Hurstpierpoint College, West Sussex
Hurstpierpoint College – or ‘Hurst’ – aims to provide an ‘excellent all-round education’ that enables every child to ‘achieve their own personal bests’. The school is located in the West Sussex countryside, is co-educational and for pupils aged four to 18 years. Its 140-acre campus is impressive and, having abandoned full boarding in 2019, it offers flexible and weekly boarding from Year 9, along with a chaperoned weekly train service from Clapham Junction. The college was established in 1849, and claims to have the oldest Shakespeare society in existence and the oldest school magazine in the country. It says increasing numbers of pupils now transfer from south-west London prep schools, encouraged by its modern approach to boarding and the transport links.
Elstree School, Woolhampton
This year has seen Elstree School celebrate its 175th anniversary. Having moved to Woolhampton in West Berkshire at the outbreak of the second world war, the school is nestled in 150 acres of stunning countryside. It educates both boys and girls from the ages of three to 13, and counts James Blunt, Sebastian Faulks and George Monbiot among its alumni. The school says it wants to ‘find out how a child is intelligent rather than how intelligent a child is’, and it believes ‘effort is king’. Pupils are taught by individual subject specialists from Year 5. Happy and confident students go on to leading senior schools: ten scholarships and exhibitions were awarded this year to schools including Winchester, Radley, Downe House, Winchester and Harrow.
Ibstock Place, Roehampton
Ibstock Place is a successful co-educational school that hugs the edge of Richmond Park in Roehampton. It has eight acres of grounds and teaches more than 950 girls and boys between the ages of four and 18. The school’s approach is inspired by Froebelian philosophy, which promotes child-centred learning. Ibstock says that its children ‘are inspired to achieve’ by a school with a ‘beautiful botanical feel’ and ‘nurturing culture’. Some 81 per cent of leavers this year will be attending Russell Group universities. Ibstock Place was also nominated as one of London’s best independent schools in this year’s Independent Schools of the Year Awards. Alumni include Iris Murdoch, Nadhim Zahawi, Mary Berry, Emily Blunt, Jesse Wood and Daisy Dunn.
Stockport Academy, Stockport
Stockport Academy, in Cheadle Heath, Greater Manchester, used to be called Avondale High School and it was Angela Rayner’s alma mater, which means that after the next election it may boast a deputy prime minister among its alumni. Rayner and her friends had an affectionate nickname for it in those days: ‘Avonjail’. But its rackety days are over: last year it was awarded Secondary School of the Year by the Manchester Evening News and OneEducation. Janine McCann, the principal, says the school’s aim is to ‘create an atmosphere of fairness in which individual dignity is upheld’. The school has some other movers and shakers among its ex-pupils, one being the Manchester City winger and England star Phil Foden. So that’s sport and politics covered.
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