20th Century
Braeside School was founded by Miss Marjory Wakefield in 1944. She had been encouraged by friends to open a school because they were impressed by her philosophy and teaching ability.
In this area at that time there was significant provision for boys to be schooled in an Independent setting but no provision for girls.
Miss Wakefield had attended a teacher training college in the Lake District which had been founded by the Victorian educationalist Charlotte Mason and was eager to broadly follow her principles of educating the child and parents to build relationships and a collaborative love of learning.
Having started in premises in Palmerston Road, when the opportunity came to purchase ‘Ellerslie’, the current Senior School site, in 1950 and expand the school she did not hesitate.
Over the last 70 years there has been much change with new facilities built on both sites providing a new Junior School hall and science laboratories on the Senior site.
21st Century
In September 2015 Braeside became part of the Oak-Tree Group of Schools and under the ownership of the Hagger Family looks forward to many more years of service to the community. The Oak-Tree Schools are a powerful group of four local independent schools, also comprising Coopersale Hall School in Epping, Normanhurst School in North Chingford and Oaklands School in Loughton.
Mr Nicholas Hagger is a poet, philosopher and author of many books, Mrs Ann Hagger was Headmistress of Oaklands from 1982 to 1996 and Mr Matthew Hagger is the Managing Principal of the three Schools.
