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Our View
This Surrey prep on the edge of Windsor Great Park espouses the ethos of Harmony, King Charles’s long-held philosophy that ‘by understanding the balance, order and relationship between ourselves and the natural world we can create a more sustainable future’. Non-selective and wonderfully inclusive, it’s a school where pupils can enjoy their childhood and, says head Peter Thacker, ‘every day is as magical as it can be’. It’s an offering that is attracting more and more families and numbers are booming. We’re not surprised.
Where?
The school’s 30 acres sit in the stunning Crown Estate, just outside Egham. Overlooking sports fields, the handsome original Victorian house is in the middle of the campus. Tucked behind it are two purpose-built, red-brick buildings called Windsor and Jubilee, housing nursery to Year 4 and Years 5 to 8, a theatre, the music department and an indoor pool.
Pupils generally live within a 25-minute radius, and the school’s proximity to the A30 and M25 makes it very convenient for parents.
Head
The very welcoming Peter Thacker has headed Bishopsgate for four years. He’s a family man whose two sons attend the school, and he tells us there’s a ‘real pastoral family feel’ to a Bishopsgate education, inspired by the Harmony philosophy that encourages everyone ‘to see themselves as part of nature, not apart from it’. And families are very much part of the community, with the school really getting to know them. ‘We find the nugget in every child from the earliest possible age and build confidence not arrogance,’ he says. ‘I want the pupils to look back on their days at Bishopsgate as being a magical childhood, while at the same time they are able to relate to everyone in life.’ Mr Thacker moved into education after serving in the military, and he rose quickly from the position of deputy head at Lambrook in Berkshire to head of Prince’s Mead School in Winchester before joining Bishopsgate.
Admissions
Numbers are strong, so it’s worth getting in early – from September 2026, reception will grow from two forms to three and it’s already almost full. There is capacity for three forms in each year going upwards to Year 8. Gently selective, Bishopsgate looks for a good match between a child’s needs and character and the school’s own philosophy.
Academics and senior school destinations
‘We are not an academic hothouse, but we get the same results as hothouse schools,’ says Mr Thacker. Key to this success is the Harmony ethos that underlies everything. ‘It is a key component of the curriculum – environmental teaching,’ he tells us. This is reflected in indoor-outdoor teaching from reception, classrooms named after birds and weekly forest school in the woods bordering the playing fields. ‘Children need to be muddy, to climb trees, to be a mild inconvenience and to test boundaries at times – that is what is called childhood,’ says Mr Thacker. Outdoor lessons see pupils launching rockets in the quad, investigating nature and building dens. There is a head of expeditions and adventure, and specialist teachers in music, French and PE from nursery. In Year 3, pupils are set for English and maths, and specialist teachers take digital learning, art and D&T. Pupils learn robotics, coding, online safety and AI, with a focus on human connectivity and the skills that AI cannot replicate. From Year 5, pupils have subject-specific teachers for everything; classics is also added to the curriculum and, from Year 7, Spanish. Science is practical – Year 6 dissect animal hearts and lungs – and there’s an extension group in Year 8 that is currently working its way through a GCSE paper.
Leavers head off to a wide range of senior schools including Hampton School, Wellington College, Charterhouse and The Windsors Boys’ and Girls’ schools.
Co-curricular
Sports facilities are excellent – the new sports hall is huge and has special acoustics ‘so pupils can be spoken to and not shouted at’, says Mr Thacker. There’s a full-height climbing wall, a dance studio and an impressively kitted-out gym. Girls play netball, hockey and cricket, with football due to be introduced next year. Boys play football, rugby and cricket, and everyone does tennis and athletics. Swimming and rowing are strong too.
The former sports hall is now a beautiful theatre, with tiered, raked red seating and a flat stage for drama and musical performances. Years 1 and 2 stage a musical; Years 3 and 4, a full-stage production; Year 5, a panto; and the senior years, an extravaganza with everyone involved. Music, art and D&T are all taught to a high standard. Every summer, the Arts Fest sees every child sing and display a piece of art. Stacked with tools, the D&T workshop is full of pupils busy creating bug hotels and alarm clocks, while the food-tech room has professional ovens for making pizza and pasta, among other goodies.
Riding, karate and myriad clubs for sports and arts mean children are spoilt for choice, while trips include camping in Windsor Great Park for younger pupils and remote camping in the wilderness of Transylvania for Year 8s – ‘It was the best thing we’ve ever done,’ one pupil told us.
School community
Strong pastoral care is a priority, with weekly meetings with the heads of each part of the school. ‘We first and foremost get this bit right, and then Bishopsgate becomes an extension of home and the children can be themselves at school,’ Mr Thacker tells us. An enlightened approach to learning support as a ‘superpower’ means help is stigma-free and readily available. ‘We have an unbelievable SENCO who has opened up the dialogue about learning support,’ says Mr Thacker.
Older children are encouraged in leadership roles, from pupil librarians to prefects reading to pre-prep. The pupil voice, says Mr Thacker, ‘is really important’. The school council meets weekly and presents its ideas to the PTA about how they’d like money to be spent – beehives and beekeeping suits were a recent acquisition. Parents are also given their say with termly surveys, open classroom mornings and coffee and pastries before Friday assembly. It’s a ‘lovely, strong, eclectic community’, says Mr Thacker.
And finally....
‘Education-wise, we are a traditional British prep school but there are veins of radicalism along the corridors to ensure pupils are agile for future life,’ says head Peter Thacker – and we couldn’t sum up Bishopsgate any better. A wonderful school, where the magic of childhood is protected while laying the foundations for a fulfilling adult life.