WHAT? WHERE?

You’ll find Ipswich High School, an all-through day and boarding co-ed school (3-18 years), on the banks of the River Orwell between Ipswich and pretty Pin Mill, set in an idyllic 87-acre campus, with the stately Grade I Listed Palladian Woolverstone Hall its eye-catching centrepiece. The school dates back to 1878 (although has only been at Woolverstone Hall for the last 30 years), and was originally a girls’ school with boys being admitted from 2017. Ipswich High School is a selective school with entry (into any year group or part way through the year) consisting of gentle in-class assessment for Pre-Prep students and English and maths exams further up the school.

With amazing grounds and stand-out facilities, Ipswich High has the feel of a much larger school, but with only 529 pupils (183 boys and 347 girls) class sizes are small (14 on average, moving to just 6 in Sixth Form) and students get a huge amount of individual care and attention. No surprise then that the school retains a lovely family vibe and has a strong reputation for its pastoral care.

The school also has an extraordinary enrichment programme and co-curricular offering (with over 300 clubs!) embedded into the school timetable, so expect extremely well-rounded kids with a clutch of impressive talents, such as sailing, cookery, skiing and horse riding, to emerge out the other side. Following a £7 million investment from the new owner, Ipswich Education Ltd, Ipswich High School now has boarding facilities to rival that of a boutique hotel, with the option of full- weekly- and flexi- boarding.

FACILITIES

SPORT

Ipswich High School swimming pool — Image: Anthony Cullen

It’s happy days for sporty kids at Ipswich High School with oodles of space and more facilities than you can shake a hockey stick at, including a 25m indoor heated swimming pool, a fitness suite, a huge sports hall, astro courts, tennis courts and multiple playing fields.

grounds and sports fields at Ipswich High School

With such a smart pool, it won’t surprise you to hear that swimming is part of the school culture, starting with pupils as young as Nursery, and is an extremely strong sport for the school. There are seven swimmers across different age groups competing at County, Regional, and National levels in the current cohort.

Hockey and netball are also particularly good sports for the school thanks to its long girls-only history. Recent accolades include winning the U18 ISA Plate and emerging as both U14 and U16 County finalists in netball, while in hockey there are currently twelve students representing the school at the County level and within the National League. The arrival of boys in 2017 allowed the school to diversify its sports curriculum and thanks to huge investment in teaching staff the boys are now starting to make a name for themselves, with two county level rugby players and some recent wins in boys hockey and rugby.

Niche sports flourish here due to the school’s commitment to helping children find a sport they love and succeed in any passion or talent. Skiing, horse riding, pistol shooting, triathlon, and water polo all have their place, get amazing results and give every child the opportunity to represent the school. And, with such a wonderful riverside setting, sailing is an option from nearby Woolverstone Marina.

THE ARTS

The school has a brilliant reputation for dance and drama and the facilities on offer to any budding Darcey Bussells or Carrie Hope Fletchers are excellent. There’s a fabulous purpose-built 450-seat theatre (all rigged up for any students who want to study the production side of things) and a fully kitted out Performing Arts Studio with sprung floor, mirrors and barres for dance. One of the Sixth Form students I met during my visit raved about the dance department and the artistic opportunities she’d had at Ipswich High School.

All the performing arts subjects are offered as subjects at GCSE and A Level and pupils can enjoy them from an early age as part of the enrichment programme, meaning no ferrying kids around to classes at the weekend for parents. Pupils in Years 8 – 13 can audition for the school’s theatre company, The Hayworth Players, which puts on a 30 minute abridged Shakespeare performance each year as well as a contemporary play in the summer. All productions are super slick and professional. They start them young here with a full musical performed by the Prep School (last year’s was Matilda Jr – The Musical) as well as a Senior School production. This coming year is Shrek The Musical, and during my visit the students were already excitedly discussing options for making the ogre costumes.

The separate art department with a fabulous vaulted ceiling is well-equipped and flooded with natural light. The Art School also benefits from having its own library, covering all aspects of the subject. Art adorns many of the walls around the school too, and the quality of the senior school work is striking. Older students will be in their element here – within the art building there’s a separate area for Sixth Form artists and both GCSE and A Level students receive specialist one-to-one tutorials, mentoring sessions and portfolio preparation.

There are regular trips to galleries and museums and plenty of opportunities to have work displayed with an annual school art exhibition and regular entries into national competitions such the ISA Art competition, the Anna Airy Award exhibition, the RBA Rising Stars exhibition and the RA Young Artist Summer exhibition. Diverse enrichment opportunities in this subject include willow weaving, history of art, drawing masterclasses, the art of Pokémon and felt-making.

Music is another area of the school where there’s a huge array of options for the students to choose from – plenty of choirs and ensembles as well as more specialised clubs like Composition and Mixcraft Club, Ukelele Club, Fret Knots, and Rock School. Around 41% of students learn to play a musical instrument, and there are plenty of performance options for them, ranging from a traditional Winter Concert to a Baroque and Pop Evening. There’s also an annual music trip to Jersey and regular masterclasses from international musicians.

In terms of facilities, the music department in the Senior School has two teaching rooms, a large rehearsal room and six practice rooms, plus there’s a stunning room in the main house, the Leggett Room, for chamber music performances and the theatre for large concerts, competitions and productions. The Prep School has its own dedicated music room and an interest in music is encouraged early on with experience playing instruments for every pupil (keyboard in Year 2, Nuvo Toot in Year 3, a stringed instrument in Year 5 and a brass instrument in Year 5).

SCHOOL

Other facilities worth a mention at Ipswich High School are the “mega-labs” for Physics, Chemistry and Biology that have both classroom style seating and areas dedicated to practical experiments.

There’s also a charming outbuilding that is midway through being renovated and provides a huge and well-equipped space for DT, which is popular subject.

Another outbuilding houses a fabulous cookery school with all the mod cons and smart granite tops an aspiring Jamie Oliver could dream of. Food Science is on the curriculum for Year 7s and 8s and an increasing number of students choose to continue and study Food Preparation and Nutrition for GCSE. Plus, there’s no chance of heading off to uni to exist on beans on toast for Ipswich High students because Sixth Formers take part in a Cooking Up A Storm course to prepare them for life beyond the school dining room.

In the Senior School, there are two computer suites, and Computer Science can be studied at both GCSE and A Level. The school’s ambitious five-year development plan includes the introduction of a 1-to-1 electronic device programme across the school.

LITTLIES

young children playing with water at Ipswich High School

The Pre-Prep and Prep children are catered for in their own modern building with large bright classrooms, a library, a dedicated music classroom, a hall for assemblies, performances and sport, a cookery room and two large play areas (one with stonking views of the river beyond). The children also use the beautiful Forest and Beach School area for lessons, which is located within the wider school grounds. The Lower Prep classroom is particularly spacious and open plan and has a brand new outdoor space with a lovely decked area, play equipment and grass.

The youngest children benefit from the school’s enriched education from the start with twice daily slots carved into the timetable for them to make the most of the 65 – 70 clubs on offer. It’s a wonderfully sweet and happy place for kids to start their school life – with celebration assemblies for small acts of kindness and good work every Friday and huge pride in representing their houses, plus there was clearly a lot of love for my tour guide Head of Prep, Lisa Finch, as she showed me round the school.

SIXTH FORM

The 75 or so Sixth Formers are currently based above the main reception in Woolverstone Hall (originally the bedrooms of the Berners family). Their stately, grown-up surroundings include hand painted fireplaces, elegant cornicing and a gorgeous common room with inspiring views over the River Orwell, plus they all have their own office-style desk within the centre. Plans are afoot to create a brand new Sixth Form Centre as part of the school’s desire to retain more pupils for Year 12 and 13, and to turn the current rooms into Sixth From specific boarding.

Sixth Formers benefit from a huge amount of individual help and guidance when it comes to careers thanks to a brilliant Learning Resource Centre with a full-time Head of Careers and specialist mentoring. There’s also a big focus on leadership opportunities and, as you can probably imagine, the enrichment programme means there’s plenty to talk about when it comes to UCAS forms. My Sixth Form guides were waxing lyrical about the amount of support and one-to-one attention they receive here.

There are 24 subjects on offer for A level, covering all the traditional subjects, with maths being the most popular, as well as some more modern and career-focussed courses such as Dance, Three Dimensional Design, Psychology and Computer Science. Sixth Formers typically take three A Levels with an additional EPQ.

ACADEMICS

Ipswich High School definitely delivers academically, especially when it comes to A Levels. In 2023, 48% of Sixth Formers achieved A – A* grades, with 87% achieving A* – C grades. The GCSE results weren’t far behind with 10% more pupils achieving a 9-8 grade than the previous year and eight subjects (Biology, Computing, Food Science, French, Spanish, Latin, Music and P.E) achieving 50% or more Level 9–7s. Overall 16.7% of GCSE grades were 8-9 and 33.2% were 7-9.

The top university destinations from Ipswich High School (2023) include Cambridge, Durham, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Imperial, King’s College London, Lincoln, Nottingham, Plymouth, Royal Holloway, UCL, and UEA. Plus, there’s been a notable increase of the number of students achieving their first-choice university in recent years. Science and maths are very strong subjects for the school, with a good number of students heading off to study medicine and veterinary science each year. It was clear to me during my visit that it’s not all about Oxbridge and Russell Group unis though if it’s not right for the individual student. Kids here are helped and encouraged to reach their potential in whatever subject they love and excel in, whether it be physics or dance.

PASTORAL CARE

Pastoral care is a big deal at Ipswich High School and is given just as much importance as academic achievement and enrichment. As well as the Head of Pastoral Care and Deputy Head of Pastoral Care, the pastoral team includes individual Heads of each area of the school (Sixth Form, Senior and Prep), Heads of Year, Form Tutors, a School Nurse and a Counsellor. There’s also a Wellbeing Hub where pupils can go for support at any time without an appointment. Boarders also have live-in Houses Parents and a Matron.

Other layers of pastoral support include school Houses in both Prep and Senior School and pupils are actively involved in supporting each other from an early age, with the chance to be elected as Council Reps and Safeguarding Team members in the Prep School. Further up the school there are Sixth Form Wellbeing Prefects attached to younger form groups and Year 12 Peer Mentors who are taught to identify and deal with potential welfare issues.

SEND

Ipswich High School has an excellent SEND provision and is able to support mild to moderate learning difficulties. There is an experienced SEND department, but supporting the needs of individual children is considered to be a collective whole school responsibility, beginning with differentiated teaching in the classroom by a pupil’s teacher/s.

BOARDING

Ipswich High School opened up to boarders from Year 7 and over in 2019 and currently around 10% of pupils board, although this is a real growth area with plans for a third boarding house in the pipeline. The 50 or so students who do board (either full-time, weekly, flexi or occasional) enjoy some of the most luxurious digs I’ve ever seen at a school, with individual boutique hotel-style rooms and beautiful communal spaces spread across a stunning period building, The Dairy, and the more modern Barns.

Both buildings are within the school grounds but tucked away at the end of the long drive giving them a bit of separation from the busy school setting. The rooms might feel very grown up, but there’s a lovely nurturing, home away from home feel to the setting with an enclosed garden, BBQ area and a House Parent living on site with her young family. There’s no Saturday school, but boarders can use the school facilities over the weekend and also enjoy local trips out together.

THE HEAD

Dan Browning headmaster at Ipswich High School

Dan Browning took the reins from Mark Howe in January 2023 having clocked up six successful years as Headteacher of Wymondham College in Norfolk, which was named Secondary School of the Year under his leadership. He’s extremely affable and down to earth and has made it his mission to get to know all the teachers and students as well as many of the parents on a personal level. He’s clearly a hit with the students who talk about him (and his gorgeous Golden Retriever, Mabel) very fondly.

He’s already starting to make his mark, working closely with teachers to ensure the curriculum is perfectly joined up from the age of 3 – 18 and formulating a five-year vision for the school. This plan includes extending the enrichment programme even further, investing in professional training and development opportunities for teachers, rolling out the 1-to-1 digital device programme, and developing the estate further (such as turning the old stables into a new Sixth From centre), all while being careful not to impact the special vibe and ethos of the school.

QUIRKS

I’d say Ipswich High School is more traditional than quirky with 150 years of history embedded in the culture and community. The enrichment programme certainly includes some quirky options though – a Goblin F1 Car club, Laser Pistol Shooting and pétanque, and it’s lovely to hear that the kids get to fill out a survey each year asking their opinion on what clubs should be added. The fact that clubs like Triathlon are some of the most popular options even as low down as the Prep School shows that the school is willing to try new things and really invest in them from the off.

WRAP AROUND CARE

Working parents rejoice, because Ipswich High School has an excellent and flexible wraparound care provision, starting with Breakfast Club from 7:30am – 8:30am. After school care includes Hoot Club from 4:15pm – 6pm for Prep pupils and a free After School Club from 4:15pm – 6pm for Senior School pupils. Day+ is an excellent option that runs from 4:15pm – 8:30pm and allows Senior pupils to stay for supper and join the boarding pupils for evening activities.

ISI REPORT

Very happy reading. In the latest report Ipswich High School received top marks across the board, with Outstanding in the Early Years Foundation Stage, and Excellent in all other years. Read the report here.

TRANSPORT

The school has a wide catchment area across Suffolk and Essex helped by a number of minibus routes from Bury St Edmunds, Lavenham, Sudbury, Nayland, Snape, Ipswich, Felixstowe, Tendring, Colchester, St Osyth, Halstead and Kelvedon.

FEES

teacher with nursery children at Ipswich High School

Very competitive, especially considering you won’t have to fork out for any hobbies outside school. Tuition fees (including enrichment activities and lunches) for September 2023 are: £3785 per term for Reception; £3,985 for Years 1 and 2; £4,400 for Years 3 – 6; £5,630 for Years 7 and 8; and £5,985 per term for Years 9 – 13. Weekly boarding fees are £29,925 per annum, including tuition and food and full-time boarding is £40,110. Flexi boarding starts at £70 per night. Plenty of scholarships up for grabs too – academic, sports, dance, drama, art and music.

THE MUDDY VERDICT

Good for: Parents seeking an all-through, all-rounder option with brilliant academic results but also a strong emphasis on pastoral care and creating an inclusive family environment where children are free to be children. The excellent enrichment programme means kids have access to every opportunity going during the week, so evenings, weekends and holidays can be dedicated to family time. The beauty of the site with its long driveway, river views and elegant Palladian hall will appeal to all, as will the top-notch facilities for both sporty and creative types.

Not for: Introverted characters who prefer a slower pace of life might not make the most of the opportunities here. Ipswich High School’s enrichment programme and fast-paced curriculum means it’s definitely suited to children with a can-do attitude, lots of energy and who love to give everything and anything a try.

Dare to disagree?! Go see for yourself by booking a private tour here. There is also a Sixth Form Open Evening on 26 Sept (6-8pm). You can register here.

Ipswich High School, Nelson’s Avenue, Woolverstone, Suffolk, IP9 1AZ. Tel: 01473 201058

Ipswich High School, Woolverstone

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