Concord College

Nearly half of every A-level entry at Concord College is graded A*, and four in five GCSE entries reach grade 9 or 8. That is the headline at this co-educational boarding school set on a 73-acre estate at Acton Burnell, a short bus ride from Shrewsbury, where roughly 550 students aged 12 to 20 from more than 40 countries live and learn together. The college was founded in 1949 on a simple conviction: that young people of different nationalities studying side by side would build understanding between them. It moved to its present Shropshire home in the 1980s and is now led by principal Dr Michael Truss, who anchors the school to three stated values of rigour, creativity and kindness. Almost entirely a full boarding community with a small day contingent, Concord sits among the highest-performing schools in England at both GCSE and A-level, and sends a steady stream of leavers to Oxford, Cambridge and leading universities worldwide.

Concord does not fit the usual template of an English boarding school. There is no long roll of aristocratic old boys, no chapel-and-cricket nostalgia. What defines the place is its internationalism: students arrive from more than 40 nations, and the alumni network now runs past 8,000 people across more than 150 countries. That mix shapes the daily texture of the school. Students share houses, classrooms and mealtimes with peers from Hong Kong, Nigeria, Malaysia, Eastern Europe and beyond, and the college treats that as its central educational asset rather than a logistical footnote.

The prevailing culture is one of serious, sustained academic effort. Governors and leaders promote the school's aims through the three values of rigour, kindness and creativity, and the ISI inspection of October 2024 found students happy, successful and well prepared for the next stage of their lives. Ambition here is worn openly. Students compete in science Olympiads and national academic competitions as a matter of course, and hard work is the social norm rather than something to be hidden.

For all that intensity, the atmosphere is not cold. Kindness and respect are everyday expectations, serious misbehaviour and bullying are rare, and students from very different backgrounds learn to read and value one another's cultures through the simple fact of living together. Openness is caught rather than taught. It is a demanding school that manages to stay warm, and that combination is a large part of its appeal to families weighing a move from overseas.

The breadth of that community shows in where former students end up. Concord's alumni include Professor Kefah Mokbel, a lead consultant breast cancer surgeon, and Aun Qi Goh, an Emmy-nominated documentary film-maker, alongside more unexpected paths such as Ophelia Liu, who left in 2013 and went on to win the second series of the BBC and Netflix competition Glow Up as a make-up artist. The spread is a fair reflection of a school that measures success by more than exam grades, even as the grades themselves are formidable.

The exam record is exceptional and consistent across both key stages. At GCSE, around 80% of entries are graded 9 or 8, and 89% reach grades 9 to 7, the old A*/A band. These are the profiles of a genuinely selective, high-achieving cohort rather than a handful of star performers.

In our proprietary FindMySchool rankings, built from official results data, Concord places 66th of 3,895 schools in England for GCSE results, the top 1.7%, ranked against every school in England with published GCSE results, state and independent. That is among the strongest GCSE performances in the country. On the overall measure, which blends those results with our inspection score, the college ranks 130th of 3,887 in England, and it stands first of all schools in Shrewsbury.

The sixth form is stronger still. Just under half of A-level entries, close to 50%, are graded A*, and once grade A is included the A*/A figure reaches roughly 84%. That compares with an England average nearer 24% for A*/A. Fully 95% of entries land in the A* to B band, against an England average closer to 47%. By the school's own account, 45 students achieved at least three A* grades in 2025, and more than 70% left with three A grades or better.

For A-level results, Concord ranks 13th of 2,562 schools in England, the top 0.5%, placing it among the highest-performing sixth forms in the country. On the blended overall measure it sits 28th of 2,561, and first in Shrewsbury once again. Both figures are proprietary FindMySchool rankings drawn from official data. Few schools in England, selective or otherwise, post an A-level academic position this high.

The engine behind these results is a teaching culture that expects a great deal and then supports students to meet it. Lessons are well planned with clear expectations, and teachers bring high levels of subject knowledge to the classroom. What sets Concord apart is the scaffolding around ordinary lessons: academic societies, subject clinics, one-to-one tutorials and dedicated enhancement sessions extend learning well beyond the syllabus, and students who arrive with English as an additional language receive specialist support that helps them achieve alongside their peers.

Facilities match the ambition. The sciences are taught in a purpose-built Science Block costing around £12 million, fitted with laboratories closer to university than school standard. The Jubilee Building houses the mathematics department and the College Library, which was opened by HRH The Princess Royal in 2009, while economics, English and art occupy the Castle Block, converted from the estate's original stables. A six-day timetable, with Saturday-morning tests built into the week, keeps the academic rhythm brisk and the feedback frequent.

The one qualification the college itself acknowledges concerns learning support. Students identified with special educational needs and disabilities make progress in line with their peers, but the planned improvements to individual SEND provision were not yet in place at the time of the 2024 inspection. Families whose children need structured, specialist learning support should ask directly about how that provision has developed since.

Destinations are where an international academic school like Concord shows its reach. Almost all leavers progress to leading universities in the UK or abroad. In the most recent Oxbridge cycle the college submitted 57 applications to Oxford and Cambridge, which produced 13 offers and 12 confirmed places, with Cambridge accounting for the larger share at eight offers alongside five from Oxford. For a sixth form of this size, a dozen Oxbridge places in a single year is a serious return.

The picture beyond Oxbridge is harder to capture in a single England figure. The Department for Education's tracked destination measure, which follows leavers into UK institutions, records 55% of the 2023/24 cohort of 172 continuing to a UK university. That number understates the reality here, because a large proportion of Concord's international students go on to universities overseas, and those destinations fall outside the England-based measure. Competitive routes such as medicine, engineering and the sciences are well trodden, reflecting the school's strength in maths and the sciences.

Sixth-form study is deliberately focused. The A-level programme runs across Art, Biology, Chemistry, Economics, English Literature and Language, French, Further Mathematics, Geography, History, Mathematics, Physics and Spanish, and the Extended Project Qualification lets students pursue an independent research project alongside their main subjects. Entry to the sixth form is selective in its own right: an academic scholarship at this level, for instance, expects ten or more grade 9s or A* grades at GCSE, which gives a clear sense of the standard a Year 12 cohort is working to.

Concord admits at three main points: Form 3 at around age 13, Form 4 at around age 14, and the sixth form at 16 to 17. There is no single catchment or local-authority coordinated route here; families apply directly to the school from across the UK and around the world, and applications are accepted year-round, with first offers for the following year typically arriving in October.

Selection is by examination and interview. Form 3 and Form 4 applicants sit online tests in English, mathematics and critical thinking, with the English paper adapted for students who speak English as an additional language, and interviews with senior staff are usually held online to accommodate overseas candidates. A registration fee of £460 applies to each application. Because entry is genuinely competitive and the cohort is academically strong, prospective families should treat the assessments as a real hurdle rather than a formality, and register early in the cycle.

Given that most students board and many travel internationally, the practical side of admission matters as much as the academic. The school arranges transport from Shrewsbury and provides holiday accommodation at half-term and Easter for those who cannot easily return home, though Form 3 and Form 4 students are not able to stay on site over the Easter break.

For a school where most students live far from home, pastoral care is not a supporting act but the foundation. Boarding accommodation is of a high standard, and consistent policies run across all 17 houses, each staffed by a Lead Boarding Parent and an Assistant Boarding Parent who provide the day-to-day care that boarders repeatedly say they value. Students are confident that leaders listen to their views, and the personal, social and health education programme helps them understand themselves and build healthy relationships.

Safety is managed thoroughly. Safeguarding arrangements are effective, with staff who are knowledgeable and experienced, governor oversight, and comprehensive training for boarding staff. The site is secured by a round-the-clock security team, CCTV and regular patrols, and a medical centre looks after both physical and mental health, backed by first-aid-trained staff. For parents entrusting a child to a school in another country, that visible infrastructure of care is reassuring, and it is one of the reasons families from 40-plus nations feel confident sending children here.

Concord balances its academic intensity with a broad co-curricular life, and much of it carries the same competitive, outward-looking spirit as the classroom.

In sport, the college fields teams that reach genuine national stages. The U18 football team has played in the national finals of the Heads of Society Cup, the table tennis team has competed at the English Schools National Final, and the cross-country team has taken national relay medals. An Elite Sports Programme offers tailored support to the strongest athletes. The facilities carry all of this: two large sports halls, an indoor heated pool, a fully equipped gym, squash, tennis and volleyball courts, a running track, a climbing wall, a high ropes course and a dance studio give students a genuine range of options through the year.

Music and drama are similarly well organised. The choir, chamber group and composition club feed a full calendar of events, from the annual Winter Showcase and Open Mic Concerts to the School Musical and the Concord College Concerto Competition, which gives instrumentalists a genuine platform to perform as soloists. Drama runs through The Morris Building, the college's own theatre, and includes a Form 3 Shakespeare production and a House Arts Competition that pulls the boarding houses into performance.

The academic enrichment is where Concord's character shows most clearly. Students run and compete in the Physics, Mathematics and Informatics Olympiads, and inspectors singled out how successful individuals and teams are in science Olympiads and national competitions. MedSoc prepares aspiring medics, Model United Nations and Mock Trial sharpen argument and diplomacy, and the Biomedical Illustration Club and Sustainapod, a sustainability podcast group, show the range of niche interests the school supports. National societies for students from Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and elsewhere give the international cohort a home while opening those cultures to everyone.

Outdoor education makes full use of the Shropshire and Welsh countryside. The Duke of Edinburgh's Award runs through the school, and the year is punctuated by a Form 3 walk and camp-out early in the first term, expeditions to Bala, visits to Conwy and the Peak District, and a Form 5 canoeing day on the local river.

The campus itself gives this life a distinctive setting. Students unwind in the glass-fronted West End Common Room, with its snack bar and shop, and in the quieter Old Chapel Common Room, a historic building with a piano and stained-glass windows. The main student kitchen, built in a walled garden, was shortlisted as a finalist for the RIBA Stirling Prize, and the grounds hold the ruins of Parliament Barn, said to be the site of a 1283 meeting of the English Commons. Few boarding schools can offer a co-curricular backdrop quite like it.

Concord is a fee-paying school, and the fees reflect its full boarding, international model. Day places are £8,100 per term, or £24,300 per year across three terms, inclusive of VAT. Full boarding is £22,000 per term, or £66,000 per year, also inclusive of VAT. A registration fee of £460 accompanies each application.

Financial support is available, though families should read the categories carefully. Merit scholarships at Form 3, Forms 4 to 5 and sixth-form academic level are typically worth 5 to 10% of fees, while the Principal's Scholarships can be far larger, commonly in the range of 25 to 50% and sometimes more, for exceptional candidates. The means-tested Anthony Morris Scholarship is aimed specifically at sixth-form boarders and can carry substantial awards for families who qualify on income grounds. As a rule, scholarships here reward ability and are usually partial; the more significant reductions come through the merit-based Principal's awards and the means-tested route, so families relying on assistance should discuss eligibility with the college directly and early.

Boarding is the heart of Concord, not an add-on. The college operates 17 boarding houses across its campus, and the great majority of students board full time, with only a small number attending as day students who travel in from Shrewsbury. Each residence is run by a Lead Boarding Parent and an Assistant Boarding Parent, and boarders describe the care as close and attentive. The centre of campus is the Main Hall, a Georgian mansion that also holds offices, classrooms and the medical centre.

The rhythm of the week is busy and structured, with Saturday-morning tests and a full programme of activities that boarders use to relax, socialise and explore interests beyond their studies. Weekend and holiday arrangements suit an international roll: the school provides accommodation at half-term and Easter for students who cannot travel home, with the exception that Form 3 and Form 4 students cannot remain over Easter. Because this is overwhelmingly a full boarding community with a strong overseas intake, it will suit families comfortable with their child living at school for extended stretches, and it is less naturally suited to those wanting a daily day-school routine.

Concord runs a six-day academic week, with Saturday mornings given over to tests and the afternoon and weekend to activities and free time. The college is set in the Shropshire countryside at Acton Burnell, and it operates a bus service that collects day students from Shrewsbury on weekday mornings and returns them in the evenings, with a Saturday service that brings students in for Saturday tests and offers a return after lunch. Boarders live on site through term, so the transport question mainly affects the day contingent and visiting families. Because the campus is rural, families planning regular visits or day attendance should factor in the journey from Shrewsbury and the surrounding towns; the FindMySchool map search can help you gauge travel time from a prospective home.

SEND provision is still developing. Students with identified special educational needs make progress in line with their peers, but at the 2024 inspection the school's planned improvements to individual SEND support were not yet in place. Families whose children need structured specialist support should ask specifically how that provision has advanced.

This is a full boarding, international school. The overwhelming majority of students board, and a large share come from overseas. That model is a strength for families seeking a genuinely international academic environment, but it means most children live at school for long periods, which suits some far better than others.

The academic pace is demanding. Concord selects on ability and works its students hard, from Saturday tests to Olympiad preparation. Confident, motivated learners thrive; a child who needs a gentler tempo may find it intense.

Fees are significant and aid is mostly partial. Full boarding costs £66,000 a year. Merit scholarships are typically 5 to 10% of fees, and while the Principal's awards and the means-tested Anthony Morris Scholarship can be larger, families relying on substantial help should confirm eligibility early rather than assume it.

Concord College is one of the strongest academic schools in England on the numbers, sitting in the top 1.7% for GCSE and the top 0.5% for A-level results, and it delivers those outcomes inside a genuinely international boarding community rather than a conventional English one. Teaching is rigorous and richly supported, pastoral care across the 17 houses is attentive, and the destinations, from a dozen Oxbridge places to universities worldwide, back up the classroom record. It is best suited to able, self-motivated students, many from overseas, who want a demanding academic education and are ready to board full time. The main reservations are practical rather than educational: the intensity of the week, the full boarding model, and SEND support that the school itself is still building out. For the right family, this is an outstanding fit; for a child wanting a local day school and a gentler pace, it is not.