Chigwell School


Chigwell School is a co-educational independent boarding and day school. It is a private school in Chigwell, in the Epping Forest district of Essex. It consists of a Pre Prep, Prep School, Senior School and Sixth Form. A pre-preparatory department for children aged 4–7 was constructed starting for the 2013–14 academic year.
The school is situated in of land between Epping Forest and Hainault Forest, from London. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference and the Junior School is a member of the Independent Association of Prep Schools.
The school motto is aut viam inveniam aut faciam, a Latin phrase which translates literally as “I shall either find a way or make one”.

History

Chigwell School dates back to 1619 when a schoolhouse was erected on the site. The first headmaster Peter Mease was appointed in 1623. It was formally founded in 1629 by Samuel Harsnett, Archbishop of York and Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University, and began with 16 "poor, clever" scholars.
In 1868, the school was split into two sections. The English section for local children studying arithmetic, reading and writing was housed in a building behind the King's Head public house, which was mentioned in Charles Dickens' novel Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty. The Latin section remained in the original building. Rather unusually for a boys' school at that time, in 1873, it started a bursary programme for girls to attend other schools.
Bernard Williams, philosopher, who attended the school, said that "It should have been a direct grant grammar school, but it had a boarding element so that in 1944 when the Education Act came in, the then headmastera very unintellectual man whom I very much dislikedmade a characteristically wrong decision and turned it into a very minor public school".
Following a trend set by many HMC schools, the Sixth Form section became coeducational and its first girls were admitted in the summer term of 1974. In 1997 coeducation was extended to the rest of the school.

Chapel

The War Memorial Chapel was dedicated by the Bishop of Chelmsford on 10 October 1924 to the 78 Old Boys and one Master who had lain down their lives in the Great War and on each side of the altar, plaques record the names of the dead. There were only a total of 80 boys attending the school in 1914. Reginald Hallward took the theme of the Pilgrim's Progress for the windows of the chapel. He depicted schoolboys as Christian's companions on his pilgrimage.

Notable alumni