Roedean School

Roedean (/ˈroʊdiːn/) is a private boarding school governed by royal charter on the outskirts of Brighton, United Kingdom. It was founded in 1885 by three sisters to educate wealthy daughters and heiresses of aristocracy and industrial elites of the 19th century.

It is a girls-only school for those between the ages of 11 and 18. The campus is situated near Sussex Downs, on a cliff overlooking the Brighton Marina and the English Channel. It is widely regarded as the equivalent of Eton for girls, having educated industrialists, ambassadors, stateswomen, civil leaders, artists, and famous writers.

The school is equipped with multiple dance studios, music classrooms, a private theatre, heated indoor swimming pools, private golf courses, farms, chapels, as well as a range of specialised workshops, studios, laboratories and sports pitches.

Roedean School is a member of the Girls' Schools Association and the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC). The Good Schools Guide stated that the "School has a healthy spirit and much to offer." The Independent Schools Inspectorate rated Roedean as Excellent in all areas (highest category) in its most recent inspection (March 2016).

In the 2023 A-Levels, the school saw 55.2% of its candidates score A*/A.

The school was founded in 1885 as Wimbledon House by three women: Penelope Lawrence and her step-sisters Millicent and Dorothy Lawrence. Their brother was the lawyer Sir Paul Lawrence of Wimbledon who became unable to support them. Their Lawrence great aunts had been noted school teachers earlier in the century, mainly in Liverpool. In its early years, Roedean was favoured by wealthy parents - many of whom were Nonconformists - to prepare girls for entrance to the newly opened women's colleges at Cambridge University, Girton (now co-ed) and Newnham Colleges where Penelope had studied. In 1898, the school moved to its present site, occupying new buildings designed by the architect Sir John Simpson. A sister school, also called Roedean School and co-founded by the youngest Lawrence sister, Theresa, in 1903, is located in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The school motto, Honneur aulx dignes, is in Norman French, and means "Honour the worthy". When pronounced, it sounds like "Honour Roedean".

In 1924 the Lawrence sisters were replaced by Emmeline Mary Tanner who became the new head. She had been poached from Bedford High School by Penelope Lawrence as their successor.