The College

Our School

The people and the place, and the values between them. Wrenfield is six hundred and forty students and seventy-one teachers, around one quadrangle where a century of first bells have rung.

Dr Priya Ashworth, Principal of Wrenfield College, seated by a tall library window — Dr Priya Ashworth, MA (Oxon). Principal since 2018.PL. I

From the Principal

Before you visit

I believe a school should be judged on its graduates at thirty rather than its marketing at enrolment. That is a long horizon, and it changes what you do on an ordinary Tuesday. You spend the lesson on the argument as well as the answer. You let a child fail a rehearsal in week three so that the performance in week nine is their own.

Ask our current parents what they notice first. They will tell you the students are at ease with themselves. That ease is what confidence looks like when it has been built in small increments, in classrooms where the work is hard and the adults are steady.

Prospectuses, including this one, can only claim. The pupils you meet on a tour are the proof. Come on a school morning, while the college is working, and inspect the claim for yourself.

Dr Priya Ashworth

MA (Oxon), Principal

What we hold

Three pairs, held in tension

Rigour & Kindness

Hard work in a kind room. Standards without warmth harden into fear, and warmth without standards softens into flattery. A child needs both to grow.

Tradition & Curiosity

Tradition tells us what is worth keeping. Curiosity tells us what is worth changing. A century-old school that cannot tell the difference is merely old.

Ambition & Humility

We want the prizes and the promotions and the offers, and students who wear all of it lightly. The motto orders it plainly: able and good.

The grounds

Built for mornings

The Wrenfield reading room with green lamps in morning light — The reading room, where periods are silent, lamps are green and phones are not allowed.PL. II

The carved sandstone west arch of Wrenfield College — The west arch, Kindergarten's favourite echo.PL. III

The quadrangle at first period, with three students in green blazers crossing it — Walking up from the playing fields, first period.PL. IV

Senior staff

The people your child will quote at dinner

Principal

Dr Priya Ashworth

MA (Oxon). A historian, still in front of a Year 12 class one period a week.

Head of Junior School

Ms Hannah Okafor

MEd. Reading-recovery specialist, with eighteen years in junior classrooms.

Director of Music

Mr Julian Reeve

MMus. Runs eleven ensembles and the 7:30 am cello sectionals.

A short history

A century, briefly

1923: Founded with forty-one students in the old rectory on Wren Hill.
1968: The quadrangle is completed and the six houses take their names.
2004: Co-educational from Kindergarten to Year 12.
2018: Dr Ashworth is appointed, and the fee schedule is published in full for the first time.

Meet the people in this chapter

The Principal leads most tours herself. Forty minutes, a school morning, and every classroom door open.

Meet the Head on a tour