Reed's School

Reed's School was founded in 1813 by the philanthropist Andrew Reed as the London Orphan Asylum — a boarding charitable institution specifically for boys whose fathers had died, providing free education and boarding for fatherless boys whose mothers could not provide for them. The Reed Foundation preserves this founding philanthropic intent through one of the most generous bursary programmes of any UK independent school — around 50% of boys at Reed's today receive some form of fee remission via the Foundation, with full-fee remissions reserved specifically for fatherless boys whose mothers cannot afford the fees.

The school operated initially in central London and moved in 1946 to its present 40-acre rural campus at Cobham, Surrey. The school became partially co-educational in 1991 (girls in the Sixth Form only) and fully co-educational in 2017, and today educates around 838 pupils ages 11-18 with a substantial boarding population. The Headmaster is Tom Wheare. The school is a member of the HMC and the Boarding Schools Association.

The school's contemporary co-curricular reputation rests particularly on its football programme — Reed's was the first English school to host an exhibition appearance by Pelé, the Brazilian World Cup winner widely regarded as the greatest footballer in history, who visited the school in 1972 during his Santos tour of England. The school's football pitches are accordingly known informally as "the Pelé pitches".

The school's most internationally recognisable contemporary alumnus is the actor Tom Hardy — Mad Max: Fury Road, Inception, The Dark Knight Rises (Bane), Venom — who attended Reed's in the early 1990s before progressing to Drama Centre London. The school operates a substantial Foundation bursary programme that continues the founder's 1813 philanthropic intent of providing educational access for fatherless boys regardless of family means.