Last term, the Headmaster sent a letter to parents and Old Vikings outlining the College's five-year strategy. We’re delighted to share with you a summary of the strategy which includes news of our future plans and developments. We have an ambitious strategic and development plan for the next five years and we are excited with the direction that the College is going in!
The College is going from strength to strength in all areas of academic, pastoral, and co-curricular life. There is a strong feeling that our ethos and strong community lie at the centre of what we do, and we want to continue to offer the best possible school experience to every pupil, while also being aware of our responsibilities to the local community and wider society.
The decision to introduce co-education in Year 7 for September 2023 has landed extremely well, with a record year group and a hugely encouraging gender split of 44% girls and 56% boys. We hope that this success will feed through over the next few years, and so we expect the overall number of pupils to increase during the course of the next seven years.
With this in mind, the College will need to invest in our campus in order to adapt to the changing demography of our pupil population. And, in order to maintain small class sizes and to broaden our curriculum, we will need approximately 15 new classrooms. We also want to offer an equal provision of boarding for girls from Year 9 and will therefore invest and adapt our boarding and day proposition accordingly.
Some of the work has already started and a summary of these developments include:
Classrooms
- A new four-classroom block in the Stableyard which is now up and running as of January 2024
- A new science block will be created by remodelling the top floor of the Bevan Building (currently classrooms). This will take our number of science laboratories from eight to ten and will be ready for use by September 2024
- Six new classrooms will be created in the Jubilee Building which, until recently, housed the School Office and Bursary. These will be ready by September 2024
- In further years, classroom upgrades and expansion will continue as we renovate the Goodwin Building to create enhanced facilities for Photography and DET and to introduce Food Technology into the curriculum
- We have permission for a further four classrooms to be built next to the rear drive, and work will start in due course
Boarding and Day Houses
- College House, which currently ‘homes’ all Year 13 day and boarding boys, will become a boarding house for Year 12 and 13 boys
- Gilson House, currently day and boarding for Sixth Form girls, will become solely a boarding house for Year 12 and 13 girls
- All Year 9-11 boy boarding will be consolidated into Burr House
- Boarding for Year 9-11 girls will be offered on the top floor of Everett House (which currently houses Year 12 boy boarders)
- As a result we anticipate that Welsh House will close as a boarding house from September 2025
- Orchard House will become a mixed day house for all Year 12 and 13 day pupils, thereby creating a Sixth Form ‘hub’ between Orchard, Gilson, and College House
- There will be three co-educational day houses for Years 9-11
Sports Facilities
- Our new playing pitches, located near the Reading Road, offering a replacement to the Riverside Pitches which get regularly waterlogged, have now been seeded and will be ready for use from September 2024
- We are awaiting planning permission for a new artificial pitch, a training MUGA and cricket nets on our Barns Site and, with all going well, should be ready for use by January 2025
