Our school takes its name from St Cedd, who was sent from Northumberland to Essex with another priest to evangelise the Essex people. The King of the Essex Saxons had recently been converted to Christianity by the King of Northumberland and had asked for a priest to be sent. Cedd came to Essex in 654 and went about preaching and making converts. He was later made Bishop of the East Saxons and lived at a monastery he founded at Bradwell-on-Sea, among the ruins of the former Roman fort there. His little church still remains out on the sea wall at Bradwell. Cedd also founded a small monastery at Tilbury in Essex . He died in 664 from an epidemic known as the 'yellow plague', while on a visit to Lastingham in Yorkshire , and is buried there. Information gained from the 1971 magazine tells us that our school badge was designed by Mrs Welch, the wife of the then Bishop of Bradwell, and depicts the firm hand of St Cedd grasping his crozier. The text, taken from St Paul 's first letter to the Thessalonians, has fittingly become our school's motto: 'Hold fast that which is good'.

St Cedd's was established in 1931 with four pupils and one teacher in the playroom of a private house. The school grew slowly in numbers and moved premises twice before relocating to its present site in 1937. Under seven Heads, St Cedd's increased in size over the next seventy years, developing its curriculum and facilities almost immeasurably, to become a leading preparatory school of the twenty-first century.

Today, St Cedd's enjoys a deservedly fine reputation in the region. The school is a Charitable Trust administered by a Council of Governors, and its Head and Deputy are members of the Incorporated Association of Preparatory Schools. Being a member of the Chelmsford Choral Foundation, the school shares associate membership of the Choir Schools' Association.

There is a two-form entry to Reception each September, and pupils move through the school in the parallel classes until Year 6. At age eleven, children move on to a variety of local secondary schools, including the selective grammar schools, and to a range of independent schools, often with scholarships.