Your university education starts here

We are a strong, inclusive community which provides our young people with many opportunities to develop leadership and to participate in our research based extended curriculum in the Arts, Humanities and Science. This is based on our philosophy that studying in the Sixth Form should take you well beyond the confines of the traditional exam-focused curriculum and provide you with the confidence and skills to question accepted ideas and norms. You will take more responsibility for your own learning and become a more independent learner which will act as a springboard for the next phase of your education or for employment.

You will be able to participate in projects that offer genuine open ended research and most of your lessons will be characterised by university-style teaching. These two facets of the curriculum are enhanced by the History of Ideas programme, which introduces you to a range of intellectual concepts, and the Extended Project Qualification which is completed at the end of Year 12. The latter provides you with the chance to conduct individual research into a topic of your choice that you wish to investigate further. Our commitment to providing our young people with the chance to engage in intellectual debate and to think creatively has been furthered by the opening of the Tong Research Centre. Many of you will also choose to play for our highly respected and successful sports teams or will take leading roles in drama and musical productions both within school and in the wider community.

As a vibrant and intellectually stimulating environment we have a strong academic record and the majority of our students will receive offers from their first choice universities including Russell Group institutions such as Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, UCL and Imperial College. We are quite rightly proud of our record of placing students with the elite universities which is rarely bettered by any schools in the county. We also have a proven track record of supporting those of you who would rather seek employment or apprenticeships at the end of the A level courses.