Lockers Park School

Updated on Dec 07, 2024

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Type Prep School Phone +44 1442 251712 Founder Henry Montagu Draper		Ages 4–13 Number of students 150 (approx.) Staff 40 (approx.)
Headmaster Mr Christopher Wilson BA (Cantab), PGCE Chair of Governors C Lister BSc (Hons) MBA Location Hemel HempsteadHertfordshireHP1 1TLEngland Gender Boys Only (co-ed in Reception and Years 1 & 2) Address Hemel Hempstead HP1 1TL, UK Motto bene agere ac laetari (Latin for good work, good manners, good fun (lit. "to do well and to have fun") Similar Westbrook Hay School, Berkham School ‑ Boys' Sen, Abbot's Hill School, Beechwo Park School, St Albans School Profiles Facebook

Lockers Park School is a day and boarding preparatory school for boys and co-educational pre-preparatory school, situated in 23 acres of countryside in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire. Each year it sends boys to public schools in the UK, including Harrow, Eton, Radley, Bradfield, Shrewsbury School and Rugby. Its current headmaster is Christopher Wilson.

History

Lockers Park has a long history. It was founded in 1874 by Henry Montagu Draper to be a foundation school preparing boys for Rugby School, and is thus one of the earliest purpose-built preparatory schools in England.

It is built on the parkland of a significant Georgian house, called The Lockers, which still exists, now divided into apartments. Henry Draper took the opportunity to buy the 23 acres (93,000 m²) of parkland when the owner of The Lockers fell on hard times, and built a school with facilities to house the sons of gentlefolk who intended their sons for Rugby. He was guided in his choice of location by the proximity of the site to Boxmoor (now Hemel Hempstead) station, and its situation on the route from London to Rugby.

In the following years Lockers Park School sent boys to Eton, Harrow, Winchester, Rugby, Bradfield, Uppingham, and Haileybury, among others. Stowe did not appear until later, but also takes boys from Lockers Park.

In the 1940s and 1950s, the veteran England all-round cricketer Frank Woolley (1887–1978) was the school's cricket coach.

Many traditions from the days of Draper still continue, maintained within the updated buildings and alongside the modern curriculum. Tuck and sweets (which Draper did his best to discourage parents from supplying to boys on exeats!) are still known as ‘slatter’, after a Mr Slatter who owned a sweet shop in Boxmoor; boys have ‘Sets’ rather than houses, the names being those of famous soldiers and naval officers, Beatty, Haig, Jellicoe, Kitchener, Mountbatten and Roberts; and the system of effort grades, emphasizing attitude and application as the most important elements of education, is the same today as that instituted by the first Headmaster.