Ashford School is a coeducationalprivateboarding and day school in East Hill, Ashford, Kent. There are 480 students in the senior school (ages 11 to 18) and 360 in the prep school (ages 3 to 11).
The school was founded in 1898 by Muriel Thimann, who opened a small women's school on Queens Road, Ashford. The school moved to Wellesley Road in 1903 and then to two houses on High Street in 1905 in order to extend the premises.[3] In 1910, Anne Edwards bought the school and renamed it "the Modern High School for Girls". The school expanded into another adjacent house on High Street and then moved to bigger premises on East Hill in 1913. In 2005, it merged with Friars Prep School in Great Chart, and in 2006, boys were admitted in some year groups. Ashford School is now a fully co-educational school from the age of 3 to 18 offering boarding and day facilities. Mike Buchanan was first appointed the headmaster of Ashford School in February 2005.
Space shuttle experiment
In 1992, a science experiment designed by four girls at the school flew on the Space Shuttle on flight STS-47.[4] The experiment had been designed in 1985 by the girls who had won a competition organised by Independent Television News. The chemical garden experiment was successful but the Liesegang rings failed to operate correctly due to friction in parts of the mechanism. On their return, they were displayed in the London Science Museum. The seven-year delay had been caused by the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster which occurred in 1986 shortly before the intended flight.[5]
The Ashford School International Centre (ASIC) opened in September 2015. This section of the school has been designed to meet the needs of non-native English speaking pupils.
ASIC is an 18th-century Grade II listed building which has undergone a multimillion-pound refurbishment, providing classrooms alongside boarding rooms. International pupils complete IGCSE there before joining the rest of the school.
