Reigate Grammar School

Reigate Grammar School (RGS) is an 11-18 co-educational independent day school in Reigate, Surrey. It was endowed in 1675 by Sir Edward Thurland, a judge of the Court of Exchequer, using £150 bequeathed to Reigate before his death in 1628 by the London alderman Henry Smith. The school opened for teaching in 1684 when the vicar of Reigate, Rev. John Williamson, was appointed as the first master. RGS was originally founded as a free school for "poor boys" of Reigate; the curriculum did not initially include the Greek and Latin classics that would later define a "grammar" school. Over the centuries it evolved into one of Surrey's leading independent day schools.

The school operates a sister-school relationship with Dunottar School, also in Reigate, and is a member of the HMC. The current Headmaster, Shaun Fenton, was Chair of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference in 2024-25 — a national position usually held by the head of one of the top fifteen UK independent schools at any given moment.

Reigate's most famous recent alumnus is Sir Keir Starmer, who attended the school in the 1970s when it was still a state grammar (the school converted to independent status in 1976 after being threatened with comprehensive reorganisation). He became the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Leader of the Labour Party in 2020 and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from July 2024. Other alumni span entertainment, journalism, science and public life: the actor and Britain's Got Talent judge David Walliams; the musician Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim); the TV survival expert Ray Mears; the comedian Romesh Ranganathan; the philanthropist Sir Peter Lampl, founder of the Sutton Trust; the journalist Andrew Sullivan; the BBC Formula One commentator Ben Edwards; the electronics engineer Alec Harley Reeves, who invented pulse-code modulation (the foundation of all modern digital communication); and the BBC Test Match Special cricket scorer Bill Frindall.

The school operates a substantial bursary programme and remains one of the most academically selective co-educational day schools in Surrey, with a strong record of Oxbridge and Russell Group progression.