Royal High School GDST

For Girls. For Life. That strapline sits behind a distinction no other member of the Girls' Day School Trust can claim: of the trust's family of schools, Royal High School Bath is the only one that boards. High on Lansdown Road, this all-through school for girls runs from a nursery at age 3 to a sixth form that offers both A-levels and the International Baccalaureate. Around 550 girls are on roll across the whole school, from the prep at age 3 to the upper sixth. GCSE results place it in the top 5.3% of schools in England, and at its March 2024 inspection the school met every Independent School Standard. Heidi-Jayne Boyes has led it since January 2025. Two Victorian foundations, one for army officers' daughters and one a Bath day school, merged here in 1998.

The school carries two lineages. The Royal School for the Daughters of Officers of the Army opened in Bath on 24 August 1865, founded in large part by the philanthropist Alfred Douglas Hamilton to educate the daughters of army officers. Bath High School followed a decade later, opened on 21 September 1875 by the body that became the Girls' Day School Trust. The two merged in 1998, and that union is precisely why Royal High ended up as the trust's single boarding school: a boarding tradition grafted onto the trust's day-school heritage.

Today the school runs across two Bath sites. Royal High Prep School, for girls aged 3 to 11, is based at Cranwell House and follows its own Cranwell Curriculum; the senior school and sixth form sit up the hill on Lansdown Road. From September 2026 the school is reshaping its middle years, adopting a flexible middle-school structure spanning Years 5 to 13 to smooth the join between prep and senior study.

Heidi-Jayne Boyes became head in January 2025, arriving from Wakefield Girls' High School where she had led for seven years. The culture centres on three words the school repeats often, confidence, curiosity and connection, supported by learner qualities it wants every girl to grow into, among them brave, inquisitive and, in the school's own word, sparky. That vocabulary is not decoration. Teachers push girls to attempt the hard question and to treat a wrong answer as part of learning, a habit the inspection singled out.

Pride in belonging runs deep, and it shows in the four senior houses, which compete in events from house dance to house drama. The alumnae give that ambition a face: Dame Mary Berry, the cook and broadcaster; Dr Dawn Harper of Embarrassing Bodies; the BBC sports presenter Helen Rollason; the garden designer and Gardeners' Question Time panellist Bunny Guinness; and the Olivier Award-winning actress Sheila Gish.

Because Royal High is an all-through school, its published results belong to two exam-taking phases: GCSE in the senior school and A-level in the sixth form. The prep school is not separately ranked.

At GCSE the top-grade profile is strong and consistent. Nearly half of all entries, 47.7%, were graded 9 or 8, the equivalent of the old A*, and 67% reached grade 7 and above, the old A and A* band combined. That is a broad concentration at the top rather than a handful of standout individuals.

In England terms, the school's GCSE results place it 206th of 3,895 schools, within the top 5.3% and well above the England average. That is measured against every school in England with published GCSE results, state and independent. On the blended measure that also weighs inspection quality, the school ranks 217th of 3,887, and within the Bath area it is 3rd. These are proprietary FindMySchool rankings built from official data. Inspectors judged that pupils make better than expected progress at both GCSE and A level, which carries weight in a selective intake: with able girls, strong grades are the expectation, so progress beyond that is the harder test.

The sixth form runs two routes, and both deliver. On the A-level side, 12.9% of grades were A*, 33.6% A and 29.7% B, so 46.5% reached A*-A and 76.1% fell in the A*-to-B band. Against England averages of 23.6% at A*-A and 47.2% at A*-B, Royal High clears both comfortably. That places its A-level results 322nd of 2,562 schools in England, in the top 12.6% and above the England average, with a blended rank of 340th of 2,561 and, once more, 3rd in Bath. The International Baccalaureate cohort holds its own alongside: the school's IB Diploma students have averaged 36.24 points, well ahead of the global average of around 30.

Teaching is carefully planned and rests on secure subject knowledge, and it is adapted for girls who need it, including those with special educational needs and those learning English as an additional language. The Learning Support department, led by Mrs Siobhan Smillie, works across four levels, from quality-first teaching in the classroom through small-group intervention to specialist one-to-one sessions and examination support.

The thread running from the prep rooms at Cranwell House to the sixth-form classes on Lansdown Road is the encouragement to take measured risks. Girls are rewarded for effort and for having a go, and they are taught not to fear a mistake. Curriculum planning deliberately carries common themes across the prep and senior phases so that the move up the hill builds on what came before, and the coming middle-school structure is designed to reinforce that continuity. Leaders use assessment information to plan ahead and direct resources, and provision for pupils' social and emotional wellbeing has grown as a result. Financial literacy is introduced early, and pupils' economic understanding is advanced for their age. The one development point flagged at inspection is narrow: continuing to sharpen how progress is reported to parents in Years 7 to 9.

As an all-through school, Royal High manages three exit points. Prep pupils progress into the senior school; senior students move into the school's own sixth form provided they meet its GCSE entry requirements; and Year 13 leavers move on to higher education, work or a gap year.

University dominates at 18. Of the most recent leaving cohort, 75% took up places at their first-choice university and 69% went to Russell Group institutions. The most competitive destinations that year included three girls to Oxford, reading English, Geography and Medicine, two to the London School of Economics, two to King's College London and two to Hull York Medical School. Medicine features regularly, and engineering ambition shows elsewhere too: a sixth-former recently won a national Arkwright Engineering Scholarship. The mix of a well-scoring IB route and a broad A-level menu means students leave with qualifications recognised well beyond England, whichever path they took. Families weighing destinations can line these figures up against other Bath schools using the FindMySchool local hub.

Royal High admits at four main stages in the senior school: Year 5 at 9+, Year 7 at 11+, Year 9 at 13+ for external applicants, and Year 12 at 16+, alongside earlier entry into the nursery and prep from age 3. Entry is direct to the school rather than through the local authority. Assessment is part of the process: applicants typically attend a taster morning and interview, with formal assessment weighing more heavily at sixth-form entry. Sixth-form admission requires a minimum of grade 4 in English and Maths at GCSE, applied to internal and external candidates alike.

At age 3, entry to the nursery is non-selective, and children move up through the prep and into Reception without reapplying. The early years sit within the prep at Cranwell House, and progression from there into the senior school is the norm rather than a fresh application. Higher up, the school selects on academic potential but frames entry around fit as much as raw marks.

On finances, means-tested bursaries are offered at Year 7, at Year 9 for external applicants, and at sixth-form entry, reserved for girls who demonstrate outstanding all-round academic ability. The school does not publish how many awards it makes or how large they are, so families should enquire directly and apply early. Scholarships are awarded for academic promise and in three specialist areas, performing arts, art and design, and sport, and carry a modest fee reduction alongside dedicated enrichment.

Because it is independent, Royal High operates no distance-based catchment, so there is no cut-off mile to clear, and boarding widens the practical reach considerably, drawing girls from across the South West and overseas. Open events typically run across the autumn and spring terms; confirm current dates with the school before planning a visit.

The March 2024 ISI inspection found safeguarding to be effective, with procedures thoroughly audited and regularly reported, and pupils who feel safe at school. That security supports the culture of confidence and measured risk-taking the school works to build.

Wellbeing has been a deliberate area of investment. The social and emotional support on offer has expanded, and the house system gives every girl a smaller community inside the larger one. Girls develop a well-grounded respect for other cultures, helped by a genuinely international boarding community, and as international numbers grew the school created a dedicated leadership role to support those students. For boarders, an experienced residential team lives alongside the girls, and catering, provided on site seven days a week, is managed through a system that tracks each girl's dietary needs.

Co-curricular life at Royal High is unusually music-heavy, and that is where to start. The school is a designated Steinway school, and its purpose-built Steinway Music School houses a fleet of ten Steinway pianos, including a Model B, around a 60-seat recital room, with recording studios and a chamber organ besides. The ensemble list is long: an orchestra and concert band, a chamber choir and the vocal group Totally Vocally, brass, wind and string ensembles, a percussion ensemble, a samba band and an African drumming group among them. Girls work with visiting artists including the pianists Joanna MacGregor, Charles Owen and Lise de la Salle, and alongside Bath Philharmonia and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, and music tours have travelled to Barcelona, France and Germany. For a musical child, the implication is concrete: serious instruments, real performance, and expert coaching from early on.

Academic enrichment runs through the Aspire programme, a whole-school scheme of super-curricular clubs, twice-termly Aspire lectures and Aspire Awards, tiered by year group up to an Oxbridge-focused group in the sixth form. Debating, public speaking and Model United Nations feature strongly: Year 12 students take part in the Bath International Schools Model United Nations, and a junior version runs for Years 8 and 9. The Red Cross International Ambassadors programme links classroom study to wider issues.

Sport makes good use of Bath. The school has its own sports hall, fitness suite, netball and tennis courts and a hockey astroturf, and it draws on the University of Bath's facilities, including its 50-metre pool, for swimming. Hockey and netball are the mainstays within a wider menu that takes in tennis, cricket, athletics, golf, gymnastics, dance, cross country and rounders. Outdoor challenge is part of the picture too: many girls take on the Ten Tors Challenge and the Duke of Edinburgh's Award, with ten students completing the Gold award in the 2025 cohort.

Drama and the visual arts have their own momentum. Productions play in the Memorial Hall, whose retractable seating lets the space change shape for each show, and drama scholars perform at Bath's Egg Theatre and in an in-house monologue slam. The purpose-built Art School, with its floor-to-ceiling windows and dedicated spaces for sculpture and textiles, doubles as the venue for the summer exhibition. Specialist scholarships in performing arts and in art and design mark these out as serious disciplines rather than pastimes.

Royal High publishes its fees per term, and they rise by year group and by boarding arrangement. For 2026/27, day fees run at £5,322 a term (about £15,966 a year) for Years 5 and 6, £6,861 a term (£20,583 a year) for Years 7 to 9, £6,991 a term (£20,973 a year) for Years 10 and 11, and £7,161 a term (£21,483 a year) for the sixth form. Full boarding adds substantially, from £12,870 a term for Years 5 and 6 up to £16,202 a term (about £48,606 a year) for the sixth form. Flexible boarding is charged at £96 a night for up to three nights a week, and a day-boarding option runs at £30 a day. A registration fee of £150 for UK families (£200 international) and a deposit of £550 for day pupils or £1,000 for boarders apply on entry.

Financial support sits alongside the fees rather than as an afterthought. Means-tested bursaries are offered at Year 7, at Year 9 for external applicants, and at sixth-form entry, aimed at girls of outstanding all-round academic ability. Scholarships recognise academic promise and specialist talent in performing arts, art and design, and sport; the school is candid that these carry only a modest fee reduction, with their real value in the enrichment and recognition attached. Nursery fees are set separately and published on the school website, and government-funded early-years hours are available to eligible families; see our guide to nursery funding.

The sixth form is one of Royal High's defining features, largely because it offers a genuine choice of pathway. Students can follow A-levels or the International Baccalaureate Diploma under the same roof, an option few schools provide and one that lets the school steer each girl towards the route that fits her. The A-level menu is broad, running from the three separate sciences, mathematics and further mathematics through French, German, Spanish and Latin to history, geography, classical civilisation, politics, economics, psychology, computer science and design technology, and on to a full slate of creative subjects including fine art, art history, photography, drama and theatre, music and music technology.

Progress into Year 12 is conditional rather than automatic: girls need at least grade 4 in English and Maths, and the sixth form recruits externally as well as promoting its own Year 11. Enrichment sits alongside the main programme through the Aspire scheme's Oxbridge-focused senior group and activities such as the dance leaders' qualification, in which students devise and deliver a dance course to younger girls. For a family choosing between an A-level school and an IB school, Royal High's ability to offer both, and to advise on which suits a particular daughter, is a real point of difference.

Boarding is what sets Royal High apart from every other GDST school, and it is offered with flexibility. From Year 7 to Year 13, girls can board full-time, weekly, or on a flexible basis of up to three nights a week, with occasional and short stays available too; day places run throughout, so boarders and day girls form one school rather than two. Younger boarders, in Years 7 to 9, live in School House in shared dormitories, moving to shared or single rooms from Year 10, while sixth-form boarders have their own quarters in Gloucester House, complete with its own cafe.

The boarding community is deliberately international, and Bath itself becomes part of the experience, a compact World Heritage city on the doorstep. The residential team is experienced and lives alongside the girls, and the boarding houses provide a welcoming, safe environment for those who live in them. For families further afield, the weekly and flexi options are worth weighing carefully: full boarding means a daughter living at school for extended stretches, which suits some girls far more than others.

Royal High operates across two Bath sites: the senior school and sixth form on Lansdown Road, and Royal High Prep School, for girls aged 3 to 11, at Cranwell House. The nursery starts at age 3 and feeds directly into the prep; specific nursery hours and fees are published on the school website, and government-funded early-years hours apply for eligible families. The senior day follows standard independent-school hours, extended considerably by boarding and by the wraparound of clubs, rehearsals and fixtures.

Getting there is straightforward across a spread of the region. The school runs its own bus network, with services reaching within Bath and South Bath and out to Malmesbury, East Bristol, Bishop Sutton, Frome, Sutton Benger and Chippenham; boarding removes the daily journey entirely for families beyond easy commuting distance. Prospective families can measure the school against their own address using the FindMySchool map search and save it to a shortlist to compare with other Bath schools.

Fees sit at the upper end, especially with boarding. Senior day fees run above £20,000 a year and full sixth-form boarding above £48,000, before extras such as lunches, trips and music tuition. The school does not publish how many pupils hold bursaries, so for most families this is a major commitment; the financial-aid routes are worth exploring early.

Two sites mean a transition between buildings. The move from Cranwell House up to Lansdown Road is carefully managed, with curriculum themes carried across and a new middle-school structure from 2026 designed to smooth it, but it remains a change of site that some children feel more than others.

Single-sex throughout. Royal High educates girls only, from 3 to 18. For many families that is the main draw; for those set on co-education it is the deciding factor against.

Full boarding means extended time away. Boarders may spend long stretches at school. The weekly and flexi options soften this, but full boarding suits independent-minded girls more than those who want home close by.

Royal High School Bath is a distinctive all-through girls' school: GCSE results in the top 5.3% in England, a real choice between A-levels and a well-scoring IB Diploma, a full Steinway Music School, and a boarding offer no other GDST school can match. It does the quieter work well too, with effective safeguarding, expanding wellbeing support, and a culture that presses girls to be brave and to take intellectual risks. It will suit an academically able girl, whether a Bath day pupil or a boarder from further afield, whose family wants single-sex education, genuine breadth at sixth form, and the flexibility to board full-time, weekly or occasionally. The main caveat is cost: fees are high and the school does not publish how far its means-tested support reaches, so families should test the bursary and scholarship routes before assuming the price is fixed.