Dragon School
Template:Redirect Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox school The Dragon School is a private school across two sites in Oxford, England. The Dragon Pre-Prep (children aged 4–7) and Prep School (children aged 8–13) are both co-educational schools. The Dragon Prep School was founded in 1877 as the Oxford Preparatory School. It takes day pupils and boarders.
Originally established for boys, the Dragon School also accepted a small number of day girls with a close connection to the school, first admitting girls as boarders in 1994. The school educates children aged 4 to 13 in two sites in North Oxford: Bardwell Road and Richards Lane. Boarding starts at 8 and there are 10 boarding houses, including one weekly-boarding house. Dragon Lane runs along the edge of the school immediately to the west.
HistoryEdit
The school was founded by a committee of Oxford dons, among whom the most active was a Mr George. In honour of Saint George, the group decided to call themselves Dragons.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Teaching started in September 1877 at rooms in Balliol Hall, located in St Giles', central Oxford, under A. E. Clarke.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The school expanded and moved within two years to 17 Crick Road, which became known as "School House".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Charles Cotterill Lynam (known as the "Skipper") took over as headmaster in 1886.
In 1894, Lynam took out a lease on land at the current site at Bardwell Road in central North Oxford, just to the west of the River Cherwell. £4,000 was raised through subscriptions from local parents for the erection of new school buildings<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and the move was completed within a year. The school was known as Oxford Preparatory School and also Lynam's, but gradually its current name was adopted.
The Dragon School became the second school to take part in the Harrow History Prize in 1895. Over the years, many of its pupils have won this prize, an early winner being Kit Lynam. The school was run for many years by the Lynam family.<ref name="lynam">Template:Cite book</ref>
The school has become notable for its large number of eminent alumni.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
HeadsEdit
The following have been Heads of the school, several from the Lynam family:<ref name="lynam" />
- A. E. Clarke 1877–1886
- C. C. Lynam ("Skipper") 1886–1920
- A. E. Lynam ("Hum") 1920–1942
- J. H. R. Lynam ("Joc") 1942–1965
- R. K. Ingram ("Inky") 1965–1989<ref name="times-ingram-obit">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="oxford-times">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- M. W. A. Gover ("Guv") 1972–1989 (head of day pupils, co-headmaster with "Inky")<ref name="independent-gover-obit">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="times-gover-obit">Template:Cite news</ref>
- N. P. V. Richardson 1989–1992
- H. E. P. Woodcock 1992–1993
- R. S. Trafford 1993–2002
- J. R. Baugh 2002–2017
- Crispin Hyde-Dunn 2017–2021<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
- Emma Goldsmith 2021–present
Other teachersEdit
- PJ Wilson, Olympic hockey player
Old DragonsEdit
Template:See also Former pupils of the Dragon School are referred to as Old Dragons. The following people were pupils at one time: Template:Columns-list
See alsoEdit
- Wychwood School, located at the opposite end of Bardwell Road
ReferencesEdit
Further readingEdit
- James Bruce Lockhart, Alan Macfarlane, Dragon Days: The Dragon School, Oxford, 1949–1955 (CreateSpace Independent Publishing, 2013, Template:ISBN)