Bunce Court School

New Herrlingen School
at Bunce Court
Old photo of main building, c. 1935–1940
Main building at Bunce Court
Location
Map
,
England
Coordinates51°14′47.15″N 0°46′37.44″E / 51.2464306°N 0.7770667°E / 51.2464306; 0.7770667
Information
School typeprivate boarding school
Religious affiliation(s)Jewish, Quaker
Opened1 May 1926
FoundersAnna Essinger, Paula Essinger, Klara Weimersheimer
Closed27 July 1948
HeadmistressAnna Essinger
Teaching staffBruno Adler, Hanna Bergas, Erich Katz, Wilhelm Marckwald, Hans Meyer, Adolf Prag
Genderco-educational
Enrollment64–140 pupils
Average class size5–8 pupils
Education systemprogressive education
LanguageEnglish
CampusBunce Court
School fees£100 per year
Communities servedJewish refugees from Nazism
AlumniFrank Auerbach, Leslie Brent, Gerard Hoffnung, Frank Marcus, Peter Morley, Michael Roemer, Helmut and Richard Sonnenfeldt

The Bunce Court School was an independent, private boarding school in the village of Otterden, in Kent, England. It was founded in 1933 by Anna Essinger, who had previously founded a boarding school, Landschulheim Herrlingen in the south of Germany, but after the Nazi Party seized power in 1933, she began to see that the school had no future in Germany. She quietly found a new home for the school and received permission from the parents of her pupils, most of whom were Jewish, to bring them to safety in England. The new school was called New Herrlingen School, but came to be known as Bunce Court. The school closed in 1948. Alumni, who sometimes stayed on at the school even after finishing, were devoted to the school and organized reunions for 55 years. They have referred to its "immense effect" on their lives, as "Shangri-La" and to being there as "walking on holy ground".