History

Kew House Senior School was founded by qualified teachers Maria and Edward Gardener in 2013. Situated near to the River Thames by Kew Bridge, Kew House School is highly successful, providing education of the highest quality and having established itself reputationally in the local area.

Kew House is one of four schools which form the Gardener Schools Group. The Group consists of two preparatory schools: Ravenscourt Park Preparatory School (London, W6) which was established in 1991 and Kew Green Preparatory School (London, TW9) which opened in 2004. Maida Vale School (London, W9) is a sister school to Kew House and opened in September 2020. 

Having taught in the state sector for 20 years, Maria and Edward Gardener started a Saturday morning school for local children in their own home. Their warmth, creativity and effectiveness as teachers of small groups proved so popular, the classes quickly moved to a nearby church hall.

Listening to enthusiastic feedback from local parents, the Gardeners soon identified a need for a co-educational, non-selective, independent preparatory school in West London. So, in 1991, they bought the vicarage building on Ravenscourt Avenue and Ravenscourt Park Preparatory School was founded.

Due to the school’s caring, family-centred ethos and the demand for this type of school, Ravenscourt Park Preparatory School soon became oversubscribed and has been highly influential in the way independent primary school education has changed in London in the last two decades.

The Gardener Schools Group is still a family company. Alongside Founder and Director of Education Maria Gardener, her son Theo Brehony is Managing Director. 

Parents at the preparatory schools consistently urged the Directors to open a co-educational secondary school for pupils aged 11 to 18 years. In 2013, Kew House School opened in the Brentford area and in 2020, Maida Vale School opened in the Maida Vale/Queen's Park area. Both Kew House School and Maida Vale School are pioneering and modern, whilst retaining the best of the traditional values in evidence at the Gardener Schools Group’s preparatory schools. Kew House School has almost 600 students including the Sixth Form.