Dragon School


The Dragon School is one school on two sites in Oxford, England. The Dragon Pre-Prep and Prep School are both co-educational schools. The Dragon Prep School was founded in 1877 as the Oxford Preparatory School. It takes day pupils and boarders.
Originally established for boys, the Dragon School also accepted a small number of day girls with a close connection to the school, first admitting girls as boarders in 1994. The Dragon School is a feeder school to many independent schools, including Eton College, Shrewsbury School, Cheltenham Ladies' College, Harrow School, Radley College, Rugby School, Marlborough College, Canford School, St Edward's School, Oxford and Abingdon School.
The Dragon educates children from aged 4 to 13 in two sites in North Oxford: Bardwell Road and Richards Lane. Boarding starts at 8 and there are 10 boarding houses, including one weekly-boarding house.

History

The school was founded by a committee of Oxford dons, among whom the most active was a Mr George. In honour of St George the group decided to call themselves Dragons.
Teaching started in September 1877 at rooms in Balliol Hall, located in St Giles', central Oxford, under A. E. Clarke. The school expanded and moved within two years to 17 Crick Road, which became known as "School House". Charles Cotterill Lynam took over as headmaster in 1886.
In 1894, C. C. Lynam took out a lease on land at the current site at Bardwell Road in central North Oxford, just to the west of the River Cherwell. £4,000 was raised through subscriptions from local parents for the erection of new school buildings and the move was completed within a year. The school was known as Oxford Preparatory School and also Lynam's, but gradually its current name was adopted.
The Dragon School became the second school to take part in the Harrow History Prize in 1895, and many of its pupils have won this over the years, an early winner being Miss Kit Lynam. The school was run for many years by the Lynam family.
The school has become notable for its large number of eminent alumni.

Headmasters

The following have been headmasters of the school, several from the Lynam family:
Former pupils of the Dragon School are referred to as Old Dragons. The following people were pupils at one time: