Holyport College provides a joyous and inclusive education which is uncompromising in encouraging each individual to aspire to academic excellence, to learn that embracing opportunity is its own achievement and to understand that a diverse, harmonious and happy community is the foundation of individual success.
Holyport College was founded under the Government’s free school programme as the UK’s first State Boarding free school. We opened our doors to our first students in September 2014 with our Sixth Form provision opening in September 2017. The intake of the College is all ability from Years 7 to 11 and the Sixth Form is academically selective. Whilst the College is modelled on an independent boarding school, we aim to emulate the best of both the state and independent sectors.
We pride ourselves on the diversity of our community and our students and staff are drawn from all walks of life however they are united by our high aspirations and traditional yet caring ethos.
There are two points of entry to the College: Year 7 and Sixth Form. From Years 7 to 11, we are an all ability, comprehensive school and we are academically selective in our Sixth Form with a focus on preparing students for access to Oxford and Cambridge and Russell Group Universities. The College has an unashamedly academic curriculum with all students expected to take up to ten GCSEs including the English Baccalaureate (English, Maths, Science, Geography or History and a Modern Foreign Language).
Boarding is at the heart of the College and this is reflected in many aspects of College life for both day students and boarders: we operate a longer school day than traditional day schools; we offer a full and varied co-curriculum to all students with many activities taking place in the evenings or at weekends as well as in the afternoons; our pastoral care is structured around our boarding houses and we have adopted a number of lexis and traditions from our partners at Eton College. This partnership is integral in ensuring that all of our students, both day and boarding, receive an exceptional quality of education and experience. Alongside this partnership, we are also keen to forge our own traditions as we establish ourselves as a model for the future of British state education and for collaboration between the independent and maintained sectors.