Welcome to Read School, a co-educational day and boarding school in North Yorkshire. In line with the noble legacy of our founder, Charles Reade, our mission is to create a warm and welcoming school for pupils of all abilities and walks of life.   We are academically non-selective and socially inclusive, offering a vibrant and supportive community in which to learn and grow.

Read School was founded in 1667 and strives to be the independent day and boarding school of choice in the local area.  I firmly believe that we have a very special offering which blends the traditional with the innovative, combining an excellent education in core subjects with a broad extra-curricular programme and an outward-looking global mindset that reaches far beyond our tranquil location of rural Drax, North Yorkshire.

We rightly place a premium on love of learning, active engagement with our broad and balanced curriculum and wider co-curricular interests that do much to foster character.  Indeed we remain true to our original ethos and commitment to a rounded education for all pupils, as well illustrated by this excerpt in this Draxonian prospectus from circa 1928:

"The aim of the School which is worked on Public School lines, is to give a thoroughly sound and practical education of an all-round nature, not limited to any special or professional purpose.  The work of the School is not subservient to the mere passing of examinations and boys are encouraged to work from motives other than those of acquiring examination results.  The Classes are kept as small as possible and in this way an attempt is made to individualise a boy’s progress, and to  ensure thoroughness.

By the games and other organisations, the corporate life of the  School is brought prominently forward, and much is done to inculcate and develop habits of self-reliance and strength of character, as well as to foster a sense of honour and moral rectitude"

Edward Watkins (MA Camb)

Late Scholar and Prizeman of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge

Read School Headmaster 1917-1934 

Underpinning our current offering is a longstanding School ethos that respects the individual and focuses on each child’s ability, providing bespoke support and a high level of individualised pastoral support. Our overriding goal is simply to ensure that each pupil at Read School is able to realise their full potential.

We place a major emphasis on the individual, recognising that all children are different, and we value each and every one in their own right. Each child has his or her own talents and abilities, and we aim to encourage each one to develop their own special strengths and to grow in confidence and self-esteem to find their role in the community. Happiness and self- confidence are the first essentials in this.

Through our pastoral care system, we aim to help each child to develop their potential in both academic and extra-curricular fields by encouragement, understanding and a close working relationship between pupils, staff and parents. Our goal is simple: that our pupils grow up to be confident, caring, honest and responsible young people, capable of making a positive contribution to the society in which they live and work.

Ruth Ainley

Head