Boarding
Life at the College is not only focused on academic success and individual growth, but also includes ample opportunities for fun and enjoyment through a diverse range of evening and weekend extracurricular activities.
Through our trips programme and our sports and creative outlets, we encourage boarders to explore their passions and discover new talents. From team sports, arts, music ensembles, and outdoor adventures, our programme of weekend activities recognises the world our boarders will enter and the skills they need in order to progress.
Evenings are a time for prep and relaxation and our boarders are free to choose how they spend their time. Following supper and supervised prep time, boarders either take advantage of our sports hall, gym and music room facilities or choose to relax with friends in their houses. For our Prep School boarders, organised activities and arts and crafts are also set up in the evenings.
Our weekend programme brings together a mixture of new skills, fun, and team building activities, enriching boarders’ time with us. Saturdays provide a balance between sports match representation (for squad members), off site trips, on campus social activities, and downtime; enabling boarders to relax after a busy week. At points during the year, Saturdays will also provide opportunities for revision guided by academic staff and support with UCAS entries.
Activities such as sailing, driving, rock climbing, self-defence, orienteering, camping, and canoeing are on offer to help pupils develop resilience and where possible, gain qualifications.
Regular off site trips for Senior School and Prep School boarders across the year provide a balance between culture, fun, and resilience building.
A range of cultural trips are planned throughout the year to offer boarders experiences across opera, theatre, museums and tours of UK cities, landmarks and film studios. Recent experiences have included private boxes at the Royal Opera House to watch La Boheme, day trips to London to visit the Tower of London, regular West End theatre trips and a visit to Harry Potter World.
Whether boarders are looking to watch sport or to try a new sport for themselves, lots are available through the weekend activity programme. From watching Premiership football matches at Tottenham Hotspur or Manchester City, to gaining a RYA Level 1 sailing qualification, or taking to the slopes at indoor snow centres, sports experiences are on offer to satisfy the most adventurous boarders, and those just wishing to watch from the side lines.
Having a go at new activities and building confidence in new areas is a mainstay of our weekend activity programme. Whether swinging through forests at Go Ape, indoor sky diving at i-Fly, learning to drive on karting circuits, taking on white water rapids, or competing in College MasterChef competitions, the opportunities are there and there are lots of them.
Saturday evenings provide the perfect opportunity for borders to relax and have fun. Regular evening activities are planned and are inspired by the many nationalities of boarders staying with us. Quiz nights, film nights, and pizza evenings are complemented by Lunar New Year parties, casino nights, BBQs, cowboy nights, giant Scalextric Gran Prix evenings, Eurovision parties, croquet and cream teas, and comedy club nights, plus trips to the cinema and tenpin bowling alley.
Day trips to theme parks such as Thorpe Park, and coastal seaside towns including Southend, are planned throughout the summer months. They offer boarders the opportunity to thrill seek on some of the UK’s largest roller coasters and experience very British traditions, such as eating fish and chips on the beach.