History

Since 1877, The Ryleys School has been educating boys in and around the picturesque village of Alderley Edge. Starting out above the village chemist’s, the school moved to Ryleys House in the early 1880s and took on its present name although, in the early part of the 20th century, its pupils also knew it affectionately as “ Black School”. A proprietorial school until the 1960s, The Ryleys School took both boarders and day pupils, continuing to do so until as recently as September 2006 when the boarding facility finally closed. Ryleys pupils served with distinction in two World Wars and those who fell are commemorated and honoured in the school’s Dining Hall. Since its inception, The Ryleys School traditionally sent boys on to all the country’s major public schools but this has changed in recent years and now more boys are entering the region’s independent grammar schools than follow the traditional route into the boarding schools.
However, both options still remain available to current pupils. The School has seen many other changes over its 130 years – the PE is no longer taught by a veteran of the Zulu Wars, for instance – but The Ryleys School has always prided itself on the fullness and richness of its education as well as the care and happiness of its pupils. These remain as central to the school’s ethos in these early years of the 21st century as they did at the end of the 19th century.