The Repton Family of Schools (Formally Repton International)

Our international family continues to grow, and now comprises seven Schools – four in the UAE, one in China, one in Malaysia and, since September 2021, one in Egypt. The original purpose in establishing these Schools was to provide income to fund bursaries for pupils less able to afford a Repton education, as well as to help fund development projects here at the UK School. Since opening its first School in Dubai in 2007, Repton International (now RFS) has contributed over £6 million to the School and this figure grows with each passing year.

Not only do the international Schools provide much-needed income but they also offer a wealth of opportunities for collaboration and cultural exchange, raising our pupils’ horizons and also providing opportunities for our staff to share ideas and good practice.

Our latest additions

Repton Cairo opened in September 2021 with 87 pupils (set to start the coming School year with over 160 at the time of writing), ranging from Nursery to Year 6. The School boasts excellent facilities and is situated in the prestigious ‘Mivida’ development, in New Cairo. Repton Cairo is a wonderfully warm and welcoming School community with a great sense of energy and a real appreciation for the joy of learning. Reptonians there can choose from a wide variety of high quality co-curricular activities and STEM (or STREAM as they prefer to call it) sits at the heart of the curriculum there, with ‘maker spaces’ and fantastic resources for robotics and programming.

From September 2022, the Year 6 pupils will move up into Year 7, their first year of Secondary School as the School works towards becoming a ‘through-School’ over the next seven years. In due course, Repton Cairo will be joined by a sister School in Cairo, on the western side of the city.

As part of a strategy to broaden our reach here in the UK, another Prep Schools has recently joined the Repton family: Vinehall School in East Sussex. Vinehall is a coeducational Day and Boarding School and sits on a beautiful 20-acre site near Robertsbridge. The School has excellent facilities and a wonderfully welcoming, ‘family feel’. We are delighted to be working with Vinehall and will update you on developments.

Collaborations

Over the past year a number of projects have been initiated to bring Repton and its international family closer together. Now that travel restrictions have eased, I’ve had the pleasureof visiting all our UAE Schools and have also spent time at the Cairo School and at Repton Malaysia. Mark Semmence also visited Repton Cairo this year, to take part in its opening event.

Pupils at all our Schools participated in the inaugural Repton International Debating Festival, debating ‘live’ across three time zones via Microsoft Teams and learning all about the British Parliamentary style of debates. Pupils from our UAE Schools also contributed to the Repton Historian this year, bringing their perspectives to bear on topical issues such as the end of the US occupation of Afghanistan, and a project to pair able pupils from our School in China with some of our Scholars at the UK School has also begun. We hope to bring you more updates on collaborations with our international Schools as they emerge, and in the meantime look out for news regarding the reinstitution of an international exchange . . !

This year also marked the fifteenth anniversary of the founding of Repton Dubai. Repton (UK) sent a number of artefacts and documents from our archives, charting the history of the School, to be displayed as part of Repton Dubai’s ‘Repton Heritage’ exhibition.

Finally, Repton hosted an event for Repton Dubai alumni at the Hurlingham Club in June 2022, to give those former pupils from the Dubai School a chance to catch up and connect, and to forge stronger links with the UK School.

Next steps

As the world continues to open up, we look forward to more opportunities for connection, collaboration and exchange. We continue to seek projects for the establishment of Repton Schools both abroad and closer to home, and in the meantime hope to bring you more news of our Qatar and Bulgaria projects as they start to take shape.

Daniel Lewis Managing Director Repton Family of Schools