With a traditional boarding school ethos and an existing boarding community of over 500 pupils, the campus is always busy and pupils can see their friends, work in the library or take part in sport and activities every day.
The School has extensive sports facilities, including a sports hall, an indoor arena, a gym, two squash courts, a pool and a couple of astros. In September 2017, a state of the art Music Concert Hall and Performing Arts Centre opened to enhance the musical and theatrical side of the School.
For the last four years the School has been ranked in the top 5 of all schools nationally for the strength of its Senior School Sport over 26 sports as measured by School Sport Magazine. Twice in the last decade the School have been national debating champions of the EU Youth Parliament competition and have gone on to represent England. There is an enthusiastic Young Enterprise Group and Targets 2.0 club whilst others participate in the schools’ based Model United Nations initiative. In addition to the activities programme, approximately 300 students are currently involved in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme. The School’s Community Service programme caters for large numbers of pupils and provides a wide range of activities; some of the more popular options involve working in local schools, visiting residential homes and running a Fair Trade café.
We will expect students on the International Foundation Programme to participate as fully as possible in the extra-curricular life of the School and in particular in areas that will enhance their studies and sharpen their leadership and social skills. Each weekend there is a full programme of exciting activities and excursions.
As a boarding school we offer a safe environment for teenagers who want to take an alternative route to university whilst still benefitting from strong pastoral care with residential staff, tutors and university/careers advisers all on hand to help and advise.
International Foundation Programme students will study and live in a brand new centre with modern classrooms and living spaces, single and double en-suite accommodation, and an International department all in one zone. The boarding accommodation for IFP students will have both a resident Houseparent and a resident tutor. These adults, along with and other tutors, will have holistic responsibility for students’ academic and pastoral concerns.
The focus of allocated tutor times during the week is likely to quickly evolve from settling students in, to supporting university applications, to then more generalised support. All meals will be taken centrally with other pupils and staff in our modern canteen-style dining room; the boarding house will also have simple cooking facilities for students to use.
Laundry will be done by our staff on site but the boarding house will also have washing machines for pupils to use. There is also a modern fully equipped Health Centre.
As a Bromsgrove School student you will be able to use the gym and sports facilities as well as our learning and resources centre and the Library. You will have access to our expert staff who can guide you through UCAS and application to world universities. Our staff will be on hand for you in the application/ offer process but will also be available to you after results should you wish to change your university choice. We have many years of excellence in placing international pupils at Universities in UK and abroad.
The School has two full time university and careers guidance counsellors and, in addition, a further teacher has a recognised responsibility to help support students’ international university applications.
Beyond being available for one-on-one careers interviews, the careers Department organise an extensive programme of outside speakers. In the last year, these have included fifteen individual visits from universities and apprentice providers. We host two large university fairs a year with fifty universities represented, with a 60/40 split between UK and International institutions. There are also CV writing and interview practice workshops and weekly sessions to support MedVets, UKCAT, BMAT and LNAT. We have around twenty companies visit each year, with many large accountancy and management consultant firms involved.