History of Steephill School; A Charitable Trust.

Steephill was founded in 1935 by Miss Eileen Bignold. The school premises consisted of the house and grounds only.  The first classes took place where the staff room is now. Originally the school had only a few children aged 5 to 7 years old. When the war came in 1939 some of these children boarded with Miss Bignold and slept in the room that is now the library.

After the war, the school grew and started taking children until they were 11 years old. Lessons took place in various huts and in the house. The kitchen was where the children’s toilets are now. Miss Bignold was famous for her sausages and cooked lunch for the children every day. Ex-pupils and staff who remember her and the school are asked to talk about her at the Founders day service held at St. Mary’s church every July.  They remember fondly the small huts where lessons took place, the animals kept by Miss Bignold –especially the dog- and of course her sausages.

When Miss Bignold died in 1989, the parents of the children then attending were keen to save the school from closing. Some of these parents came together and formed a group to buy the school from Miss Bignold’s heir. There were about 50 children here then and parents of 8 of them, Nicola Kiley, Viv Hyndman, Sandra Scotting and Doreen Page approached Edward Oatley, Headteacher of Sevenoaks Prep to help them. With huge support in terms of good will and financial contributions from the parents, the School was made in to a charitable trust. Due to the uncertainty of the School’s future not all the children remained and the new school started up with 23 boys and girls aged up to 9 years old. The Headteacher was Jenny Smith-Spark who stayed with the School until 1996.

The School hall, office and kitchen were added in 1996 at the time Mrs Bramley became Headteacher; the old kitchen was converted to toilets and the fields were leased from Billings. The bottom field was levelled to make a football pitch.

During this time, the School was extended to accept children up to 11 years old. The classrooms for Classes V and VI were then added. In 1999 Mrs Bramley stepped down and Mr Peter Stradling took over and was with the school for one year. The number of children had now grown to about 80.

In September 2000 Caroline Birtwell became the new Headteacher. Over the following years the school joined the Independent Schools Association, built a netball court, added 4 classrooms and an ICT suite with wireless internet access. In 2010, the school numbers were 120 and the school was taking 16 children per class.

Throughout this time, the Chairman of the Board of Governors has remained Edward Oatley and 3 of the original 4 parents are actively involved in the school.