- Ardingly was founded as St Saviour’s College in 1858 by Canon Nathaniel Woodard with the aim to provide a Christian education. The school moved to and reopened on a new site at Ardingly in 1870, where it has been ever since, situated in a National Landscape.
- The college has continued with its award-winning solar car project (which was nominated for the Prince of Wales’s Earthshot prize) and launched a green technology GCSE course.
- The pupils can choose from more than 130 extracurricular activities, from crochet club to musical theatre and including a range of sports. The football, hockey, swimming and cricket teams regularly win regional and national competitions.
- There is strong music provision, with more than 430 weekly individual lessons as well as stage productions, which are often accompanied by live orchestras.
- Academic, sports, dance, drama, music and art scholarships cover 5-50 per cent of fees. There are also means-tested bursaries.
- Former pupils include the Private Eye editor Ian Hislop, the cartoonist and satirist Nick Newman, and the author Neil Gaiman.
- In 2023 it opened its first international school, Ardingly College Zhongshan, in China.
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