Good Schools Guide Review
We were delighted with our latest Good School Guide review. Highlighted here are some of our favourite quotes. Please follow the links below to read the full reports.
A vibrant, happy place where pupils learn and do well.
The Good Schools Guide
With pupils who are lively, full of questions and from quite a wide ability range, the school manages to be both an exciting place to learn and somewhere that reassures and nurtures its pupils.
The Good Schools Guide
A really buzzy, full-on place.
The Good Schools Guide
Parents choose the school for its approach where – as one put it - ‘children can be children; they don’t put the pressure on.
The Good Schools Guide
Despite its size, this is a school with a sense of intimacy. Everything is well maintained and pupils move confidently around the site, making the most of the interesting courtyards and covered ways around the school as well as the vast expanses of playing fields.
The Good Schools Guide
Parents speak highly of the school’s pastoral care. ‘They know the children really well, both tutors and subject staff, and everyone seems to know who to go to with a problem and feels comfortable with it.
The Good Schools Guide
Great mix of opportunities in things such as music and sport – children have time to develop interests that they can take on with them later.
The Good Schools Guide
A school with the ‘hum’ of purposeful, happy pupils.
The Good Schools Guide
The zeitgeist is doing rather than being; the school attracts parents with an entrepreneurial spirit and high aspirations for their children.
The Good Schools Guide
A school with an atmosphere conducive to successful learning. The high academic standards reached by many pupils are not achieved at the expense of a broad education, with plenty of time to develop sporting, and cultural interests and friendships. Exceptional leadership from a head who believes ‘a successful school career should be a happy one.
The Good Schools Guide
Without being highly selective, and despite the lure of local grammar schools, pupils do very well in exams with a solid cohort getting top grades across the board at GCSE and A level. Results in English, maths, history, and all three sciences stand out at GCSE, with languages and the creative subjects (especially drama, music and DT) also doing well.
The Good Schools Guide
At A level, there is a high take up for economics, politics and psychology and results in these subjects are particularly good. Maths, further maths, history and languages all popular too. The IB runs alongside and is taken by roughly a third of pupils. ‘Two of mine opted for the IB and one for A levels. It is great that both options were possible in the same school,’ said a parent.
The Good Schools Guide
Subject staff are all involved pastorally and know pupils well - ‘they are a really committed and able bunch.’
The Good Schools Guide
The move to online teaching during the pandemic speeded up digital teaching methods already underway and now, ‘we have incorporated so much that we learnt during that time into our regular classroom practice,’ says school. It helps in tailoring personal work programmes and sometimes means pupils can ask for help without drawing attention to themselves.
The Good Schools Guide
Constant opportunities to study beyond the main curriculum are offered via the enrichment programme.
The Good Schools Guide
Music, art and drama are given every chance to flourish, whether a pupil is gifted or not (plenty are). They are all encouraged to give things a try.
The Good Schools Guide
The longer school day allows time for over 50 clubs and societies to operate.
The Good Schools Guide
The school makes every effort to accommodate pupils and visitors with physical disabilities, though the many historic and listed buildings mean it is not necessarily straightforward.
The Good Schools Guide
Traditionally good at games ‘but not one track minded,’ as a parent put it. No sprints before a cold shower and breakfast, it leans far more towards developing talent and giving everyone a chance to enjoy team sports at some level. The range on offer is impressive with an extensive fixtures programme in all key sports including rugby, hockey (girls competing at national level), netball and cricket (girls recently in the national finals). There are partnerships with professional clubs eg Saracens rugby and netball, Essex cricket and Blue Hornets hockey, with several pupil signings each year. There are a number of professional players among the staff.
The Good Schools Guide
The 80 acre site includes 12 pitches, nine cricket squares, two floodlit Astroturf fields, 10 hard courts, squash courts, gym, weight training and a swimming pool. Focus is on enjoying exercise and developing habits of fitness for life so lots to choose from including show jumping, polo, badminton and basketball.
The Good Schools Guide
Parents are encouraged to support matches and several mentioned how important the contact was, ‘apart from watching our children, it is a chance to have a casual word with staff and meet other parents.
The Good Schools Guide
Parents say it is a happy school, a real community. ‘They help raise emotionally intelligent young people – there is a lot of talk’. The new wellbeing centre, a tranquil space with subdued lighting, is permanently staffed by professional, dedicated staff and is a well-used facility. Staff offer one-to-one consultations (pupils refer themselves) and group sessions, including relaxation classes. It is seen as important that the centre is not part of the medical provision. Together with the house staff and school chaplain there is a choice of help and support.
The Good Schools Guide
Prep School Review
Please follow the link below to read the full review on GoodSchoolsGuide.co.uk.
Senior School Review
Please follow the link below to read the full review on GoodSchoolsGuide.co.uk.