Reed's School

Reed's suits a quietly capable child who does better when the adults around them know them well: the sort who could get lost in a large school, but grows in confidence once someone notices what they are good at. It is an independent day and boarding school on Sandy Lane in Cobham, Surrey, set in 40 acres of countryside, and takes pupils from 11 to 18. Boys enter at 11 and the Sixth Form is co-educational; from September 2027 girls will join in Year 7 too, making the school fully co-educational. It is small for a senior school, and feels it.

The school began in Shoreditch in 1813, when the Rev Dr Andrew Reed founded the London Orphan Asylum for children who had lost a parent. It moved to Clapton, then Watford, reaching Cobham in 1946. That origin is not decoration: the Andrew Reed Foundation still funds places for pupils who have lost the support of one or both parents. Years 7 and 8 sit in The Close, a school within a school whose four houses are named after other Reed institutions: Clapton, Reedhams, Royal Wanstead and Royal Putney. Old Reedonians include Tim Henman and Tom Hardy.

The Good Schools Guide reports that where other schools polish a pupil's brilliance until it shines, here parents feel characters 'have room to grow, too'. It passes on the local verdict: 'They turn out nice young people.' The head wants a place that can 'stretch without stressing and push without pressurising'. It suits a child who wants to be known by name, to try the orchestra and the rugby pitch in the same term, and to be asked who they are becoming as much as what they achieve.