Summer Fields

Summer Fields School

The school from its playing fields
Motto	Mens Sana in Corpore Sano
Established	1864
Type	Independent preparatory school Boarding school
Headmaster	David Faber MA (Balliol College, University of Oxford)
Deputy Headmaster	Matthew Faulkner MA (St. Peter's College, Oxford), PGCE
Chairman of the Governors	A.E. Reeks, MA, FRSA
Founder	Archibald Maclaren
Location	Mayfield Road Oxford OX2 7EN England
Gender	Boys
Ages	7–13
Houses	Case, Congreve, Maclaren, Moseley
Former pupils	Old Summerfieldians
Website	Summer Fields School

Summer Fields is a boys' independent day and boarding preparatory school in Summertown, Oxford. It was originally called Summerfield and used to have a subsidiary school Summerfields, St Leonards-on-Sea (known as "Summers mi").

Originally called Summerfield, it became a boys' preparatory school in 1864 with seven pupils. Its owner, Archibald Maclaren, had been educated at Dollar Academy and was a fencing teacher who ran a gymnasium in Oxford. He strongly believed in the importance of physical fitness. His wife, Gertrude, was a classical scholar and teacher, a daughter of David Alphonso Talboys. The school motto is Mens sana in corpore sano: "A healthy mind in a healthy body".

The school grew and needed more staff, two of whom married into the Maclaren family: the Reverend Dr Charles Williams ("Doctor"), who took over the scholarship form from Mrs Maclaren, and married Mabel Maclaren in 1879, and the Reverend Hugh Alington married Margaret Maclaren in 1885 and took over the boys' games. The school remained in the hands of the Maclaren, Williams and Alington families for its first 75 years.

At the end of the 19th Century, "Doctor" became headmaster and there was much building at the school. A second school "Summers mi" was opened at St Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex, for boys to benefit from the sea air. In 1918 Doctor passed the headmastership to Hugh Alington. There was a lean spell in the 1930s and numbers fell, but John Evans and Geoffrey Bolton ("G.B.") took over in 1939. During World War II three other schools were evacuated to Summer Fields - Famborough School, Hampshire, Summers mi, and St Cyprian's School from Eastbourne - and this restored the numbers.

In 1955, the school became a charitable trust with a board of governors, including Harold Macmillan, who had been at the school as a boy and was soon to become Prime Minister.