New Park School was an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

preparatory school in

St Andrews St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fou ...

, Fife, Scotland. The school was founded in 1933 by Cuthbert Dixon,The New Park Register 1933–1983 previously a teacher at

Merchiston Castle School Merchiston Castle School is an independent boarding school for boys in the suburb of Colinton in Edinburgh, Scotland. It has around 470 pupils and is open to boys between the ages of 7 and 18 as either boarding or day pupils; it was modelled a ...

. The school was situated at Hepburn Gardens, a residential area of St Andrews. Additionally, the school owned playing fields at Priory Acres off the Canongate, on the other side of the Kinness Burn. In 1986, part of the playing fields were put on the market for residential development. The school continued to use the remaining playing fields until it closed in 2005. Initially the school had 13 boys, all of whom were day pupils. Within a few years, the school had expanded, and by 1938 there were 20 pupils including 10 boarders. Numbers continued to increase, particularly in the post-war period. In the 1970s, New Park admitted its first girls. By the time the school closed in 2005, there were roughly equal numbers of boys and girls. As times changed, boarding became less popular, and by the mid-1990s, boarding at New Park had ceased.

Merger with St Leonards

When the other preparatory school in St Andrews, the previously girls-only

St Leonards St Leonards may refer to: Places Australia *St Leonards, New South Wales **St Leonards railway station *St Leonards, Tasmania, suburb of Launceston *St Leonards, Victoria Canada *St. Leonard's, Newfoundland and Labrador New Zealand * St L ...

Junior School began accepting boys, New Park struggled to recruit new pupils. St Leonards also suffered from a decline in pupil numbers, and talks between the schools continued for several years. Eventually, in March 2005 it was announcedAiming For The Top With Schools Merger – Fife Today, 10 March 2005
/ref> that New Park would merge with St Leonards Junior School, to form St Leonards-New Park. The merged school would use the

campus. The announcement was met with a mixed reaction from New Park parents. St Leonards have announced a major redevelopment of their junior school, which will change its name from St Leonard's-New Park to St Leonard's Junior School. The project, commencing in June 2011, had an estimated cost of £2.5m, and was funded by the New Park Educational Trust. The New Park name will be used for the redeveloped area of the St Leonard's site.

New Park Educational Trust

The original New Park site (excluding the original house, which formed part of the main school building) was sold for development. The money raised is managed by the New Park Educational Trust, which supports local educational projects. The Trust still owns the original house, which has been converted into flats for rental to families involved in education in St Andrews.

Headmasters

* 1933–1949 Cuthbert Dixon * 1949–1969 Roderick Macleod * 1969–1976 Adrian Blocksidge * 1976–1984 Alan Elliott * 1984–1995 Michael Wareham * 1995–2005 Andrew DonaldPeople – TES Magazine, 10 March 1995
/ref> (now Head of St Leonards-New Park)

References

{{authority control Educational institutions established in 1933 Defunct schools in Fife St Andrews Education in St Andrews Defunct private schools in Scotland Defunct preparatory schools in Scotland Defunct boarding schools in Scotland 1933 establishments in Scotland Educational institutions disestablished in 2005 2005 disestablishments in Scotland