School Facilities

The Ashton Building is one of our most recently refurbished developments at the Senior School. It houses a variety of departments including Politics and Religion and Philosophy.

The building benefits from light and spacious classrooms with interactive whiteboards and state-of-the-art equipment to enhance learning.

Centered around the Cunliffe Building (home to Classics and Learning Support) and the Bean Library, the Bean Academic Centre provides a magnificent multi-media Learning Resource Centre. It features a lecture and seminar space, social and quiet study areas, new classrooms, a multi-purpose assembly hall and a new cafeteria. 

The award-winning Sixth Form Centre and Wessex auditorium provides hi-tech resources more common to university than secondary education. Modern facilities include state-of-the-art classrooms, a fully equipped computer suite with over 50 PCs and a 400 seat auditorium. These sit alongside a common room and both private and collaborative study areas, bridging the gap between secondary and higher education perfectly.

A new outdoor space was created on the Ingrave Road side of the Wessex auditorium in 2022, which provides a communal area for our Sixth Form students to socialise or relax together during the warmer months.

Modern Languages are taught in spacious classrooms in the Allison Building, together with a purpose-built language laboratory, to enable students to access interactive tools and programmes and further develop their language skills.

The Hardy Amies Design Centre is named after Old Brentwood Sir Hardy Amies, couturier to the Queen.

This creative design hub provides spacious facilities for ICT, Computing, Art, Design Technology and Food and Nutrition. Our Food and Nutrition classrooms and facilities in the Hardy Amies building were refurbished in 2022.

An annual exhibition is held every summer in the Centre, which showcases students' work in a collection of displays, rooms and corridors filled with ambitious creations covering all year groups in the Senior School.

This is the hub of the Mathematics Department where light, airy and large classrooms have all the space and hi-tech equipment you would expect for this very popular core subject. Student toilets have recently been refurbished in this area.

The Lawrence Building is also being extended, with five new classrooms due to open in the Trinity Term of 2023.

Facing Brentwood Cathedral on the Ingrave Road, with its well-known clock tower, this is what most people think of as "Brentwood School". It houses a variety of departments including English and Geography. The Memorial Hall is also based here - a quaint wood-panelled hall with stage and balcony seating.

The three Sciences are taught in this impressive building, opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 1957. Today you will find dedicated laboratories for Biology, Chemistry and Physics large enough to provide pupils with direct 'hands-on' practical experience for these subjects. There is also a specialist Sixth Form Science Study Centre equipped with computers, periodicals and reference materials.

The beautiful Chapel was constructed in 1867 and is at the heart of the School community, providing a place of quiet for reflection and peace for all religious faiths. Christian services are held regularly for pupils.

The refurbished, self-service Dining Halls are renowned for their excellent cuisine, satisfying all pupils at lunchtime and boarders at breakfast and dinner.

We provide a variety of hot choices at lunch with a range of classic and global influences as well as a new plant-based counter. In addition, there is an extensive salad bar, soup and baguette counter and a range of hot and cold desserts, all of which are available daily.

The original School building still stands and is used for meetings and debates. Steeped in history, with carvings made by pupils hundreds of years ago, it provides a real sense of Brentwood School's heritage.

This used to be a boarding house. School House now accommodates two new classrooms as well as our Communications, Admissions and Development departments, Examinations, Reprographics, Human Resources, the Bursary and the Headmaster's Study.

The School has an on-site Sports Centre which features a 25m indoor swimming pool and a learner pool. There is a fitness suite with computerised equipment, 4 glass-backed squash courts, indoor rifle range, a main hall large enough to accommodate 7 badminton courts plus a multi-purpose room for fencing, dance and other activities. There is also a purpose-built Fencing Salle that was used by our famous ex-pupils and Commonwealth Gold medal winners Alex O'Connell, Anthony and Alex Crutchett, and is now the practice home of the School's strong fencing community.

Our 75-acre site offers many football, rugby, cricket and hockey pitches, tennis and netball courts and an athletics track. There is also an all-weather floodlit pitch and a refurbished astroturf pitch for our pupils to enjoy. We were privileged to host the Modern Pentathlon team as an official training venue for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The Pavilion is home to our new staff room which provides an excellent rest and relaxation space for all colleagues to enjoy. It also features a balcony with a modern seating area and outdoor heaters that overlooks the School's vast grounds.

The Staff Room also doubles up as a hosting venue for parents and visitors, in particular, for cricket fixtures each Saturday. Changing room facilities are available on the ground floor.

This is the Boys' Boarding House, containing single study bedrooms and the all-important shared facilities for communal living including a common room with table tennis, pool and table football, three television rooms, video game consoles and a well-equipped kitchen. There is wireless internet available throughout the building with supervised and controlled access and a separate computer suite.

This large Victorian house is the girls' boarding house which provides a warm, home-from-home accommodation for our pupils. This building has been completely modernised whilst retaining its character to provide a mix of single and multiple occupancy bedrooms, a large common room equipped with games, a music practice area, a modern kitchen and computer suite. The secluded gardens extend the social space for boarders in the summer and feature a table tennis table and seating areas for our girl boarders to relax and socialise together.

Home to the younger Preparatory children in Foundation and Reception, Years One and Two (aged 3-6).

An 18th Century mansion with dedicated classrooms and facilities for older Preparatory pupils in Years Three to Six (aged 7-10).

The Prep School has a dedicated, secure playground for Foundation Year pupils, and two further playgrounds for older children.

There are lots of extended and improved age-dedicated play spaces, which include a climbing frame, a wooden playhouse, play tables and quiet social seating areas.

We have a beautiful Walled Garden which is a perfect haven in the summer months with plenty of grass to explore, a willow tunnel, sandpit and flower beds to nurture early horticultural skills.

We have many acres of sports pitches and three netball/tennis courts which are used exclusively by Preparatory School pupils. We also make use of the excellent facilities of our Sports Centre, including the 25m indoor swimming pool, sports hall, fencing salle and squash courts. The School's all-weather floodlit pitch and athletics track are also used regularly.

At the heart of each building are two well-stocked libraries that provide tranquil areas for pupils to study and relax. There are plenty of books and resources and a computerised lending system, which even the youngest pupils enjoy. Our libraries are well-used places where pupils are encouraged to enjoy reading from an early age.

The Futures Rooms is a place for experimentation and STEAM enrichment. It includes high-tech lighting and equipment, access to VR and robotic technology and features a green screen, which can be transformed from the solar system to the bottom of the ocean or the chaos of a battlefield by the switch of a button.

There are seven computer suites in total including one dedicated to the Early Years and Key Stage 1.

The use of technology is threaded across the curriculum as an everyday part of the Prep learning environment. In addition, weekly ICT lessons in the computer suites help to embed knowledge with hands-on learning - and there are enough computers for each pupil to work individually or in groups.

In North Prep, we have dedicated Art, Design and Science suites all located around a spacious courtyard.

The Science laboratory is fully equipped and our two light and airy Art rooms include a wide range of materials, pottery equipment and a kiln.

The Design Technology room includes software to support the design process as well as a Laser Cutter and 3D Printer.

Our Food Technology classes feature modern kitchens with mini hotplates, ovens and child-height workstations and sinks.

All pupils take part in some musical learning activity. To support this wide participation we have extensive music facilities across the Prep School, including a Music Classroom, a cutting-edge Music Technology Room (where older children have lessons using computer software to read and write music) and seven Music Practice Rooms. 

Our large and spacious Drama studio is fully resourced with props, costumes and recording facilities.

Modern foreign languages are introduced early at Brentwood Prep. French is taught from Year One in our dedicated French classroom and there is also an after-school Spanish club.

The School Hall is furnished with a grand piano, staging and high-specification audio-visual equipment for theatrical productions in the South Prep building.

It can seat an audience of 500-plus and provides flexible space for assemblies, PE and clubs. It also includes a new kitchen, dining facility and purpose-built servery for our pupils and staff to enjoy a delicious selection of hot and cold balanced lunches, served every day.