Welcome!
			Welcome to our website and, through this, to the school. We hope that you will enjoy browsing and finding out more about us, or, if you are looking for something particular, that you will find it quickly and easily. The website can be used as a portal for the school’s intranet for registered users, and as an access point to download and upload documents from and to individual user areas on the school network. If you do not know how to do this, or have not yet registered, please ask at school.

We welcome those who are contacting us from outside the U.K., whether as potential students or out of personal interest, and of course potential pupils and their parents in the Canterbury area. You can request a prospectus and/or application forms through the website, but please note that we do not accept applications on-line.

Wherever you are, we send you greetings and best wishes.

A.J. Hogarth, Headmaster

To take children and young people beyond their present knowledge and immediate experiences - to challenge them, draw them out of themselves and to introduce them to new ideas and thought, in an atmosphere of love, friendship and mutual support. We want them to develop a love of learning, a sense of awe and wonder at the natural world, and a desire for creativity, innovation and self-fulfilment. We want them to become happy, confident and effective members of our family and community, our nation and our world.

The school is a Christian community characterised by mutual care and respect, a regard for the individual, and a witness to the life and teachings of Our Lord Jesus Christ. We encourage the strong to care for the weak, the rich for the poor, and all to fulfil their duties and responsibilities within the community. Our pupils are expected to work hard, to be polite, and to respect others. They wear full uniform, receive regular homework, and are encouraged to play a full part in school activities. We hope that they will also enjoy school, and we look after and care for them as individuals, building their self-esteem and confidence and encouraging them to want to succeed and become effective members of a tolerant, democratic society.

They are our advertisement and our ambassadors – judge us by looking at them! It is your duty to develop your potential, skills and talents to the best of your ability; to look after yourself, your neighbour, and all who need your help; and to go out and change things if they are wrong. You must be salt to the world; you must be what you want the world to become.

Comments by parents and senior students throughout this prospectus are all taken from unsolicited letters received during the past school year. Comments from younger pupils are taken from reviews they have written at the end of their first year in the school. Originals of all these comments are available for inspection. “Thank you for all you have done for the girls. You have given them skills, understanding and self-knowledge, as well as fantastic opportunities that will equip them for a full life.”

The curriculum is designed to secure the best possible results for each pupil, and to offer them the widest possible opportunities for their future life and career.

We aim to offer a rich, broad education, introducing the pupils to the best of human experience, inspiring them to learn and to study, and not only to gain the best possible qualifications, but to know what to do with them. In the 21st century, it is the skills of enquiry, of problem-solving, of creativity, of collaboration and teamwork, of information processing and analysis, and of presentation and communication that will become increasingly essential. Skills that come from working together, person to person, and of relating to each other within the context of traditional subject disciplines and areas of knowledge.

Because this is a comprehensive school, taking pupils of all abilities, the curriculum is differentiated to offer both challenge and success at every level, based on small classes and subject groupings according to ability.

Classes are taught at all times by qualified, specialist teachers. In the 4th and 5th Years, (Years 10 and 11), pupils generally take between 8 and 11 GCSE subjects, depending on individual aptitude and ability. The majority of these subjects are natural continuations of the courses taken in the first three years, but there is also an element of choice offered at this stage to increase the depth at which subjects can be studied. Syllabuses from all the main Examination

Boards are used and pupils are automatically entered for the examination appropriate to the course they have followed unless they have failed to meet coursework requirements. There are internal examinations towards the end of each year. Art, Drama and Music are all timetabled subjects and individual lessons can be arranged in a variety of musical instruments.

We aim for enjoyment, hard work, discipline and support, with the care and dedication of skilled and experienced teachers, over half of whom have been at the school for over 10 years. A comprehensive school – best for ALL the pupils, best for each of the pupils, best for the individual

All the pupils in the 1st to 5th Year wear full school uniform and should be provided with all the necessary equipment normally required in school, such as a fountain pen, biro, pencil, ruler, coloured pencils and a rubber. The use of felt tipped pens and correcting fluid is prohibited for reasons of neatness. Pupils also require a set of mathematical instruments, a scientific calculator and a dictionary, and are issued with a School Bible and Hymn Book upon first entering the school.

Our Sixth Form Centre provides both social and study facilities. Students have their own Common Rooms and car park, and take part together in a wide range of academic, social, sporting and charitable activities. The majority of students study for either two or three GCE A-levels, and most are expected to progress to university. A wide choice of the most popular A-level subjects is offered, with the timetable being arranged each year to allow the maximum possible number of desired combinations.

The Sixth Form is seen as a bridge between school and university, with students being given increasing responsibility for their own programme, activities and decisions, while at the same time benefiting from the close and personal care and guidance that the school’s pastoral and guidance system continues to provide.

The Active Tutorial Programme involves students in topical, political and ethical discussion. With their own study facilities, small teaching groups and termly conferences attracting speakers of national and international renown, the Sixth Form is large enough to offer a complete range of academic, sporting and social pursuits for students of this age, while giving them the opportunity to take responsibility as the leading members of a much larger community.

Sixth Form students run the School Council, lead sporting activities, act as Form Guardians for younger pupils and take responsibility as School Prefects. Members of the Lower Sixth spend at least a term devoting perhaps half a day each week doing community work in the local area, giving something back to the community of which they are a part, and have raised several thousand pounds over the past few years in initiative challenges for international and local charities.

Representatives of the Sixth Form have joined the International Youth Parliament, and members of the Sixth Form have the opportunity each year to travel outside Europe to spend time in countries of the developing world. Sixth Form students have been major contributors to the two primary schools we have built in villages in Kenya.