Marlborough House School is a co-educational preparatory school

Preparatory school (UK)

In English language usage in the former British Empire, the present-day Commonwealth, a preparatory school is an independent school preparing children up to the age of eleven or thirteen for entry into fee-paying, secondary independent schools, some of which are known as public schools...

 situated in 34 acres (13.8 ha) of countryside in Hawkhurst

Hawkhurst

Hawkhurst is a village and civil parish in the borough of Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England. The parish lies to the south-east of Tunbridge Wells. Hawkhurst itself is virtually two villages...

, Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

. The school currently has just over 320 pupils between the ages of 3 and 13 with a teaching staff of 40. Marlborough House is predominantly a day school, but operates a flexi-boarding policy for pupils over the age of 9. The school is a member of the Independent Association of Preparatory Schools (IAPS)

Independent Association of Preparatory Schools

The Independent Association of Preparatory Schools is a professional association for headteachers of independent preparatory schools in the UK and worldwide. The association is based in Leamington Spa in Warwickshire, England...

. The current headmaster is David Hopkins.

History

Marlborough House was founded in 1874 in Hove

Hove

Hove is a town on the south coast of England, immediately to the west of its larger neighbour Brighton, with which it forms the unitary authority Brighton and Hove. It forms a single conurbation together with Brighton and some smaller towns and villages running along the coast...

 and is one of the oldest preparatory schools in the country. It was later moved to Hawkhurst, Kent by then headmaster Arthur Harrison, who bought the New Lodge estate and converted the 18th century building into an educational facility for the 25 boys who moved with the school.

The School's Aims

• To discover and to develop the gifts within each child
• To strive for excellence in all we do
• To provide a safe, healthy and caring environment for children to live and learn in
• To recognise and meet individual needs
• To develop a happy community based on mutual respect and consideration

Arrangement of the School

The school is arranged in year groups with years from Nursery to Year Eight. Those 10 years are managed in three sections: Nursery, Pre-Prep and Prep school. The Nursery caters for the ages of 3-4 in a purpose built building within the heart of the school site. The Pre-Prep consists of years 2, 1 and reception in a separate recently expanded building adjacent to the main school building. The Prep school, years 8, 7, 6, 5, 4 and 3, occupies the 18th century main building as well as various surrounding buildings with years 5, 4 and 3 having moved into a new building in September 2006.

Curriculum

The curriculum diversifies into specific subjects as the pupils get older in preparation for Common Entrance

Common Entrance

Common Entrance Examinations are taken by some children in the UK as part of the admissions process for academically selective secondary schools at age 13 or 11. Most of the secondary schools that use Common Entrance for admission are public schools; most of the schools that routinely prepare...

 or other entrance examinations to senior schools. The school currently offers Art

Art

Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....

, Citizenship (only in form 1), Classical Civilisation (initially taught to pupils who opt for Latin instead of Spanish), Design and Technology, English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

, French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

, Geography

Geography

Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...

, History

History

History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...

, Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

, ICT

ICT (education)

Information and communication technologies in education deal with the use of information and communication technologies within educational technology.-Purpose:...

, Mathematics

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

, Music

Music

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

 (taught together in classes as part of the general curriculum, pupils can opt for private weekly tuition in a wide variety of instruments), Physical Education

Physical education

Physical education or gymnastics is a course taken during primary and secondary education that encourages psychomotor learning in a play or movement exploration setting....

, Science

Science

Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...

 and Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

.

Sports

Sports play an important part of life at school. All pupils are encouraged to take part, and the school caters for a wide variety of abilities. The boys play soccer, rugby

Rugby football

Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...

, hockey

Hockey

Hockey is a family of sports in which two teams play against each other by trying to maneuver a ball or a puck into the opponent's goal using a hockey stick.-Etymology:...

 and cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

 as main sports whilst the girls play hockey

Hockey

Hockey is a family of sports in which two teams play against each other by trying to maneuver a ball or a puck into the opponent's goal using a hockey stick.-Etymology:...

, netball

Netball

Netball is a ball sport played between two teams of seven players. Its development, derived from early versions of basketball, began in England in the 1890s. By 1960 international playing rules had been standardised for the game, and the International Federation of Netball and Women's Basketball ...

 and rounders

Rounders

Rounders is a game played between two teams of either gender. The game originated in England where it was played in Tudor times. Rounders is a striking and fielding team game that involves hitting a small, hard, leather-cased ball with a round wooden, plastic or metal bat. The players score by...

. The school also offers cross country running

Cross country running

Cross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road...

, shooting

Shooting

Shooting is the act or process of firing rifles, shotguns or other projectile weapons such as bows or crossbows. Even the firing of artillery, rockets and missiles can be called shooting. A person who specializes in shooting is a marksman...

, swimming

Swimming (sport)

Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...

, athletics, sailing

Sailing

Sailing is the propulsion of a vehicle and the control of its movement with large foils called sails. By changing the rigging, rudder, and sometimes the keel or centre board, a sailor manages the force of the wind on the sails in order to move the boat relative to its surrounding medium and...

 and lacrosse

Lacrosse

Lacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick, mainly played in the United States and Canada. It is a contact sport which requires padding. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh...

 among others. The school is fortunate to have a purpose built Sports Hall, opened in 1998 for indoor sports as well as an all-weather astro-turf and three outdoor tennis courts offering almost unrivalled facilities for a school of this size. The school takes part in numerous competitive fixtures against other local schools with usually three teams for each age group.

Houses

There are four houses at Marlborough House, named after the first pupils: Awdry, Egan, Dunbar and Hawking. All members of the school are allocated to a particular house upon entering the Prep school. The houses play an important role in fostering a collective spirit within the school. The school operates a discipline policy whereby pupils are awarded a 'good mark' for good behaviour whilst a 'bad mark' is received for poor behaviour. The respective numbers are added to find the winning house each week. The school also operates inter-house tournaments, mainly sporting (but sometimes academic) allowing pupils who do not always get the chance to represent the school the opportunity to play semi-competitive sport. The House Cup is awarded yearly to the house who is judged to be the best overall in all areas of school life.

Facilities

The school has a wide variety of facilities, but is always looking to improve upon what is existing and has recently embarked upon a major project in the addition of 6 new classrooms. The school has dedicated classroom facilities for all major subjects, including a superbly equipped science laboratory, observatory, rooms for art and design technology as well as the Old Gym which includes the school's theatre and drama facilities. Many classrooms have computers together with Smart Boards, with ICT playing an important part in life at the school. The school has its own outdoor swimming pool, sports hall, tennis courts, shooting range and all-weather astro-turf as well as numerous grass pitches.

Flexi-boarding

The school operates a boarding policy called Flexi-boarding whereby at the start of term a pupil can choose which days to board during the week. A pupil can thus board one, two or three days a week depending on circumstance. Flexi-boarding helps give pupils a 'taster' of boarding before deciding whether to board at their senior school, ease pick up congestion for both parents and the school as well as being great fun for the pupil.

Notable alumni

• Rev. W. V. Awdry
  W.V. Awdry
  Wilbert Vere Awdry, OBE , was an English clergyman, railway enthusiast and children's author, better known as the Reverend W. Awdry and creator of Thomas the Tank Engine, who starred in Awdry's acclaimed Railway Series.-Life:Awdry was born at Ampfield vicarage near Romsey, Hampshire in 1911...
  
  , author of Thomas the Tank Engine
  Thomas the Tank Engine
  Thomas the Tank Engine is a fictional steam locomotive in The Railway Series books by the Reverend Wilbert Awdry and his son, Christopher. He became the most popular character in the series, and the accompanying television spin-off series, Thomas and Friends.Thomas is a tank engine, painted blue...
  
  
• David Gower
  David Gower
  David Ivon Gower OBE is a former English cricketer who became a commentator for Sky Sports. Although he eventually rose to the captaincy of the England cricket team during the 1980s, he is best known for being one of the most stylish left-handed batsmen of the modern era. Gower played 117 Test...
  
  , former England cricket captain
• Patrick Muirhead, television presenter
• Stephen Poliakoff
  Stephen Poliakoff
  Stephen Poliakoff, CBE, FRSL is an acclaimed British playwright, director and scriptwriter, widely judged amongst Britain's foremost television dramatists.-Early life and career:...
  
  , acclaimed playwright, director and scriptwriter
• Peter Vansittart
  Peter Vansittart
  Peter Vansittart OBE, FRSL was a British writer. He had 50 novels published between 1942 and 2008; he also wrote historical studies, memoirs, stories for children and three anthologies: Voices from the Great War , Voices 1870-1914 and Voices of the Revolution...
  
  , novelist.