About The Trust

The Cothill Educational Trust has grown from the success of the traditional boys’ boarding school known as Cothill House. Cothill was founded in the 1870s and became a Trust in 1967.

The Trust's first expansion, in 1989, was the purchase of the Château de Sauveterre in South West France. It was acquired in order to enhance the teaching of French. The unique opportunity of learning a language in its native context was provided within the framework of an English school.

Next to be acquired, in the early 1990s, was the site known as Chandlings Manor. This was for some time the home of a wealthy Maronite Christian whose involvement in some rather colourful armament trading necessitated a speedy exit!

The plan was to house the top year of Cothill's boarding boys separately in order to give them a taste of public school life with their own housemaster. At the same time the Governors took the decision to accommodate all potential Cothill pupils wishing to be day children on the Chandlings site. The day school has experienced rapid growth and is now a busy, 450 strong co-educational preparatory school catering for children between the ages of 3 and 11 years.

In April 2007 Kitebrook House, a lovely uninstitutional girls only boarding and day school, joined the Trust. It has always been a participant in the Sauveterre ideal and many excellent young boarders have joined Cothill from Hillside, the pre-Prep department of Kitebrook. The latest merger has been with Mowden Hall, for the past 12 years a partner at Sauveterre. As a result of sharing similar aims and objectives the two sets of Trustees felt it beneficial to amalgamate their undertakings.

The latest schools to join have been the Old Malthouse in 2008 and Ashdown House in Autumn 2009.

One board of Trustees governs all the schools under the Chairmanship of Lord Wakeham.

The Aim of the Trust was, and remains, to provide a first class preparatory education to children up to the age of 14 through a mixture of day and boarding, co-educational and single sex schools. The Trust believes in strength through partnership and the development of individuality, which extends parental options and enables the right choice to be made for each child.

Each school including Sauveterre retains its own name and preserves its own identity, while the Trust provides support and expertise in the encouragement of all that is special and particular to each.

Involvement with local primary schools through the provision of teaching and specialist services is a further important aspect of the Trust's commitment to Education.