St Edmund’s College & Prep School

St Edmund’s is a Catholic school in Hertfordshire steeped in history having been founded in 1568 by Cardinal William Allen and as such is the oldest Catholic School in England. The school has a strong Catholic ethos based on four key principles; Christ-Centred Education, Scholarship of St Edmund, Education for the whole person and home and the wider community.

These are the foundation of the education that we provide all of our students from 3 – 18.

The school has four main entry points. Students may join us when they turn 3 in our Nursery and throughout all years in our Prep school where we have space. Entry to the College is at 11 in our Elements year group, at 13 in Grammar (Year 9) and at 16 to join Rhetoric (Sixth Form) and again we accept applications at all other years if places are available.

Preference is given to students admitted to the Prep before the start of Year 5 and they are not automatically required to sit the College entrance examination unless they are applying for an Academic or All Rounder scholarship or there is a concern that the pupil is unlikely to benefit from the education provided by the College. We welcome students from all faiths who appreciate what a Catholic education offers.

St Edmund’s is set in an impressive 400-acre site in East Hertfordshire with excellent transport links to London and the surrounding counties.   Only 15 minutes’ drive from junction 25 of the M25 and immediately off the A10 road it, therefore, has impressive links directly to London. The school is also only 20 minutes from London Stansted airport.

St Edmund’s is a community that values both academic excellence and the achievement of one’s personal best, right through from our Prep school to Sixth Form and beyond. We are proud of our academic achievements at GCSE and A Level.

At St Edmund’s, we understand that the first steps your child takes into the world of learning and sharing with others will guide their future development. Our Prep School that lays the foundations for a life that is ethical, inquisitive, sociable and fulfilling. We seek to nurture the spirit and light a fire of passion for life-long learning in the hearts of every child.

The Prep School offers pupils a first-rate educational experience. Helping to cultivate academic aptitude, but also sporting and musical talent.  Artistic and dramatic abilities are carefully developed through specialist teaching. These academic and creative faculties are set within a nurturing pastoral framework which aims to build positive relationships with parents and children alike, ensuring St Edmund’s Prep children finish their time at the school as well-rounded, confident and thoughtful individuals.

Our mission, stretching back to 1568, has always been to send young people into the world who will, whether by mighty deeds or by quiet leadership, be a force for good. There could be no greater epitaph for an Edmundian but that throughout their life they made the world around them a little better, and the people around them a little happier.

We want our pupils to be excellent but never arrogant; to be ambitious but never selfish; to be robust but never uncaring; to show conviction but never intolerance. All this in a school which genuinely believes in the education of the whole person, mind, body and spirit; a school whose remarkable history and Catholic heritage almost seep from the walls, but where tradition is never allowed to become oppressive.