Year 8 is very special. Pupils are trusted and given responsibility, whether it be Head Girl, Captain of Cricket, or escorting the Nursery children from the bus to the classroom in the morning. They are expected to take responsibility from their learning and to manage their own time. They flex their adolescent muscles in an environment that supports them through this sometimes difficult period of their lives. Although they must do examinations to gain places at their chosen senior schools, they have not yet been fully assaulted by a world that is obsessed by measurement and examination.
Pupils leave for a wide range of nationally known Senior Schools - as individual as them. Almost without exception, they gain places at their first choice of school. A good number win scholarships which may be academic, artistic, sporting, musical, or 'all round'.
In recent years our pupils have won academic scholarships to Winchester, St. Mary's Ascot, Cheltenham College, Downside, Shrewsbury, Malvern College, Rugby, Moreton Hall, Christ College Brecon, Monmouth.
The curriculum is broad, offering challenge and opportunity for all: confidence can often grow from success in a small part of school life. Year 4 follows naturally from the Lower School, with much emphasis on literacy and numeracy, taught by the form teacher. As the children rise through the school they develop greater independence, being taught by subject specialists, enjoying a broad curriculum which includes, for example, classics, ICT, and PSHE. French is taught in the Lower School but becomes almost a core subject as children reach Year 6. Its importance is underlined by the week year 7 spend in France - as is our belief that residential trips enrich children's education and personal development.