A values-led

education

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Davenies offers a values-led, aspirational education. The Davenies Code guides us all through each day and forms the basis on which we build our happy, vibrant, lively and purposeful community. It is a set of personal values and expectations that underpin all that we do at Davenies and encourages the boys to be:

Kind • Honest • Polite • Thoughtful • Respectful

Kind • Honest • Polite
Thoughtful • Respectful

Engage, Inspire, Challenge

Aims and Ethos of the School

Davenies’ vision is to Engage, Inspire, Challenge.

Davenies’ mission is to ensure that every boy experiences a breadth of educational opportunities, encouraging them to develop a lifelong eagerness for learning. Whether academic, creative, artistic or sporting, we support every child to discover their own passions and talent. In turn, this will engage, inspire and challenge them to develop determination and resilience, reach their potential, and become mindful and thoughtful individuals. Along with these attributes, they will acquire a strong sense of service, responsibility and community that will enhance them all now, and in the future.

A Hive of History

The name ‘Davenies’ is thought to have originated from a local innkeeper, ‘Dawbeneys Farm’ and is referred to in 1604.

When the railway came to Beaconsfield in 1906, Davenies was one of the first farms to be broken up. The buildings and some of the land were bought for £2,100 in 1909 by the well-known London architect Stanley Hamp. By 1911 Hamp had converted the Georgian farmhouse, neighbouring barn and a group of outbuildings into a large country house. This transformation of buildings were to become Grade II Listed in 1985.

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The onset of World War II in 1939 led Mr and Mrs Petty, who owned a school in Northwood, Middlesex, to look for a safer area to educate their pupils. Together with their daughter and her husband, the Reverend R.E. Newton, who was Headmaster of Kingsfield School in Bushey, the Pettys bought the land at 73 Station Road, and so Davenies School was founded in 1940. Reverend R.E. Newton, the Petty’s son-in-law, was the School’s first Headmaster.

Throughout the war, the School housed around a dozen boarders, in addition to a handful of day pupils. Reverend Newton kept various animals and tended his beehives from which he sold the honey as sugar which was in short supply during the war. And so the School’s motto singulus pro fraternitate laborans – each striving for the good of all was founded as Reverend Newton observed the sense of community in his hives and captured this in a school where the boys would embrace service and enjoy each other’s company. By 1948 the School had grown to 68 pupils, a small number of whom were boarders.

Beaconsfield Educational Trust Ltd was created on 9 March 1962 to administer the School, which it does to this day. The Reverend Newton continued as Headmaster up to his retirement in 1968.

In September 1968 Mr J.C. Lucas was appointed Headmaster of Davenies and would run the School with the help of his wife Molly for the next twenty-four years. By 1974 there were 170-day pupils, 10 full-time staff and five part-time staff.

Further Headmasters were Mr Jones, Mr Nott, Mr Watson and Mr Rycroft. Today Mr Alastair Thomas is the Headmaster of Davenies, having been appointed in September 2024. There are some 334 boys on the roll and over 80 dedicated full and part-time staff. The School buildings have been adapted and enlarged to provide exceptional facilities.

Support Us

From its modest beginnings in 1940 with a dozen boarders and a handful of day pupils, Davenies has grown progressively over its 82-year lifetime to become a highly-respected and valued Prep School in Beaconsfield and the surrounding area with 340 day pupils on roll.

Throughout this time, Davenies has relied solely on fee income and the generosity of former parents, Old Davenians, and the wider community to help fund both Bursaries and infrastructure projects. Indeed, the Tennant, Jubilee, Lockyer and Newton Buildings would not exist today had it not been for the many kind donations, which made their construction possible. Despite the many changes that have taken place over the years, some things remain the same, and that is Davenies’ appreciation of the support of the loyal Davenies community.

This continued kindness and support enable us to maintain our position as a leading provider of a high-quality educational experience for boys aged 4 to 13. It also allows us to equip our boys with the knowledge and skills needed to achieve their potential, and to perform at the highest level in an ever competitive world.

Your ongoing generosity will contribute to our lasting success.