TATLER Schools Guide 2025 – The world is truly RGS’s oyster

Reigate Grammar School features in the Tatler Schools Guide 2025!

It’s little wonder that parents at this co-ed day school in the sought-after Surrey town of Reigate rave about its outstanding reputation and consider it the best in their area. Its academic performance is always superb; but in 2023, it excelled itself, with more than two-thirds of all GCSEs graded 9 or 8. Meanwhile, 96 percent of A-levels were graded A*–B and 98 percent of university applicants received offers from Oxbridge, Russell Group universities, or medical establishments. Even so, the youngsters exhibit no signs of being under excessive pressure, instead extolling a ‘sense of camaraderie’. (‘It feels like a big family, where everyone supports each other,’ says one.) Head Shaun Fenton adds to the convivial atmosphere, writing personal letters to pupils to congratulate them on achievements; he sends videos with birthday messages to each child and throws a party for all who have a term-time birthday, his only concern being that he eats too much cake! This is the kind of school that will pause its lessons for snowman-building, hire an ice rink before Christmas, and install a fairground in the summer term to ease exam-season anxieties. Having achieved an Eco-Schools Green Flag with Merit, it’s proud of its environmental mission, and is bringing local schools together in a council to discuss ways of living sustainably. As for trips, pupils might be found walking up volcanoes in Iceland, studying politics in Washington DC, or learning about classical civilisation in Rome. The world is truly RGS’s oyster.

Alumni: Comedian David Walliams, PM Sir Keir Starmer, survival expert Ray Mears