Rydes Hill Preparatory School
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Rydes Hill Preparatory School is a co-educational Roman Catholic Preparatory school in Guildford, Surrey, England.
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[edit] Overview
Rydes Hill is situated in three and a half acres of grounds in Aldershot Road, Guildford, Surrey. The school was founded in 1945 by by the legendary Sister Patricia of the Daughters of Mary and Joseph, a Roman Catholic religious order. In 1989 the ownership was transferred to a charitable trust managed by a Board of Governors.
In 2006, the age range was from three to seven for boys and from three to eleven for girls, with 140 girls and ten boys in the school. The annual fees were between £3,120 and £7,485, depending on age. There were ten full-time staff and six part-time. The Headmistress is a member of the Incorporated Association of Preparatory Schools (IAPS).
Apart from the usual school subjects of the National Curriculum, the school teaches ballet, music, and performing arts. Each form has a teacher, while physical education, music, French and Science are taught by specialist teachers.
[edit] Main School Building
Before becoming a school in September 1945, the main building was a private house called Rydes Hill House (and previously The Clock House) built in the 18th century with Victorian extensions. In the mid 19th century it was the residence of William Edmund Elkins, of the Elkins Brewery family, four times mayor of Guildford.
The present School Library, formerly a billiard room, has an eighteen-panel frieze painted by the Victorian artists Talbot Hughes and Sir Herbert Hughes-Stanton which tells the story of Joan of Arc. The Dining Room is in the Jacobean style, with oak-panelling, and served as a Roman Catholic chapel for the local parish between 1945 and 1964.
