Dauntsey's School
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Dauntsey's School is a public school ( fee-charging boarding and
day school A day school — as opposed to a boarding school — is an educational institution where children are given instruction during the day, after which the students return to their homes. A day school has full-day programs when compared to a regular s ...
) for pupils aged 11–18 in the village of West Lavington, Wiltshire, England. The school was founded in 1542 in accordance with the will of William Dauntesey, a master of the
Worshipful Company of Mercers The Mercers' Company, or the Worshipful Company of Mercers, is a livery company of the City of London in the Great Twelve City Livery Companies, and ranks first in the order of precedence of the Companies. Mercer comes from the Latin for merch ...
.


The school

The school was moved to its current site in 1895. The school occupies approximately of land at the main school campus. The school also owns land at Market Lavington, approximately 15 minutes walk (or 1 mile drive) from the main school. Here the Manor House is used as a Lower School boarding house and has sports pitches and woodlands in its grounds. Students typically arrive in years 7, 9 and 12 (known as First Form, Third Form and Lower Sixth respectively), although a few enter in the other years. Years 7, 8 and 9 (known as First, Second and Third Forms) are collectively known as the Lower School, and years 10, 11, 12 and 13 are referred to as the Upper School. In addition, Years 12 and 13 (Lower Sixth and Upper Sixth) are collectively known as the Sixth Form.


Houses

The school is divided into houses and each pupil assigned to a house for their time in the Lower School, then to a different house in the Upper School. Most houses are named after former headmasters, the exceptions being Manor, Farmer, Mercers (named after a building, a generous donor and the livery company respectively) and Lambert (named for Agnes Lambert, wife of William Dauntsey). All houses except Manor are on the main school site.


Lower School houses

In the Lower School, houses are mixed gender and each day pupil house has its own room where pupils have a locker and where they must register each morning. The Manor House is the only boarding house for Lower School boarders and is where they live, sleep and eat breakfast and dinner. The house a pupil is in does not affect their academic class groups but the houses compete against each other in sporting and other events.


Upper School houses

In the Upper School, houses are single gender, and the eight houses are divided equally among day, boarding, female and male pupils. Boarding houses have bedrooms, bathrooms, common rooms and kitchens. Day houses have a room for each year group in the house and basic cooking facilities, along with offices for tutors and House Parents.


Facilities

In addition to houses, laboratories and classrooms, the school has: * Design and technology workshops * Dance studio * Art department with photography suite *Squash courts * Sports hall * Swimming pool * Tennis courts * Climbing wall * Rugby, hockey, cricket and football pitches * All-weather running track


''Jolie Brise''

'' Jolie Brise'', a gaff rigged pilot cutter owned and operated by the school, is sailed by Dauntsey pupils throughout the year. In summer 2000 Dauntsey crews took part in The Tall Ships' Race, which took her across the Atlantic. She was declared the overall winner of this race. She also won The Tall Ships' Races 2002, which took her from Alicante to Malaga. In 2009 the ''Jolie Brise'' came second in class, of the Tall Ships Race, the final destination of which was Belfast, where the ships were greeted, after a transatlantic race, by an estimated 400,000 people. ''Jolie Brise'' also won the Tall Ships Race in 2015 and again in 2016.


History

The school was founded in accordance with the
will Will may refer to: Common meanings * Will and testament, instructions for the disposition of one's property after death * Will (philosophy), or willpower * Will (sociology) * Will, volition (psychology) * Will, a modal verb - see Shall and will ...
of alderman William Dauntesey, master of the
Worshipful Company of Mercers The Mercers' Company, or the Worshipful Company of Mercers, is a livery company of the City of London in the Great Twelve City Livery Companies, and ranks first in the order of precedence of the Companies. Mercer comes from the Latin for merch ...
. Dauntesey was himself from West Lavington, the son of John Dauntesey, and when he died in April 1542, he left money in his will dated 10 March 1542 for the founding of the school. He gave the Mercers' Company lands in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
so that they could build a schoolhouse for a
grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a Latin school, school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented Se ...
at West Lavington and also support seven poor persons in an
almshouse An almshouse (also known as a bede-house, poorhouse, or hospital) is charitable housing provided to people in a particular community, especially during the Middle Ages. They were often built for the poor of a locality, for those who had held ce ...
, within the same charity. The master of the school was to be appointed by the heir of Dauntesey's brother Ambrose Dauntesey, but the company was to have the power of dismissal. In 1868, a schools inquiry commission noted that "By ancient custom, the owner of the Dauntesey estate at West Lavington, now Lord Churchill, appoints". Three and a half centuries after the school's foundation, the school moved to its current site at the north end of West Lavington, Wiltshire. The new school buildings were designed by the architect C.E. Ponting and in May 1895
Joseph Chamberlain Joseph Chamberlain (8 July 1836 – 2 July 1914) was a British statesman who was first a radical Liberal Party (UK), Liberal, then a Liberal Unionist after opposing home rule for Ireland, and eventually was a leading New Imperialism, imperial ...
officially opened them and inaugurated Dauntsey's Agricultural School. In 1929 the school bought the Manor House estate at Market Lavington, which now provides accommodation for lower school boarders. In 1930, the school changed its name to Dauntsey's School although it remained largely dedicated to an agriculture-based education. At that time it fulfilled the role that the County Agricultural Colleges fill today, the latter partly sponsored by the state. The intake of pupils in the 1930s was a broad cross-section of the Wiltshire farming community, from farm labourers' children to those of wealthy gentlemen farmers. It continued thus, with the addition of sons of commissioned officers in the
armed forces A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a ...
, until 1971. In 1967, the 'Olive Block' opened, which is now Fitzmaurice House. 1970 saw the foundation of the sailing club, while, in 1971, the first girls were admitted. In 1972, the farm buildings were closed and the school became a primarily academic institution. In 1977, the school acquired ''Jolie Brise''. The school continues a wide range of building and expansion projects to this day, including the recent building of the Upper School girls' day houses, and a re-vamp of the sports hall. More recent developments have included an astroturf pitch for hockey purposes.


21st century

The school's affiliation with the Mercers Company continues, and the Master Mercer is a regular guest of honour or speaker at school events. The company also helps with financial support for students' individual ventures, including
gap year A gap year, also known as a sabbatical year, is a period of time when students take a break from their studies, usually after completing high school or before beginning graduate school. During this time, students engage in a variety of educatio ...
s and sporting tours, where the company sees fit. In 2005, Dauntsey's School was one of fifty of the country's independent schools which were found guilty of running an illegal price-fixing cartel which had allowed them to drive up fees for thousands of parents. Each school was required to pay a nominal penalty of £10,000 and they all agreed to make ex-gratia payments totalling £3million into a trust designed to benefit pupils who attended the schools during the period in respect of which fee information was shared. According to a 2021 Freedom of Information Request, the school was expected to be among the many independent schools to withdraw from the Teachers' Pension Scheme, effective 31 August 2022.


Recent headmasters

* G.W. Olive (1919 to 1955) * D.J. Forbes (1955 to 1969) * G.E. King-Reynolds (1969 to 1985) * C.R. Evans (1986 to 1996) * Stewart B. Roberts (1997 to 2012) * Mark Lascelles (2013 to 2024) * John Davies (2024 to present)


Fees and charges

Fees for 2023/24: Day pupils £22,800 (£7,600 per term) UK boarders £37,740 (£12,580 per term) Flexi-boarding (Years 7 and 8 only) £28,500 (£9,500 per term) International pupils £43,590 (£14,530 per term).


Notable alumni


Living

* Sisters Guin Batten and Miriam Batten, 2000 Olympic silver medallists in rowing. Miriam is chair of Henley Women's Regatta and Guin is the first woman on the management committee of
Henley Royal Regatta Henley Royal Regatta (or Henley Regatta, its original name pre-dating Royal patronage) is a Rowing (sport), rowing event held annually on the River Thames by the town of Henley-on-Thames, England. It was established on 26 March 1839. It diffe ...
in 175 years. *
Eason Chan Eason Chan Yick-shun ( zh, s=陈奕迅, t=陳奕迅, first=t, p=Chén Yìxùn; born 27 July 1974) is a Hong Kong singer and actor. He is one of the most popular and influential singers in both Cantopop and Mandopop. Besides holding the record ...
, Hong Kong vocalist * Max Foster, journalist * John Fox, statistician * Daniel Ings, actor * Jonathon Lodwick, cricketer and barrister * Simon May, composer of BBC ''
EastEnders ''EastEnders'' is a British television soap opera created by Julia Smith (producer), Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the East End of London, the ...
'' TV
theme music Theme music is a musical composition which is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at ...
* Andrew Miller, novelist *
Desmond Morris Desmond John Morris FLS ''hon. caus.'' (born 24 January 1928) is an English zoologist, ethologist and surrealist painter, as well as a popular author in human sociobiology. He is known for his 1967 book ''The Naked Ape'', and for his televis ...
,
sociobiologist Sociobiology is a field of biology that aims to explain social behavior in terms of evolution. It draws from disciplines including psychology, ethology, anthropology, evolution, zoology, archaeology, and population genetics. Within the study of ...
* Ed Mitchell, journalist, business presenter *
Mohamed Nasheed Mohamed Nasheed (; born 17 May 1967), also known as Anni (), is a Maldivians, Maldivian politician and activist who served as president of the Maldives from 2008 until his resignation in 2012. A founding member of the Maldivian Democratic Part ...
, former president of the
Maldives The Maldives, officially the Republic of Maldives, and historically known as the Maldive Islands, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in South Asia located in the Indian Ocean. The Maldives is southwest of Sri Lanka and India, abou ...
* Mark Seddon, journalist, former editor of
Tribune Tribune () was the title of various elected officials in ancient Rome. The two most important were the Tribune of the Plebs, tribunes of the plebs and the military tribunes. For most of Roman history, a college of ten tribunes of the plebs ac ...
and correspondent for
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* Gordon Snell, author of children's books, and husband of Irish author
Maeve Binchy Anne Maeve Binchy Snell (28 May 1939Born 1939 as per biography, ''Maeve Binchy'' by Piers Dudgeon, Thomas Dunne Books 2013; (hardcover), pp. 4, 280, 302; (ebook) – 30 July 2012) was an Irish novelist, playwright, short story writer, column ...
Mitchell, Adrian. Just Adrian. United Kingdom: Oberon Books, 2012. * Richard Tedder,
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and
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, University College London Medical School * James Pike-Watson,
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Deceased

*
Nicolas Rea, 3rd Baron Rea John Nicolas Rea, 3rd Baron Rea (6 June 1928 – 1 June 2020), commonly known as Nicolas Rea, was a British hereditary peer, doctor and politician. Early life Rea was born in 1928 to James Russell Rea and Betty Rea (née Bevan), and attended ...
, doctor and politician *
Wilbert Awdry Wilbert Vere Awdry (15 June 1911 – 21 March 1997), often credited as Rev. W. Awdry, was an English Anglican minister, railway enthusiast, and children's author. He is best remembered as the creator of Thomas the Tank Engine and several other ...
, children's author, notably and eminently of
Thomas the Tank Engine Thomas the Tank Engine is a fictional, anthropomorphised tank locomotive who originated from the British children's books ''The Railway Series'', created and written by Wilbert Awdry with his son Christopher Awdry, Christopher, first publish ...
* Nigel Balchin, novelist * Andrew Gardner, television
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and presenter * Jake Hancock, geologist * Anthony Huxley, botanist *
Adrian Mitchell Adrian Mitchell FRSL (24 October 1932 – 20 December 2008) was an English poet, novelist, and playwright. A former journalist, he became a noted figure on the British left. For almost half a century he was the foremost poet of the country's C ...
, radical poet * Douglas Wellesley Morrell, electrical engineer * Richard Sandbrook, director of the International Institute for Environment and Development * Philip Sherrard, poet, translator, philosopher and theologian * A. G. Street, author and broadcaster * John Tedder, 2nd Baron Tedder, professor of chemistry at
St Andrews University The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, following the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, t ...
* Amédée Turner,
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and
Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...


See also

* Civic Guild of Old Mercers *
List of the oldest schools in the United Kingdom This list of the oldest schools in the United Kingdom contains extant schools in the United Kingdom established prior to 1800. The dates refer to the foundation or the earliest documented contemporary reference to the school. In many cases the date ...


References


External links

*
Dauntsey's School
at Wiltshire Community History {{Authority control Boarding schools in Wiltshire Secondary schools in Wiltshire Member schools of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference Private schools in Wiltshire 1542 establishments in England Educational institutions established in the 1540s Church of England private schools in the Diocese of Salisbury