The Governing Bodies of St Lawrence College and Dover College are pleased to announce that in September 2026 the two schools will be merged on the Dover College site to form a single, vibrant HMC school: ‘St Lawrence Dover College’.
The new school will join the rapidly expanding Repton Family of Schools, which currently educates over 10,000 pupils across the globe. As such, it will benefit from the connections, collaborations and sharing of good practice that membership of the group provides for Repton’s pupil and teaching bodies across the UK and globally.
The merger will bring together a wealth of educational expertise, resources and facilities, which will ensure the very best education for current and future pupils, in addition to significant investment in the school campus, access to back-office support and the financial strength of the Repton Family of Schools.
The new school will benefit from the strong and thoughtful leadership of both current Heads; Matthew Brown, the Head of St Lawrence College, will become Head of the new school, and Phil Tattersall-King, the Head of Dover College, will become Head of Senior School. Together, they will protect what makes each school unique while creating a strong and secure future for the pupils.
St Lawrence Dover College will be governed by a new Governing Body chaired by Ian McIntyre, the Managing Director of the Repton Family of Schools, with governors appointed from the existing boards of both schools and from Repton.
For more than 150 years, St Lawrence College and Dover College have built outstanding reputations for educational provision based on high standards of teaching, small class sizes, high levels of individual support and first-class facilities. Both schools’ most recent ISI Inspection reports confirm this. Infused with Repton’s aims and values, St Lawrence Dover College will provide an exceptional, broad-based education, blending heritage with the pursuit of excellence in a 21st-century context, offering outstanding facilities as well as high-quality teaching and pastoral care.
Mark Semmence, Headmaster of Repton and CEO of the Repton Group, said: “I am delighted to welcome St Lawrence Dover College into the Repton Family of Schools. Our new school can look to the future with confidence, providing a thriving and ambitious educational environment for children and their families throughout Kent and beyond. The advent of St Lawrence Dover College represents one of the most exciting educational developments in the South East of England and is a vote of confidence in the not-for-profit charitable education sector.”