Bright World Partner School Profile

Oundle School is one of Britain’s leading co-educational boarding and day schools situated in the charming market town of Oundle, Northamptonshire, about 90 miles north of London. It lies just 15 miles south of Peterborough, where there is a 45 minute direct train to London King’s Cross. Oundle is a community of people, where the pupils are at the heart of all that we do and every decision we make. Oundle sees its role not simply to steer pupils successfully to eighteen, or even to the point at which they join the world of work, but rather to support them in achieving the qualifications, skills, values and attitudes that will sustain them through what we hope will be long, happy and productive lives. The School’s buildings, dating from the 17th to the 21st centuries, are dispersed throughout the town. This level of co-existence with the town gives the School a unique and distinctive character; pupils pass through the streets as they go to lessons, games or other activities and this instills in them an appreciation of being part of both a School and a local community. The School’s history dates back to 1556, when Sir William Laxton, Lord Mayor of London and Master of the Worshipful Company of Grocers endowed a ‘Free Grammar School’ in Oundle, where he had been educated at the original Gild School founded in 1506. At the beginning of the 20th century, Oundle experienced significant expansion and investment under the leadership of its most famous headmaster, FW Sanderson, whose innovations put Oundle at the forefront of science and engineering education, establishing a reputation still renowned today. Following a series of major capital developments including SciTec, the Cripps Library and the Adamson Centre for Modern Languages, the School embarked on a further SciTec development project completed in 2016, which saw a new Mathematics department constructed adjacent to SciTec, as well as a significant upgrade to the Design and Technology department within the Patrick Engineering Centre. The development united Science, Mathematics, Design, Technology and Engineering both physically and philosophically, enabling pupils to move seamlessly from theory to practice and from pure science to the achievement of a workable technology. The School's Sports MasterPlan is currently underway and due to be completed in 2020, with the aim of resourcing a modern, thoughtful vision of sport for pupils. This includes a new 1st XI cricket pavilion, twenty new cricket nets, new athletics track, a new fifty metre swimming pool, eight court hall, multi-station fitness suite, dance studio and three additional studios. Oundle has 860 full boarders and 250 day pupils from age 11 to 18. Committed to a full boarding ethos, which benefits both boarders and day pupils, Oundle attracts pupils from over 120 feeder prep schools from all corners of the UK. It is also proud to welcome around twenty percent of its pupils from over thirty countries overseas. Oundle has thirteen senior boarding Houses – eight for boys and five for girls – with about sixty pupils in each. Day pupils are accommodated in Laxton House. For pupils aged 11 – 13, there is also a mixed junior boarding House and a mixed junior day House, both of about 40 pupils for entry at 11+ or 12+. The education we provide aims to develop in our pupils the skills, attitudes and habits of mind that will sustain them throughout a long life, enabling them to flourish both at School and beyond.