Stephen Perse Cambridge

Academic ambition and a distinctly Cambridge sense of curiosity run through this selective, co-educational all-through school, which grows out of a 19th-century physician's bequest and now teaches children from its nurseries all the way to the sixth form. Sitting on Union Road a short walk from the city's colleges and station, it educates a whole-school community of about 1,624 across nursery, junior, senior and sixth-form phases. GCSE results place it in the top 4.1% of schools in England, with A-level results in the top 6.7%. Richard Girvan leads the school to the end of the 2026 summer term, with Stephen Ward becoming Principal from September 2026. The most recent ISI inspection, in September 2025, confirmed that all regulatory Standards are met.

The Stephen Perse story starts in 1881, when a bequest from Dr Stephen Perse, a physician and fellow of Gonville and Caius College, funded a school for girls in the middle of Cambridge. That single school has grown into a foundation of several, and in 2008 it took the name Stephen Perse Foundation and moved to full co-education. The motto, L'esprit de son âge (spirit of the age), still frames the school's outlook: forward-looking, restless with new ideas, comfortable next door to a university that runs on them.

Physically, this is an urban school woven into the streets of central Cambridge rather than set behind a country estate. Teaching spaces, an arts centre and a sixth-form site are dotted along and around Union Road, Coronation Street and Trumpington Road, and the school makes a virtue of the constraint. The tone is purposeful and warm rather than austere. The result is an inclusive and united community in which pupils thrive, and children show high levels of personal and emotional security from the earliest years.

Selection sets the intellectual temperature. Pupils arrive having shown curiosity as much as prior knowledge, and the classrooms reward that: discussion is expected, questions are welcomed, and the proximity of the University seeps into daily life through visiting speakers, concert venues and competitions. The intellectual culture is not incidental. It is the product of a selective intake and a curriculum deliberately built to keep pace with the questions a university city throws up, and it gives the school a regional reputation for stretching able children hard.

Results are strong across both examined phases, and the school's own selective intake shows in the grade profile.

At GCSE, more than half of all entries reached the very top: 53.5% of grades were awarded at 9 or 8 (the old A*), and 72.2% came in at grade 7 and above (A or better). On the FindMySchool academic ranking, built from official results data, the senior school sits 160th of 3,895 schools in England for GCSE results, placing it in the top 4.1% and well above the England average. That is measured against every school in England with published GCSE results, state and independent. On the blended overall ranking, which combines results with the FindMySchool inspection score, it stands 132nd of 3,887, and 3rd of all secondary providers across Cambridge.

The sixth form is stronger still relative to the wider field. In 2025, 20.7% of A-level entries were graded A*, 55.3% were A* or A, and 82.7% reached A* to B. Set against England averages of 23.6% at A*/A and 47.2% at A* to B, the school's A* to B figure is well clear of the typical school, and almost all candidates attain high grades in all their chosen subjects. The FindMySchool academic ranking places the sixth form 172nd of 2,562 schools and colleges in England for A-level results, in the top 6.7% and well above the England average, again measured against all A-level providers, state and independent. Its overall position is 147th of 2,561, and 5th in Cambridge.

There is no separate England ranking for the junior phase, since primary-age pupils here do not sit the national Key Stage 2 tests. The early years and junior curriculum is instead built to feed the senior school, and the early years phase is a settled, well-run foundation, with strong quality of education, behaviour and personal development.

Teaching is the engine here, and its quality is a genuine strength: teachers are knowledgeable, plan well, use effective strategies to manage behaviour and form good relationships, creating a friendly, positive and productive classroom atmosphere. Pupils are motivated, eager learners who make good progress and attain high grades in public examinations.

What distinguishes the approach is coherence across a complex, multi-phase institution. The curriculum is ambitious and balanced from the early years upward, with a thematic approach in the junior schools designed to prepare pupils for the jump to secondary study. That deliberate bridge-building matters in an all-through school: children are not simply passed between separate institutions but carried through a single, escalating academic journey, so that the habits of independent thinking rewarded at A level are seeded years earlier.

Support for less confident learners is a genuine strength rather than an afterthought. Provision for pupils with special educational needs or disabilities, and for those learning English as an additional language, is effective and responsive, enabling consistent progress from each child's starting point. In a selective school it would be easy to assume every pupil sails through; the reality is a structured safety net beneath the high expectations.

The all-through model means pupils pass through several exit points, and most simply do not leave. Children move up through the junior phase into the senior school, and the great majority of the senior cohort continues into the sixth form, which also recruits a fresh intake from other schools at 16.

At 18, university is the overwhelming destination. Of the 2023/24 leaving cohort of about 100, 69% went straight to university, with a further 1% into apprenticeships and 6% into employment. The Oxbridge pipeline is a defining feature: from a recent cohort, 25 students applied to Oxford or Cambridge and 7 secured offers, all of which were taken up. Oxford proved especially fruitful, with 6 offers from 10 applicants, and the school reported that in 2026 over half of its Oxbridge applicants received offers. Beyond Oxbridge, sixth formers are supported towards competitive courses and universities through a comprehensive careers programme, alongside a PSHE curriculum that builds resilience and self-belief for the transition out.

For families weighing the odds, the school's published Oxbridge success rate is the more telling figure than raw application numbers: a well-run programme of interview preparation, subject enrichment and reference-writing sits behind it, and the University's presence a few streets away turns aspiration into something pupils see every day.

The sixth form is the sharp end of the school, and it runs from its own site anchored by the Rosedale Building on Trumpington Road. With over 25 A-level courses on the timetable, students typically take three or four, choosing from a spread that runs across the sciences, mathematics, economics, politics, psychology, sociology, film studies, modern languages, the humanities and the creative arts. That breadth lets students specialise early towards competitive university routes while keeping less common combinations open.

Post-16 life is deliberately more independent and adult. Sixth formers have a light and airy library reserved for their year groups, giving access to both physical and digital resources, and a fitness suite the school describes as holding all the equipment you would find in a professional gym. Enrichment is a structured part of the week rather than an optional extra: students run the annual Cambridge Model United Nations conference, take part in Young Enterprise, row and compete in sport, and work towards the Gold Duke of Edinburgh's Award. It is a programme built to bridge the gap between a supported school environment and the self-direction that university demands.

Entry is selective and happens chiefly at three points, with the process weighing curiosity as heavily as attainment. The main senior intake is at Year 7, with a further cohort admitted at Year 9. Prospective pupils sit an entrance assessment that includes tests in mathematics and English, but the school is explicit that this is less a test of what a child already knows and more a chance to see intellectual curiosity and the ability to respond to a collaborative challenge. All applicants are interviewed. The school is fully co-educational with a roughly even gender balance.

Younger children can join earlier, through the Foundation's nurseries and junior phase, progressing internally rather than re-sitting at each stage; families should confirm the specific assessment used for early entry directly with the school. Sixth-form entry at Year 12 is open to the school's own Year 11 students and to external applicants, and is conditional on meeting GCSE grade requirements in the subjects a student intends to take at A level. With over 25 A-level courses on offer, most students build a programme of three or four subjects.

Because this is an independent school, admission is direct to the school rather than through the local authority, and there is no catchment distance to satisfy. The practical constraints are the entrance assessment and the fees, not proximity. Families can use the FindMySchool saved-schools shortlist to track application windows across several Cambridge schools at once while they decide, and the map search to compare travel times from home to each site.

Wellbeing is treated as a whole-Foundation project rather than a bolt-on. Leaders and governors actively promote it across the schools, with common policies reflecting shared core values, and clear behavioural expectations are implemented consistently and fairly. Pupils treat each other with kindness and respect, and bullying incidents are rare and managed effectively.

The pastoral picture is backed by strong safeguarding. The September 2025 inspection found safeguarding measures to be rigorous, with designated safeguarding leaders, well-trained staff and meticulous record-keeping. Two practical refinements were flagged for attention: clarity in the process for verifying staff references, and enhanced supervision arrangements for outdoor playtime at the Cambridge junior site, so that pupils of all ages can play safely given the physical layout. Neither undercut the overall judgement that Standards are met, but both are worth a parent's question at an open event.

Emotional security threads through the younger years too. Children demonstrate high levels of personal and emotional security, and the careers and PSHE programmes deliberately build tolerance, respect, self-esteem and resilience as pupils grow. A comprehensive careers programme, running alongside the PSHE curriculum, ties this pastoral work directly to the choices students face at 16 and 18.

For a school hemmed in by city streets, the co-curricular range is remarkably wide, and participation is enthusiastic across activities as varied as poetry, cricket, martial arts and crochet.

Sport makes clever use of vertical space. At its heart is a Sport England four-court sports hall of about 690 square metres, with purpose-built bleacher seating for over 200 that doubles up for presentations and formal events. Above it sits a rooftop multi-use games area, which the school claims is the only rooftop sports pitch in Cambridge and which fills up at lunchtime. The programme spans hockey, cricket, football, netball (with coaching from the London Mavericks Super League set-up), archery, badminton, squash and martial arts, with several options such as archery, badminton, squash, Zumba and yoga opening up from Year 10. The school also brings in specialist coaching for volleyball, dance, basketball, fencing and rowing, and a professional-standard fitness suite gives sixth formers gym-grade equipment on site.

Music runs on serious infrastructure: a purpose-built music wing of teaching classrooms, rehearsal spaces and individual practice rooms, a Steinway Model D Spirio concert grand in the Senior School Hall and a Bechstein grand in the wing itself. The Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra and Choir perform at Cambridge's own concert venues, including the University's West Road Concert Hall and Great St Mary's, and the choir and chamber orchestra tour every other year. Student-run pop and rock groups and open-mic sessions keep the informal end alive, so music runs from the concert platform to the common room.

Drama is genuinely hands-on. Alongside a flexible top-floor drama studio, students learn prop making, costume design, set construction, sound and lighting, and recent whole-school productions such as The Addams Family, staged by Years 10 to 12, ran with student-made sets and costumes and played to full houses across several nights. Backstage craft is taught as seriously as performance.

STEM, enterprise and the outdoors give the school a distinctive fourth pillar. Its Nature Reserve on Latham Close, described as the best little wetland in Cambridge, is a working conservation site where students restore water meadows and maintain reed beds through the Eco-Enrichment Club under a dedicated conservator, cultivate crops in the Spud allotment club (experimenting with methods such as Hügelkultur beds), take part in Forest School, and even run an Intercontinental Potato Experiment with partner schools in India and the USA. A Visual Arts Centre on Coronation Street offers studios for fine art, digital art, textiles, film, sculpture, pottery and print-making, with individual studios for sixth formers alongside an artist in residence. Nearly 400 students work through the Bronze, Silver and Gold levels of the Duke of Edinburgh's Award, the sixth form hosts the annual Cambridge Model United Nations conference (in its eighth year in 2026), and enrichment options run from Young Enterprise to a debating team that competes in the Rotary Club of Cambridge South's Peace Debate.

Fees are published per term. For 2026-27, day fees for the senior school and the sixth form stand at £9,145 per term, which works out at roughly £27,435 across the three-term year (an estimate; the school bills termly). Full boarding, available only to sixth-form students, is £19,865 per term.

Financial support is meaningful in scope. The school reports that approximately one-third of pupils receive some form of financial assistance, with bursaries means-tested through an external provider so that awards track family income rather than being spread thinly. Merit-based scholarships are separate: they start at 5% of fees and are offered at Years 7, 9 and 12 across academic, music, sport, drama, art and design engineering categories, with music awards pegged to graded-exam attainment (for example Grade 5 or above at Year 7 entry). Scholarship value reflects both the category and the strength of the candidate's performance. Families should treat the scholarship as recognition and the bursary as the route to genuine affordability, and can apply for both.

Boarding here is narrow by design: it is full-time only and open exclusively to A-level students aged 16 and over, with no weekly, flexi or host-family options. Boarders have single-occupancy rooms, most with ensuite facilities, in accommodation with separate secure areas for boys and girls. The regime is deliberately relaxed for older students: there is no Saturday school or compulsory weekend programme, exeat weekends are flexible, and boarders are not required to vacate their rooms at half-term or over the Christmas and Easter holidays. The accommodation is warm, well-maintained and welcoming, with staff creating a family atmosphere. For sixth formers, especially those travelling from further afield or preparing for the independence of university, it is a soft landing rather than a rigid institution.

The school operates across several central Cambridge sites, so travel planning matters more than usual. The senior school is about a 15-minute walk from Cambridge railway station and the junior school about 12 minutes, which makes rail a realistic option for older students. Five Park and Ride routes (PR1 to PR5) serve stops close to the school sites, including a PR3 stop on Trumpington Road opposite the sixth form's Rosedale Building. For younger children, a home-to-school transport service run through the Kura by Zeelo app covers a wide geographical area, primarily for Year 6 and below, linking villages across South Cambridgeshire.

Early years provision runs from age two through the Foundation's nurseries. For nursery fee details, see the school website; government-funded hours are available for eligible families, and you can consult our guide to nursery funding. Specific daily hours, wraparound care and term dates are best confirmed directly with the relevant school office, as they differ by phase across the nursery, junior and senior sites.

Leadership is changing hands. Richard Girvan, Principal since August 2020, leaves at the end of the 2026 summer term, with Stephen Ward, a long-serving member of the senior team, becoming Principal from September 2026. Continuity looks strong given Ward's internal track record, but families joining now should ask how the incoming Principal intends to develop the school.

This is a selective, fee-paying school. Entry depends on an entrance assessment and interview at Year 7, 9 or 12, and full day fees run to several thousand pounds per term. The one-third of pupils receiving financial assistance and the scholarship scheme widen access, but for many families cost and selection are the two real hurdles, not availability of places.

It is an urban, split-site school. Learning is spread across central Cambridge streets rather than a single green campus, and outdoor playtime supervision at the junior site was flagged for improvement given the physical layout. Families who prize expansive playing fields on the doorstep should look closely at how the school uses its rooftop and off-site sports provision.

Stephen Perse Cambridge is an academically serious, city-centre all-through school that turns its urban setting and University neighbours into an advantage rather than a limitation. Results are genuinely strong (top 4.1% in England at GCSE, top 6.7% at A level), the Oxbridge and university pipeline is well oiled, and the co-curricular life is unusually rich for so compact a footprint, from a rooftop pitch and a Steinway-equipped music wing to a working wetland nature reserve. The picture is one of a warm, inclusive community with rigorous safeguarding and effective support for a range of learners.

It is best suited to curious, motivated children whose families want a demanding academic education inside Cambridge itself, with an all-through pathway from nursery to sixth form and, for older students, a low-key boarding option. The main caveat is straightforward: selection and fees govern entry, and a change of Principal in September 2026 means it is worth asking about the next chapter before you commit.