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| Broomham Hall, Rye Road, Guestling, TN35 4LT, UK Hastings
+44 (0)1424 813813
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Every child has a talent. It is our job to find that talent firstly and to encourage each and every child to be the best at what they do.
At Buckswood it is our responsibility to cast the net of opportunity so wide that any talent gets a chance to develop, and to ensure that many of these talents should be just as highly ranked as academic scholarship.
For the concept of the average pupil must give way to the concept of an infinite variety of youngsters heading for an infinite variety of success.
About Buckswood
 Education Group
Welcome to Buckswood! As you view our website and try to discover the essence of the place, think of this comment from one of our former students – “it’s difficult to say what makes Buckswood so special, it’s just everything.”
Buckswood School is the cornerstone of the Buckswood Education Group, comprising the school (this website), the Buckswood St George’s centre for pre-university courses and year-round group programmes in St Leonard’s-on-Sea, and Buckswood St Nova Institute in Auckland, New Zealand, where all Buckswood School students have the opportunity to spend half a term in our Form III (UK Year 9).
We are a co-educational school for day and boarding students that offers breadth within the academic curriculum, both at GCSE and A Level, and an abundance of opportunity outside the classroom, all the while striving for children to achieve and exceed potential. We are a school where a 12 year old has the chance to learn Chinese and play the bagpipes (not at the same time necessarily!) and a College student the offer of a Business Studies trip to New York.
Buckswood has a strong international ethos that shines through in all that we do. Our everyday environment is a global community wherein close to 30 different nationalities are represented, with the British contingent the largest single component. We operate the school within a British boarding school framework, believing structure, self-discipline and respect to be the foundations of success as an individual. We are a curious mix of the traditional and the innovative: we insist on all children using fountain pens, on table manners being adhered to, and chewing gum being banned – but also that all learn how to design a website, practise watersports in the summer term and complete a week’s work placement by the end of College 1.
You will find us on a large, safe, beautiful campus nestling in the Sussex countryside. We look forward to showing you round the school and for you to experience at first hand everything that is Buckswood!
Teaching and Learning
Buckswood is an academic community with learning at the core of all that we do. Small class sizes within a small school environment ensure that we are able to educate each child with a level of personal care and attention that few schools or colleges can match.
We push all our students to achieve their full potential; we push students to excel and to appreciate that industry is inevitably the foundation of success at any level. We welcome regular contact with all parents in addition to the Consultation Evenings held every term, and parents also receive at least two formal assessment sheets per term plus hand-written reports for each subject.
Our Access Time system gives students an open invitation to visit teachers in their subject classrooms after school each evening, thereby providing both help and extension – just that little bit of extra, personal advice can make all the difference. Prep (homework) is done at school under the supervision of Form Tutors.
The benefit of all this is highlighted in our recent GCSE, GCE & Cambridge International examination results – not the last word in success, but a barometer nonetheless.
We offer a wide-ranging and varied curriculum throughout the lower years allowing students to discover a talent in everything from public speaking to cooking chocolate brownies, and from rudimentary Mandarin to web design. |
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The essence of Buckswood, its spirit of internationalism, courses through the veins of its academic programme at all times offering a cultural vibrancy as an added learning dimension.
- Small classes in a small school
- Wide-ranging curriculum
- An emphasis on practical experience
- Extensive programme of educational visits
- Access time for extra help
- Supervised prep (homework) at school
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The lower years at Buckswood are indeed viewed as the formative years: we inculcate the values of hard work, respect for others, a sense of right and wrong, and an intrinsic internationalism into our junior students. We give them responsibility and a sense of independence but point out the parameters not to be crossed, believing that children thrive on structure, security & opportunity. |
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 Years 7-9 provide the solid basis for success at GCSE but also offer the scope to experiment, to go “off-piste” in academic terms, perhaps by watching a real lambing as part of a science group, or by standing knee-deep in an original World War I trench in Flanders with the History Department – Buckswood offers experiential learning at a young age, believing that bringing a classroom subject to life is the best way to spark interest in a young teenager. Students are taught by specialist teachers in a number of subjects from an early age which kindles interest and excites the inquisitive.
- Solid academic teaching and assessment
- Hands-on learning
- A mix of traditional values and innovation
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The basics are not forgotten with the Headteacher administering weekly times tables tests and handwriting practice sessions after school.
Years 7-9 offers the chance to spend half a term at our sister school Buckswood St. Nova Institute (BSNI), in Auckland, New Zealand. We feel that at age 14 year our students are old enough to handle the demands of such a programme and aware enough to appreciate the value of such an experience.
Year 9 is an academic year preparatory to GCSE and there is still sufficient leeway within the curriculum to be able to teach a similar academic course at BSNI to that taught at Buckswood UK - though not exactly the same - thereby allowing cultural events, outdoor activities and other elements essential to the NZ experience to take precedence at certain times during the 6 week period
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 We offer a wide range of subject choices (see Academic Handbook), with Spanish, Home Economics & Physical Education having been recently added to the main options list. Non-native speakers are taught English Language separately from native speakers. Students may add extra subjects such as Music, Drama, Law etc., to their normal timetables. We also offer a reduced one year GCSE Programme to students in Years 10-11.
Students are pushed to achieve academic potential through a variety of tactics: weekly drill tests in each subject, completing the infamous red file of topic notes at Christmas break in Years 10-11, preparing for mock GCSEs in January and indeed mock re-takes in February. Coursework can often be the albatross around certain students’ necks as deadlines loom – Buckswood dedicates Saturday morning teaching in Years 10-11 solely to subject coursework sessions, thereby getting coursework finished early and making sure that the main teaching timetable does not suffer from coursework fall-out and fatigue.
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- Regular testing and monitoring
- Tried & tested strategies for GCSE success
- Weekly drill tests, extra lessons, revisionrogrammes in each subject GCSE A-C Grade pass rates regularly over 70%
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Years 10-11 GCSE students have the chance to join a school-initiated revision camp at May half-term. Years 10-11 is treated very much like a “crammer” and the Years 10-11 Tutor is always the School Director, who exerts influence and control over a group of teenagers at a crucial time in their education. GCSE students do not miss out on educational visits, with the History, Geography, Business and Art Departments prominent on the trips calendar. GCSE students are given the chance to hone their debating skills annually with their participation in a model United Nations Assembly day.
GCSE students are encouraged to participate as much as possible in all aspects of school life: sports teams, prefect duties, after school clubs, the performing arts and community service. Careers & further education advice, including A Level Options presentations are offered in Years 10-11.
CSE COURSES
English Language
Mathematics
History
Combined Science
Business Studies
Geography
Physical Education
Art & Design
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Combined Science
ICT
Music
Home Economics
Drama
French
Spanish
Other Languages |
   
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