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Our View of Taunton Senior School
A proudly inclusive school that excels in academics as well as co-curricular subjects, Taunton Senior School offers families a compelling all-through educational experience with children moving seamlessly from pre-prep to prep to senior school, meaning parents don’t have to worry about multiple school locations as their children move up the years. This is just one of its strengths in an area with plenty of independent schools vying for pupils. Others include its sporting reputation – it's been voted seventh best school in the country for sport – its noteworthy Combined Cadet Force which is the largest in the south-west, and its four different curriculum pathways after GCSEs.
Where is Taunton Senior School?
Taunton School is located in a leafy residential area of Taunton not far from Somerset County Cricket Club’s grounds – at night, you can see the floodlights twinkling. The 56-acre campus incorporates a mix of old and new buildings that are tasteful and functional rather than imposing. Sports grounds are to the front and the rear, with a few extra pitches across the road.
London Paddington is just one hour 50 minutes away which makes weekend exeats convenient for London families. Day pupils are served by 11 bus routes that run as far as Exeter, Glastonbury, Sidmouth and Yeovil.
Headmaster
Although the pre-prep, prep and very successful international schools are located on two separate sites with their own Heads, James Johnson has oversight of all the Taunton schools and works with tireless purpose. Engaging and full of energy, he is passionate about what Taunton offers. It’s ‘unpretentious but aspirational’, he says, a place where inclusivity and diversity are more important than grandeur. Mr Johnson comes from a family of teachers and he was head of senior school at Ardingly College before joining Taunton in September 2022. He says he wants the school to ‘add more value than anyone else’ and is acutely aware of the area’s competitive market but sees that as a challenge: ‘We must be excellent. There is no room for complacency.’ He’s joined a school which has already completed the building of a new dining hall, with separate sections for the prep and for the senior school, an amazing new sixth-form centre and an impressive library. Other plans include moving the international school onto the main school site.
Taunton Senior School Admissions Process
Children do not have to undergo any formal testing to get a place, but a one hour, online cognitive ability screening assessment gives the school the necessary information before arrival. Prospective pupils visit, have a face-to-face interview if possible, after which they can opt to come for a taster day and if they’re considering boarding can come for a sleepover to experience what it’s like.
Nearly all of the Taunton Prep School pupils join the senior school, with around 20 or so new children coming from other feeder schools. After GCSEs, around 35 pupils will leave, usually for sixth-form colleges, while 60 or 70 new students will start. To join the sixth form, pupils are expected to get five GCSE passes at grades 9-5.
Academics and destinations
The school gets outstanding results – in 2024, 92 per cent gained a grade 9-4 at GCSE, in A-level 52 per cent gained A*-B, at IB 76 per cent achieved a grade 5-7 and 81 per cent achieved a D*-D distinction at BTEC. Taunton School is unusual in offering so many pathways at 16+ and it works hard to find the right route for each child. Generally, class sizes are around 20 for core GCSE subjects and the average size in the sixth form is between 10 and 12.
Pupils are expertly guided by the careers department, which helps them explore all the
options for when they finish school – be that university, the armed forces, apprenticeships or internships. The vast majority (94 per cent) go to university or colleges, both in the UK and overseas. In the past 10 years, Taunton Senior School has sent more than 40 students to Oxbridge.
Co-curricular
The school is well known for its sporting prowess, regularly taking on competitive teams and winning, but the focus is on inclusiveness, with everyone getting an opportunity to shine. The usual sports are all on offer, such as rugby, cricket and football, as well as a broad range of the not-so-usual, including rowing, boxing, taekwondo and rock climbing.
D&T and art are strengths at this school. The D&T rooms are modern and fully equipped with laser cutters, 3D printers and spray booths. There’s a hi-tech music studio too, and pupils have individual music lessons and can take part in weekly teatime concerts, among other regular performances.
Drama is inclusive, with open auditions that don’t just favour the leavers. Taunton Senior School stages a drama and a musical every year. Pupils talked about how they like it that teachers share out the big roles so everyone gets a chance to be in the spotlight.
Boarding at Taunton Senior School
The five boarding houses are all on site and in close proximity which makes for a very sociable community of boarders – although house loyalty is strong, especially when it comes to house singing. Pupils pop back at breaktimes for toast (or waffles as they were eating on our visit) and constantly bump into each other at weekends. Saturday school finishes at 12.35pm and optional trips are organised on Sundays. The houses also arrange their own Sunday activities – Big Brunch is particularly popular.
There are three houses for the boys and two for the girls. Each has a kitchen-diner, sitting room and ICT suite, all tastefully decorated. Bedrooms are happy spaces that pupils have personalised. The younger children share with one or two others and roommates change each term. By the time they reach upper sixth, students get their own room.
At the moment, around half the boarders come from overseas and the majority of the UK pupils board full-time; flexi isn’t an option and not many are weekly. They’re all well looked after with each house assigned a boarding parent, an assistant and two graduate assistants.
Taunton Senior School community
The school is just the right size so that no one gets lost and, between form tutors, houseparents (there are six day houses as well as the five boarding houses), peer mentors, a mental health nurse and therapy dogs, pupils’ pastoral care is in very safe hands.
The parent body is diverse and the parents’ association puts on events throughout the year to raise funds and give families an opportunity to mix socially.
And finally....
A school with fantastic assets and a grounded outlook, Taunton Senior School is unique in being able to cater for children from six months to 18 years old and, with its international arm, from all over the world. It makes for a vibrant and diverse community, and the absence of repeated testing means pupils and parents can relax and enjoy the Taunton journey.