Cranleigh School

Cranleigh School is an independent English boarding school in the village of Cranleigh, Surrey.

The Good Schools Guide described the school as a “Hugely popular school with loads on offer, improving academia and mega street cred. Ideal for the sporty, energetic, sociable, independent and lovely child.”

It was opened on 29 September 1865 as a boys’ school ‘to provide a sound and plain education, on the principles of the Church of England, and on the public school system, for the sons of farmers and others engaged in commercial pursuits’. It grew rapidly and by the 1880s had more than 300 pupils although, as with many similar schools, it declined over the next 30 years and in 1910 numbers dropped to 150. Two powerful headmasters – Herbert Rhodes and David Loveday restored Cranleigh’s fortunes.

Cranleigh started to admit girls in the early 1970s and became fully co-educational in 1999. The current headmaster is Martin Reader with former East Housemaster, Simon Bird, as the Deputy Head.

The school’s Trevor Abbott Sports Centre was opened by Sir Richard Branson and the West House was opened by Baroness Greenfield. New building projects include the recently completed extension onto Cubitt House as well as an environmentally friendly Woodland Workshop and a new £10 million Academic Centre named the Emms Centre. Named after David Emms, this was opened by Lord Patten of Barnes in 2009. The building includes new facilities for Science and Modern Languages as well as a lecture theatre. A £2 million renovation of the chapel in 2009 included the installation of a £500,000 Mander organ.

The school is especially recognised for its quality of output in both the arts and sport. In a 2015 survey, it was rated as the third best sporting school in the UK, with further success coming in the form of being one of the only schools to win the Rosslyn Park National Sevens Tournament consecutively, in both 2016 and 2017.

Address : Horseshoe Ln, Cranleigh GU6 8QH, United Kingdom