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Our View of Bromsgrove School
Bromsgrove School is an eye-catching place filled with happy juxtapositions: down to earth but with knockout facilities; traditional and values-oriented but with forward-thinking staff and a modern approach to learning; and a 100-acre campus with a warmth more often found in a smaller environment. Breadth is writ large, and pupils here will have the opportunity to challenge themselves and try something new in every facet of the curriculum.
The senior part of the school is home to over 1,000 pupils aged 13 to 18, with a ratio of 60:40 day to
boarding and a
co-ed split of 50:50. As well as its on-site prep-school sibling,
Bromsgrove Prep, the third child in the Bromsgrove family is
Winterfold, which offers the same values and ethos but in a smaller and more rural setting nearby – an option for prep-aged children of a more Enid Blyton persuasion. Amusingly, pupils who go all the way from pre-prep to senior at Bromsgrove are affectionately known as ‘survivors’ – although we’re all agreed that it’s something of a misnomer.
Where is Bromsgrove School?
Bromsgrove School shares its very beautiful site with the prep (the pre-prep site is a short drive away on a separate campus). North of Worcester and east of Kidderminster, the site is easily accessible by car (just off the M5) and has ample parking for parents along with a well-established bus service.
Head
Michael Punt is in his third year here as head and seems exactly the right fit for this impressive senior. Not overly polished or rehearsed, he is approachable and frank with a genuine interest in people and a refreshingly pastoral bias. While there is plenty of evidence of tradition, history and ‘old-school’ values here, he’s keen that Bromsgrove isn’t perceived as stuffy – in our view, there’s absolutely no danger of that.
He was immediately attracted to the school by its diversity, not just among the pupils themselves (there are over 70 nationalities) but also the variety created by boarding and day, A-levels/
IB or BTEC and the breadth of activities on offer.
Mr Punt is very proud of Bromsgrove School, citing countless sporting successes, the country’s second-largest
CCF, the recent jaw-dropping production of West Side Story and the fact that he is often moved by the achievements of his pupils, some of whom may have significant challenges outside of school. He spends a lot of time with his charges, particularly the boarders for whom Bromsgrove is home, and he wants to ensure that staff know each pupil almost as well as their parents do. He’s also a big fan of Saturdays, when he meets hundreds (and yes, we do mean hundreds) of parents who come to watch matches: ‘Community is a huge part of school life.’
His view of success is ‘playing the long game’; he doesn’t expect pupils to get it right every time. In fact, he feels there’s something to be said for taking calculated risks that mean you don’t always hit the mark. But in the long run, he does want pupils to follow a path that’s right for them: ‘They can find their ambitions at school and then develop the values and talent needed to fulfil them.’
Mr Punt will often say to his boarders, ’When you’re 100 and I’m even older, you will still have friends that you made here,’ and that’s what he wants for all his pupils: lifelong relationships and happy memories of a school that did its very best for everyone.
Admissions process at Bromsgrove School
All pupils entering the senior school (including those from the prep and Winterfold) sit the Bromsgrove entrance exam, although the school also accepts
Common Entrance. For those wanting to join in the
sixth form, offers are based on an interview and
GCSE results.
Academics and destinations
Perhaps the key stat here is that Bromsgrove School is in the top 10 per cent of schools for value added and most recently its average GCSE grade went up by 1.25. Mr Punt is convinced that it has much to do with the commitment of his staff (citing a recent example of a teacher who came in to run an economics workshop on a Sunday to settle some jangling GCSE nerves).
Bromsgrove offers the whole shebang in terms of qualifications – A-levels, BTECs and between a quarter and a third of students opt for the IB. Pupils each have a tutor they meet twice a week in a group. We were impressed by the interventions that are designed to help pupils stay on track, signing in for study periods in the library if grades aren’t as good as they could be or attending additional lessons to brush up on areas that didn’t go to plan in the mocks. Crucially, though, our pupil guides saw these as helpful and part of becoming as academically disciplined as you can be while still enjoying the full buffet of school activities on offer.
And if a learning environment is a factor in results, then it’s no wonder that pupils are doing so well. The past decade has seen refurbishments that include 18 science laboratories, an incredibly professional theatre, a concert hall and music classrooms, a great art and design building and a top-class humanities block.
Bromsgrove isn’t just a sporty school but it performs incredibly well at sport – and in the same way, it’s not just an academic school either, but boy does it do well. Last year’s leavers achieved 60 per cent A*–A grades and 83 per cent A*–B at A-level, 92 per cent of BTECs grades were Distinctions and just under two-thirds of students bagged an A for their EPQ. IB students got an average result of 38.9 compared to a world average of 30.3. One student even scooped the maximum 45 points, an accolade shared by only 0.3 per cent of candidates worldwide.
It's perhaps no wonder then that the world is Bromsgrove’s oyster, and 90 per cent of last year’s leavers obtained a place at their first-choice destination. Around a quarter headed to the world’s top 50 universities, 70 per cent to Russell Group establishments and one in 10 went on to study medicine, dentistry or veterinary studies.
Co-curricular at Bromsgrove School
Art, music, drama, sport – tick, tick, tick, tick: Bromsgrove School has it all with bells on. The school considers its art department ‘one of the finest in the country’, and it does indeed look very impressive. Pupils can study fine art, 3D design, textiles and photography, and the department’s open-door policy means that they can work on their portfolios during activity slots, evenings and weekends, which is brilliant for GCSE and A-level students or simply for enthusiasts.
Performing arts are excellent, with a superb concert hall and 300-seat professional theatre as well as specialist music classrooms, recording studios, instrument practice rooms and the theatre’s foyer and box office. Performances are West End-worthy, and there’s a very inclusive approach that ensures everyone’s role is equally celebrated and confidence-building, regardless of whether you are on stage or behind the scenes; or if you have 200 lines or just a well-timed wink.
CCF is massive (as mentioned above, the second largest in the country, we are told), and the school has even linked up with a school in Redditch to share resources and offer training sessions for pupils who don’t have their own force. For those not part of the CCF, Bromsgrove Service sees pupils helping out in the local community volunteering at a charity shop, local residential home or raising funds.
On the sports front, one pupil we met described the facilities here as ‘like crazy’ and he’s not wrong. There are floodlit Astros, a state-of-the-art gym, a plethora of netball and tennis courts, not one but two gigantic indoor sports halls, an indoor swimming pool, a climbing wall, a 400-metre running track (at the school-owned adjacent Ryland Centre) and an outdoor pursuits centre just a short drive away.
Despite a justified local reputation as big hitters in the sports arena, there is also a notable emphasis on participation, whether that’s for a school team or just having a go at a sport or activity you haven’t tried before. Sport-specific coaching starts in Year 1 of the pre-prep, so perhaps it’s no wonder that Bromsgrove Senior pupils have more than their fair share of national representation.
Boarding at Bromsgrove School
Forty per cent of students are boarders at Bromsgrove School, spread across two senior boys’ and two senior girls' houses, as well as a co-ed sixth-form house as an alternative option for the last two years. We took a look around a boys’ house, Wendron Gordon, which is the largest and has been a boarding house since 1917. While there are still glimpses of the original features peeking through, the house has been thoroughly modernised with every one of its 47 rooms having ensuite facilities and an additional toilet for any room with more than three beds.
Younger boys are in rooms of up to four, with well-placed partitions to create space and privacy, and older boys are in double or single rooms as they reach the upper sixth. Every bed space has a small wardrobe (with a digital safe inside), storage spaces and a study desk, and the communal dayroom is adorned with photos of old boys and jam-packed with leather sofas positioned around the original parquet flooring. The house tuck shop operates for morale purposes and also to raise funds for the chosen house charity, but boys can also earn themselves a free chocolate bar by cashing in any ‘tidy stars’ they have earned for the cleanliness of their room.
All boarders eat breakfast, lunch and dinner in school with the exception of the upper sixth, who are allowed breakfast in-house as a privilege. And there’s no chance that boarders will go hungry, as every house has a fully equipped kitchen where pupils can rustle up an extra meal or help themselves to the endless supply of bread, butter, jam, cereal milk and fruit.
There are optional trips every weekend for the senior boarders, as well as access to much of the school’s facilities and grounds.
Bromsgrove School community
Pastoral care is very high on the agenda and central to the Bromsgrove ethos across the whole family of schools. ‘Children need to be happy to thrive academically,’ says prep-school head Mike Marie, and it’s a viewpoint shared at the senior with a dedicated wellbeing hub for any pupil to access and wellbeing teams who liaise with parents, guardians and external agencies such as CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) to ensure that care is fully cohesive and consistent.
The local day-parent body is hard-working, large and supportive, with hundreds turning out at weekends to watch matches. The on-site café, open to staff and pupils during the week, is also open to the public at the weekends, bringing families in and making them feel welcome.
Bromsgrove School also plays a significant role in the wider community, maintaining strong links with local schools, sharing its facilities and best practices. A notable example is its partnership with Chadsgrove School, where pupils with profound special needs participate in shared activities alongside their Bromsgrove peers. Additionally, the Bromsgrove team supports the school by helping maintain parts of the Chadsgrove grounds and gardens.
And finally....
‘We want the pupils who leave us to go out and change the world,’ says Mr Punt, and if they’ve fully embraced all the opportunities that Bromsgrove has to offer, they’ll be well placed to do exactly that. This school is a belter – it delivers against every benchmark and offers enough breadth for every child to find their niche. Bromsgrove School may walk with kings, but it has retained the common touch, which makes it something of a rare find.