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Sidcot School offers excellent day and boarding facilities for students from age 3 all the way through to 18. They treat all students as individuals and help them to develop themselves academically, personally, and spiritually. Staff and pupils have friendly and respectful relationships that allow for deeper learning and a more positive educational experience enriched by extra-curricular activity.

Academic life

Like all Quaker schools, Sidcot School aims to inspire students and to provide more than just the National Curriculum to the students who live and study there. Sidcot offers a creative, challenging education that gives students a passion for learning without obsession over exams and league table positions. Students at Sidcot do no sit SATs to prevent potentially stressful testing at a young age.

Their curriculum and teaching methods are designed to build on students’ natural curiosity and creativity. The Sidcot Learning Wheel shows how Quaker values inform the teaching and learning that happens in the school every day. View the Sidcot Learning Wheel

Nursery

When a child joins a nursery class at Sidcot School, their teacher will already be a familiar face. Sidcot teachers conduct home visits prior to the child starting in their class to get to know them a little better, to meet the parents and to discover more about the child’s interests and dislikes.

Children can join the nursery school at age 3 and will be challenged and educated through their lessons and play. As well as structured activities inside the classroom, Sidcot’s Forest School helps them to learn in a hands on, woodland environment.

Junior

Sidcot’s junior school lays the foundation for every student’s lifelong learning. They have small class sizes and dedicated teachers who are passionate and engaging in their approach to lessons. Creativity and academic success are nurtured in junior classrooms and children begin to develop their individual identities and interests.

The National Curriculum forms the basis of their educational programme, but teachers are not constrained by it. Many creative learning experiences and extra-curricular activities help students to achieve much more than the ability to pass formal assessments.

Instead of SATs, students are continually assessed by their teachers to ensure that each student is progressing without the need for stressful external testing. At the end of each school year, students have a formal assessment and their results are passed over to their new teachers.

Senior

In senior school, students begin the lessons that will see them through their GCSEs and help prepare them for an exciting and interesting future. Year 7, 8 and 9 offers students a wide range of different subjects and topic areas to help them develop their interests and gain as many different experiences as possible, supported by the great range of extra-curricular activities offered by the school.

In years 10 and 11, students study for a minimum of 9 GCSEs, though this can be tailored to the talents of the individual. These include English language, English literature, maths and a combination of the sciences. Students can then choose additional subjects for study, including: art, business studies, computer science, design technology, drama, geography, history, modern languages, music, PE, religious studies, English as a second language, and digital media.

Year 7 Q&A – new Year 7s giving Year 6s an insight into starting Senior School

We asked our Third Form to think about what they expected from Sidcot before they joined and whether the school had lived up to their expectations. We were delighted that the positives were more positive than they imagined and the fears about joining a big school were not realised! They are a delightful year group and we are looking forward to watching them develop and grow as they move through the school.

Sixth form

Sixth form study at Sidcot School offers students a tool kit for life and helps them get prepared for life after school, whether they’re going to go on to higher study, the world of work, or head off for a gap year to explore the world. Higher study provides lots of new challenges for students, academically and personally, that allows them to grow and develop their independence.

A Levels, the International Baccalaureate Diploma (IB) and BTECs are offered by Sidcot. Students can choose to study 3 or 4 A-Level topics in specific subject areas that interest them, working alongside dedicated teaching staff, they can enrol on the IB Diploma and study in 6 subject areas (3 to high level, 3 standard level) or alternatively take a more vocational route with BTECs in Sport or Business. The IB Diploma is attractive to universities and employers given its broader subject areas (English, maths, science, humanities, languages, arts) and thanks to the wide variety of academic and practical skills students develop through their study.

Alongside their study, A-Level students are encouraged to run clubs, volunteer and run charity projects, and go on trips abroad, as well as completing their formal studies. The school provides the opportunity to visit Tanzania for two weeks, going on safari, working in the local primary school to build and renovate, planting trees, and delivering essential supplies to locals.

Hear from a Sidcot Student

This day pupil at Sidcot Schools tell us all about her experiences and what she enjoys about her school.

She’s gained the confidence to try new things and push herself to achieve in her interests. Her teachers have encouraged her to work at developing skills in areas she would like to improve in.

As well as art, sport and music in school, she’s found the support to chase opportunities outside of the classroom as well.

“Sidcot’s helped me to live adventurously by opening lots of opportunities to me. So, I can do sports, I can randomly go into an art room if I want or go into the music rooms and play a piano. I don’t just focus on my talents, I focus on things I’m not so good at, such as maths, which I really can’t do!”

Take a look at more Sidcot videos

Extra-curricular activities

Sidcot School offers an excellent range of high quality activities and extra-curricular study for students, both boarding and day. They have a beautiful rural location and offer top class facilities for sport, arts, crafts and environmental study.

Activities run at lunchtime, after school, into the evening and at the weekends. There are over 100 extra-curricular events run for students, ranging from archery to trampolining, maths club, hill walking, TV production, cooking and so many more.

Performance art students from Sidcot School

Arts

Sidcot Creative Arts centre is able to support creative interests in traditional genres and more contemporary technical art. The drama department can provide facilities for theatre, radio and film, the music school has its own performance hall, practice rooms, recording studio and technology suite. Students can also develop interests in sculpture, photography, digital media and traditional artistic practises.

Swimming pool at Sidcot School

Sports

The sports centre at Sidcot School has a 25m heated indoor pool, multi gym, sports hall and squash court that students are encouraged to use. A wide range of different sports are available for students to get involved with, including: football, rugby, hockey, cricket, netball, tennis, athletics, horse-riding, fencing, golf, dance, water polo, basketball, dry slope skiing, and much more.

School teams regularly play against local schools to encourage healthy competition and to show off the skill of the teams that are formed at Sidcot.

Children participating in outdoor activities at Sidcot School

Outdoor Activities

As well as all the sporting events that students can get involved with, outdoor activities and learning are prioritised by the school.

Lots of outdoor challenges are overcome by students who are completing the Duke of Edinburgh Award. Students can also get involved with the gardening club, learn to become bee keepers or help with the development and maintenance of the school’s nature trail.

Sidcot School

Community & Global Outlook

At Sidcot, the Centre for Peace and Global Studies works to create a learning environment where students and staff are able to explore and understand how they embody the qualities of peace in the way that they engage with each other across the school community. They feel it is important to help students make sense of the world around them.

Peace education is embedded throughout Sidcot, without structured lessons, but a way of life, of being. The school aims to create PeaceMakers and ChangeMakers. Throughout the year there are talks, films and cultural activities which enrich the curriculum and offer students an opportunity to think about social and environmental justice.

As part of the Ashoka Changemaker Schools network students are encouraged to learn the essential skills of empathy, creativity, leadership and teamwork so they can thrive in the modern world, find solutions to our most complex problems and have the confidence to change the world for the good of all.

PASS (The Programme of Activities for Sidcot Students)

Please use this link to see all our information regarding PASS: https://www.sidcot.org.uk/sidcot-difference/our-way-learning/pass

International Choir

Take a listen to the video of students singing in different languages for International Languages Week.

Boarding

Boarding at Sidcot School aims to provide students with a friendly school community with a family feel where they can live, work and enjoy their time. Sidcot offers the space for students to focus on their work and gives them the chance to get involved with all the great extra-curricular activities provided by the school. The school offers full time, weekly and flexi boarding for all students that can be tailored to the needs of your family life.

The different boarding houses are divided by age group and gender, and each house has a House Parent living full time on site to offer support to the student at all times. The houses are divided as follows:

  • Newcombe House: up to 28 younger girls
  • School House for Girls: up to 62 older girls
  • Wing House: up to 24 boys aged 14 – 19
  • School House for Boys: up to 38 older boys

Each house has a common room with a TV, DVD and games console, excellent WiFi connection and a small kitchen for snacks. Students begin their boarding experience by sharing a space with two or three other students so they can start making friends and support each other. Lower sixth students share with one or two others, and upper sixth students have their own room, or share with one other.

Black History Month

Students discuss black people throughout history who they admire and why.

Learning support

Sidcot is a mainstream school and offers a supportive environment for all their students. They aim to bring out the best in all their students and help them become confident, successful learners and responsible citizens. Reasonable adjustments can be made to support students with additional learning requirements so long as they’re able to access the school’s curriculum.

Sidcot practises Quality First Teaching which means that teachers respond to the needs of all their students in the classroom. The Learning Support Department works closely with subject teachers and pupils to come up with learning strategies to support students.

Senior students who have additional learning needs will have a Pupil Profile that the student’s teachers can access. This profile contains information about their strengths and challenges and advice for helping them get the best out of each lesson.

The senior school does not provide in class teaching assistants for one to one support during lessons. Assistants provide support for small groups in each class in junior school but aren’t allocated to individual students. Instead, targeted intervention sessions provide support and give the students strategies to succeed in their lessons. There is an additional charge for these sessions.

The school is registered with CReSTeD, the Council for the Registration of Schools Teaching Dyslexic Students. They have excellent support for students with mild learning support needs and have experience teaching students with Dyslexia, Dyscalculia and Asperger’s Syndrome.

If a student has been identified as needing special educational support, an Individual Education Plan identifies learning goals and outcomes and creates appropriate learning support strategies to help them achieve.

Entry criteria

After browsing their prospectus, you can choose to visit an open day, taster event, or arrange an individual visit around the school. Going on a taster session gives the prospective student an excellent understanding of the school day and whether it will be the right learning environment for them. Taster sessions are an entry requirement for nursery and junior school admission but are optional for senior students.

The Headmaster likes to meet all pupils who want to join the senior school to discuss why they want to study at Sidcot, what their subject interests are and what they can bring to the school. Junior students will meet with the Head of the junior school.

An application will need to be submitted along with the student’s most recent school report. There are no common entrance exams at Sidcot, but all applicants to the senior school need to take assessments in maths and English. These tests are informal baseline to help determine which teaching group a student will be in.

About admissions

Fees, Scholarships & Bursaries at Sidcot School

Fees

Sidcot charge a reasonable fee for the education of all students in its school. A registration fee of £150 (£75 for junior and nursery schools) is required and is non-refundable to make sure they can cover the costs of administration.

A £1,000 deposit for UK students (£3,500 for overseas students and Y11P) is then required upon acceptance of a place. This will be returned once the student leaves the school.

Scholarships & Bursaries

Sidcot students are able to apply for scholarships and bursaries to help cover the costs of some of their fees. Bursaries can be for the student’s lifetime at the school or short-term to cover unexpected times of financial hardship. Bursaries are reviewed annually.

Scholarships cover 10% of the costs of their tuition based on evidence of exceptional recent achievements. They can be applied for at the start of each year. There are three categories to a Sidcot School scholarship: academic, talent, and all-rounder. Academic scholarships are for students with great intellectual potential and will be stretched by their teachers and will attend guest speaker events. Talent scholarships are award in several different areas: art, drama, music, sport, and equestrian. The all-rounder scholarship is for students with significant intellectual potential and talents in a certain discipline.

Arrange a visit

Visiting Sidcot School is the best way to find out whether it’s right for your family. They run several open days throughout the term and offer taster days for different year groups. Or, if you’d rather have a private look around, you can arrange a time to suit you by contacting them directly.

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