The name Donhead perhaps originates from the Anglo-Saxon "head" meaning top and "don" meaning hill – "the top of the hill" and was first occupied by a
barrister, a Mr Oliver Haynes. From 1880, it was owned by Mary Arnold. Until 1902, she used the building as a school for ladies. In 1932, the owner Henry Small left to the
Jesuits after his wife died. The first headmaster was Fr Miller. Donhead's first pupils consisted of three classes named Elements, Preparatory, and Lower Preparatory, and numbered approximately 67 boys in total. The first day of the school was 5 September 1933. From the late 1980s,
Merton London Borough Council decided to close
middle schools, resulting in the lowering of the age when students would go from Donhead to
Wimbledon College from 13 years old to 11 years old. After this lowering of the top age group, like other schools in the borough, Donhead started admitting pupils at a lower age, so that they would still be at Donhead for the same amount of years. In September 2018, the school's ten-year £8m facilities development plan was completed. The school had a new chapel built that has capacity for 50 pupils, and uses the Donhead has more than doubled in size between 2006 and 2016. == Traditions ==