Oakham School

Quasi cursores vitai lampada tradunt (Like runners, they pass on the torch of life) runs Oakham's motto, and the school has been passing that torch since Archdeacon Robert Johnson founded it in 1584. Today it is a coeducational boarding and day school for around 908 students aged 11 to 18, set across a 70-acre campus woven into the historic market town of Oakham in Rutland. Boarders and day students split almost exactly evenly, at roughly 50:50, and gender is balanced too. The Church of England foundation still shapes the calendar, though the community is broad. Academic breadth is a defining feature: Oakham was among the first independent schools in England to run the International Baccalaureate Diploma alongside A-levels. Henry Price is the current Headmaster.

Heritage sits everywhere here, but it is working heritage rather than a museum. The Old School, the original 1584 classroom building where the first schoolmaster taught local boys Greek, Latin and Hebrew, was restored in the 18th century and is still in use, its walls carrying frescoes of scenes from Tennyson. A few steps away stands the School Chapel, built as a First World War memorial and dedicated in October 1925 to 70 fallen Old Oakhamians, with a later memorial to 83 more lost in the Second World War. The campus is not walled off from the town; it threads through the streets of Oakham, so daily life mixes school and market-town rhythms.

Oakham has been fully coeducational since 1971, when Headmaster John Buchanan introduced girls throughout the school with a first intake of 17 boarders and 10 day girls, turning it into one of the largest coeducational boarding and day schools in the country. That long habit of mixed, balanced numbers gives the place an unshowy, settled feel. Four core values anchor the ethos: Care, Courage, Contribution and Connection. Daily life reflects the same values: pupils speak positively about their happiness, equality, diversity and inclusion are advocated by the students themselves, and boarders develop a genuine sense of belonging.

Institutionally the school sits in the mainstream of established independent education, holding membership of the Headmasters' and Mistresses' Conference and the Boarding Schools' Association and running as an authorised International Baccalaureate school. A note of change is coming: from September 2026, Lucy Pearson, an Old Oakhamian, becomes the first female Head in the school's 440-year history, a milestone for a foundation that has been led by men since the sixteenth century.

At GCSE, just over half of all grades reach 7 or above. In the most recent results, 32% of grades were awarded at 9 or 8 (the equivalent of the old A*), a further 18% at grade 7, giving 50% at grade 7 and above. These are strong outcomes for a school with a genuinely broad intake rather than a hothouse admissions filter.

That performance places Oakham 370th of 3,895 schools in England for GCSE results, the top 9.5%, well above the England average. This is a proprietary FindMySchool ranking built from official data, measured against every school in England with published GCSE results, state and independent. On the blended FindMySchool overall measure, which combines results with an inspection-quality score, the school sits 307th of 3,887 in England, and it ranks first in the Oakham area.

A-level results carry similar weight. Nearly one A-level grade in five is an A* (19%), a quarter are graded A, and 73% of all entries land at grade B or above. Set against the England averages of about 24% at A*/A and 47% at A*/B, Oakham's 44% at A*/A and 73% at A*/B are comfortably ahead. In the FindMySchool rankings that translates to 288th of 2,562 in England for A-level results, the top 11.2%, again well above the England average, with an overall position of 242nd of 2,561 and top spot locally.

The sixth form is broad by design. A-levels span more than twenty subjects, from the sciences and Further Mathematics to three modern languages in French, German and Spanish, and less common academic choices such as Politics and International Relations, Religion and Philosophy, and Sports Science. BTEC courses in Business and in Sports Science sit alongside them for students who learn better through applied assessment, and the IB Diploma, offered since 2001, gives an internationally minded alternative for those who want to keep languages, sciences and humanities in play right up to 18. The co-existence of A-level, BTEC and IB under one roof is unusual even among large independents, and it lets a student build a genuinely individual programme rather than choosing from a narrow menu.

Teaching rests on secure subject knowledge. Teachers know their subjects well and teach in ways that build real understanding, with pupils encouraged to challenge ideas critically rather than absorb them passively. Progress is good across the stages: most students reach GCSE, IGCSE, A-level, BTEC and IB results in line with or above prediction, and, notably, pupils with special educational needs and disabilities tend to exceed their predictions while students learning English as an additional language make good progress too.

There is one honest qualification, and the school owns it. The latest ISI inspection identified that some teaching does not stretch older students hard enough for consistently good progress in every subject, and the single formal action point asks the school to match all teaching more precisely to ability so that older pupils progress consistently across the board. It is a targeted point rather than a systemic weakness, but it is the area a prospective sixth-form family should ask about directly.

Support for different learners is structured rather than ad hoc. A dedicated Learning Support Department, led by Dr Emma Stanley Isaac, runs from small-group sessions in the lower years to individual and paired support higher up the school, working from a purpose-built suite of classrooms and covering profiles such as dyslexia, dyspraxia and ADHD alongside English as an additional language. For families whose child needs a measured amount of scaffolding to access a demanding curriculum, that provision is a genuine part of the offer rather than a footnote.

Most Oakham leavers head to university, and the school supports a wide spread of destinations rather than funnelling everyone toward one or two names. Department for Education tracking of the 2023/24 leaving cohort of 190 students shows 47% progressing to higher education and 19% moving into employment, with the remainder spread across further study, gap years and overseas routes that the domestic measure does not fully capture. The school itself reports that, in a recent year, 90% of university applicants secured a place at their first-choice institution.

Named destinations run across the Russell Group and beyond: Durham, Exeter, Bristol, Leeds, Nottingham, Edinburgh, Manchester, York, Bath, Newcastle and King's College London all feature regularly, alongside specialist routes such as the University of the Arts London. A meaningful number look abroad, to institutions including the University of Pennsylvania, Bocconi in Milan and ESADE in Madrid, a pattern that reflects the school's IB tradition and its international intake. Oxbridge remains part of the picture but is not oversold: in the most recent cycle the school made 15 Oxbridge applications, which yielded one offer and one confirmed place at Cambridge. Families should read that as a school that genuinely reaches the top universities without staking its identity on Oxbridge volume, and one that treats a place at Exeter, Edinburgh or a strong overseas university as a success in its own right.

Oakham takes students at four main entry points, 11+, 13+, 14+ and 16+ for the sixth form, plus a dedicated route for international pupils. The school does not run a narrow, super-selective gate; assessment is used to confirm that a child will thrive academically and in boarding or day life rather than to screen for a tiny elite. Precise test formats and requirements are handled case by case, and the admissions team expects direct contact early, especially for boarding places and international applications.

As a Church of England foundation, Oakham's Christian character is woven into the calendar through the Chapel, but admission is not gated by faith. Families of all faiths and none are welcomed, in the broadly inclusive tradition typical of Anglican-foundation independent schools, and there is no requirement to demonstrate churchgoing to gain a place. For sixth-form entry, the school recruits both its own Year 11 students and a healthy number of external applicants, so a strong set of GCSEs and the right subject profile matter more than whether a student is already on the roll.

Because this is a fee-paying independent school, there is no local-authority catchment and no distance-based allocation; place your questions with the school directly, and use the FindMySchool map and comparison tools to weigh Oakham against other options across Rutland, Leicestershire and Lincolnshire before you commit to a visit.

Pastoral life is built around the House. Every student, boarder or day, belongs to a House that functions as their base and, in the school's own language, their physical and spiritual home. Each boarding House is staffed by Matron and domestic teams providing day-to-day care, with medical and pastoral support available around the clock. That structure is the engine of the school's wellbeing culture: leadership of boarding is effective, clear links run between academic and house staff, and boarders' wellbeing is treated as a high priority.

Behaviour rests on a stated zero-tolerance approach to bullying, backed by consistent rewards and sanctions, and pupils are given real avenues to contribute to others through student-led initiatives that deepen a sense of social responsibility. Safeguarding is effective: the latest ISI inspection confirmed that policies and procedures meet current statutory guidance, staff are trained on induction and updated regularly, and leaders liaise well with external agencies including the local authority designated officer. For parents, the reassurance is that pastoral care is not an add-on here but the organising principle of daily life, and that the House a child joins at 11 or 13 tends to stay their anchor to 18.

Sport is a headline strength, with national-level success in rugby, netball and hockey and competitive teams across the age groups. The playing base is serious: the Wilson Top Astro for hockey and training, a Sports Centre and sports hall, a swimming pool, a fitness centre with a free-weights room, and squash and tennis courts. Beyond the core team games, the programme reaches into lacrosse and cricket for girls and boys and even competitive shooting, including .22 rifle competition. Steve May directs sport across the school, and the breadth means a child who is not a first-team athlete still finds a game to belong to.

Music runs deep. Twelve weekly ensembles cover orchestras, bands, a chapel choir whose harmonies fill the School Chapel, and musical-theatre performers, so instrumental and vocal learners have somewhere to play at every level. Drama is just as ambitious, staged largely in the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, a 200-seat professional space that hosts everything from experimental studio pieces to full-scale musicals, with the atmospheric 1584 Old School doubling as an intimate second venue for workshops and smaller productions. Around five major productions run each year under Director of Drama Gilly Norell, supported by LAMDA and RADA Shakespeare Certificate lessons, an annual Shakespeare monologue competition and weekly dance classes.

The wider co-curriculum keeps the same specificity. Creative and technical work is served by six art studios and six design and technology studios, giving visual arts and engineering-minded students room to make rather than just study. Adventure and service come through the Combined Cadet Force and the Duke of Edinburgh's Award, while Model United Nations sends students to debate at conferences in the UK and overseas. The through-line is range with genuine depth: a student can commit seriously to sport, music, drama, cadets or diplomacy and find real coaching and stage time behind each, which is exactly what a full boarding-and-day school with long evenings is built to provide.

For the 2026/27 academic year, senior fees (Years 9 to 13) are £19,482 per term for full boarding, £16,992 for weekly boarding and £11,508 for a day place, each figure including 20% VAT. In the youngest years (7 and 8), full boarding is £14,796 per term and a day place £9,438, with flexible boarding priced between £11,316 and £13,830 depending on the number of nights. Sixth-form fees fall within the senior bands.

Financial support is real rather than nominal. Bursaries are means-tested and, for scholarship applicants who demonstrate financial need, carry no stated upper limit on their value, subject to available funding each year. Families with three or more children receive a 10% discount against the day fee for the third and any subsequent child, and Armed Forces families receiving the Continuity of Education Allowance qualify for reduced boarding fees pegged to the allowance rate plus 10%. As with any independent school, ask the bursary team early, because awards are finite and allocated ahead of entry.

Boarding is not a bolt-on at Oakham; it is half the school. The roughly 50:50 balance of boarders to day students means boarding rhythms shape the whole community rather than a separate minority. Places come in full boarding, weekly boarding and, for the youngest years, flexible boarding of varying nights, so families can match the arrangement to a child's age and home circumstances. Every student sits within the House system whether they sleep at school or not, which keeps day and boarding life integrated rather than parallel.

Inside the Houses, Matron and domestic teams handle daily care and pastoral and medical support runs 24/7. The boarding accommodation and wider premises are maintained to a high standard, with health, safety and fire management handled well, and the leadership of boarding is effective and closely joined to the academic side. For overseas families, the dedicated international entry route and the school's IB tradition make Oakham a practical choice, though distant families should plan around weekend and exeat patterns before committing to full boarding, since Rutland is not the fastest county to reach from every part of the country.

Oakham sits in the centre of its namesake market town in Rutland, and much of its distinctiveness comes from that integration with the town rather than a gated estate. The school runs its own network of nine bus routes, coordinated by Transport Manager Christopher Dook, reaching families across a wide arc of the East Midlands: Leicester and the villages toward Billesdon and Tilton, Stamford and Empingham, Melton Mowbray and Rothley, Grantham and Long Bennington, Oundle and Uppingham, and points around Foxton and Rearsby. For day families beyond immediate walking distance, that coach network is a decisive practical advantage.

Standard start and finish times are best confirmed directly with the school, as a boarding-and-day timetable runs longer and later than a conventional day school, with co-curricular activity built into evenings. Given the almost even day-boarder split, the daily and weekly shape of school life is worth discussing at the outset so that a day family understands how much evening and weekend provision their child can access.

Fees are substantial and rise sharply into the senior years. Full senior boarding runs to £19,482 per term including VAT, and even a senior day place is £11,508 per term. Bursaries carry no fixed ceiling for those in financial need and sibling and Forces discounts exist, but the headline cost puts full boarding beyond many families, so explore financial aid before assuming affordability.

Stretch for the most able older students is the school's own improvement point. The latest inspection asked Oakham to ensure all teaching is matched to ability so that older pupils make consistently good progress across every subject. For a sixth-form family with a highly able child, it is worth asking how a specific department challenges its strongest students.

Full boarding means extended time away from home. With a genuine 50:50 boarding culture, boarding shapes the school, which suits some children enormously and others less. Distant families in particular should map weekend and exeat arrangements before committing, since Rutland is not quick to reach from every corner of the country.

The Anglican character is present, not incidental. Chapel and the Church of England foundation frame the school's calendar and memorial spaces, even though admission is open to all faiths and none. Families should be comfortable with a Christian-framed community life, while knowing observance is not a condition of entry.

Oakham is a confident, well-balanced coeducational boarding and day school that reaches genuinely strong results without turning into an exam factory. GCSE and A-level outcomes place it comfortably in the top tier in England (the top 9.5% at GCSE and top 11.2% at A-level), the IB Diploma adds a distinctive academic route, and the co-curricular programme in sport, music and drama has real depth behind named facilities like the 200-seat Queen Elizabeth Theatre and the Wilson Top Astro. Pastoral care, run through a strong House system with round-the-clock care, is the clear organising strength, and safeguarding is secure.

It is best suited to families who want an all-round, values-driven education with serious boarding at its heart, especially those drawn to a balanced 50:50 day-and-boarding community and to the flexibility of choosing between A-level, BTEC and the IB. The main caveats are cost and the school's own action point on stretching the ablest older students; families with a highly able sixth-former should probe subject-level challenge, and every family should test affordability against the substantial fees and the bursary options before applying.