Ottershaw School
Ottershaw School was founded in 1948 as an English school for boys located in Ottershaw Park, Ottershaw, approximately 30 miles (48 km) southwest of London between Chertsey and Woking, an estate that dates back to 1761, when the first house was constructed.
It was the first Local Authority Boarding School to be set up following the recommendations of the 1943 Fleming Report which were implemented in the Butler Education Act of the following year. The Fleming Committee’s aim was to explore ways in which the benefits of a Public School education could be made more widely available to those whose means and backgrounds made it difficult to enter what was an exclusive and expensive system. There was no entry examination, and no financial barrier. The Education was expensive and the Boarding charges were means-tested.
The criterion for entry was "Boarding School Need". Thus many pupils came from families broken by the war or other circumstances, or from environments that were not conducive to academic or personal development. There was, too, a proportion of entrants who wished to attend a boarding school but whose parents could not afford the fees at the traditional public school. Entry was not totally restricted to children of Surrey residents.
The school was established in 1948 by Surrey County Council (SCC) as a boarding school for boys of 12 to 18 years of age. It was the first of its kind in the country to be entirely in the hands of a Local Education Authority.
SCC had purchased the estate in 1945 after the war, during which time much of it had been used by the Ministry of Defence as a vehicle park and Mobil had used the mansion as their headquarters. Prior to the war it had also been a boarding school for boys when it was known as Ottershaw College.
The first boys and masters arrived in 1948 and were led by headmaster Arthur Foot. He had taught at The Doon School in India, where he had made an outstanding contribution for which he was awarded the CBE.
The school grounds occupied 148 acres (0.60 km2) – containing classrooms, labs, workshops, playing fields and the mansion itself.
Arthur Foot based some of the school on Winchester College and introduced small desks called Toyes, with a backboard and cupboard which each boy had for their own each term. Every evening boys would sit at these Toyes in a large room presided over by a prefect, in order to study.
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