Headmaster's Introduction

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Many thanks for showing an interest in The Duke of York’s Royal Military School. Our school was founded by Royal Warrant and opened as an orphanage in 1803 in Chelsea: the changing needs of Service families have always been at the heart of the institution. In order to respond to those needs the school took the exciting road to becoming an Academy in September 2010. This step marked one of the many stages of evolution in the school’s more than 200 year old history.

We offer continuity of high quality education in a stable, caring and secure setting. It is also our aspiration that, as the first all boarding military Academy, we will be able to maintain and strengthen what we offer both inside the classroom and in our wider life outside it. We hope to invest wisely and imaginatively to upgrade our buildings and improve our facilities. Our 150 acre site offers enormous educational benefits as do our committed and well qualified teaching and administrative staff.

While we remain nominally a military school - and take considerable pride in the number and quality of our former pupils who go on to serve in the Armed Forces – our remit is that all of our pupils from whatever background emerge from their education here as confident and well-rounded individuals. We would like them to be prepared socially and morally as well as educationally, as self-reliant, positive individuals who are well prepared to meet the varied challenges of life in the twenty first century.

Finally I hope that this website, through words and photographs, gives you some sort of insight into what we are and the values for which we stand. It is a truism to write that the best way to experience us is to come to visit and judge for yourself. When all is said and done, people and expectations are at the very centre of any good school: I would urge you to take the appropriate steps to meet us and experience our community.

I look forward to meeting you.

Charles Johnson, Principal