward Chaney, cultural historian
*Lance Clark (retail; founder of Soul of Africa), ex-CEO of Clark's Shoes
* Nathan Crowley, Oscar-nominated art director in the film industry
* Baron Davies of Stamford, former MP, minister and life peer
* Leonard Doncaster, geneticist
*Christopher Dorling, co-founder of Dorling Kindersley
* Phil Dunster, actor, Olivier Award nominee 2016
* Jason Durr, actor "Casualty"
* Owen Edwards, pioneer of Welsh TV broadcasting
* Hugh Foot, Baron Caradon, former ambassador
* Michael Foot, former Labour Party leader
*Robert Gillmor, artist and ornithologist
*Martin Griffiths, an Under-Secretary-General at the United Nations
* Hugh Haughton, Professor at York University
* Tim Ingold, anthropologist and Professor at Aberdeen University
*Sir David Lean, Oscar award-winning film director
*Po Shun Leong, artist
*Peter Litten, film director
* Tom Lowenstein, poet
* Professor Grigor McClelland, businessman, first director of the Manchester Business School and social activist
* David McFarland, former Professor of Animal Behaviour, Oxford University
* Laura Marling, award-winning singer songwriter
* Tom Maschler, publisher and writer; former Chairman of Cape, co-founder of The Booker Prize; founder of The Book Bus
* Peter May, cricketer, Captain of England, and later Chairman of the England cricket selectors
*Jagat Singh Mehta, Foreign Secretary India, 1970s
* John Mitchell, musician and music producer
* Nicholas Moore, poet and son of GE Moore, Cambridge Philosopher
*Sir Oscar Morland, diplomat and ambassador
*Prof. Peter Nienow, Edinburgh University, awarded Polar Medal 2017, recognition for his pioneering glaciological work in the Arctic.
* Nathaniel Parker, award-winning actor
*Patrick Parrinder, Professor of English, Reading University
* Lionel Penrose, psychiatrist, medical geneticist, paediatrician, mathematician and chess theorist, Galton professor of eugenics at University College London
* Sir Roland Penrose, artist, historian and poet
* Henry Priestman, singer/songwriter (The Christians)
* John Prizeman, architect and author on Modern design
*Prof. Dan Reinstein, eye surgeon
* Karel Reisz, award-winning film director
*Prof. Julian Stallabrass, art historian, photographer and lecturer, Courtauld
*Ian Stillman, missionary
* Richard Vernon, actor
*Richard G. Wilkinson, social epidemiologist, author and advocate
* Timothy Williamson, Wykeham Professor of Logic, Oxford University
*Stuart Zender, musician
*Shyam Bhatia, writer, journalist

Arms

See also

* List of Friends Schools
* Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference
* Old Leightonians Cricket Club

References

Further reading

* ''The Leightonian'' chool magazine(pub. 1895).
* ''The Park'' chool magazine(pub. termly).
* ''Old Leightonians Club''. A list of names and addresses of the old boys of Leighton Park School (pub. 1945, 1957, 1973, 1990).
* Brown, S. W. ''Leighton Park: A history of the school'' (pub. 1952).
* ''Leighton Park School, Leighton Park: The first 100 years'' (pub. 1990).

External links

School websiteOld Leightonians Cricket Club website

Welcome To GBS Swim School

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1890 establishments in England
Boarding schools in Berkshire
Grade II listed buildings in Reading
Educational institutions established in 1890
Private schools in Reading, Berkshire
International Baccalaureate schools in England
Member schools of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference
*
Quaker schools in England