UK Boarding Schools | Independent Schools | Private Schools

A caring boarding community
Monkton is an independent co-educational boarding and day school with a lively Christian ethos, situated in the beautiful Midford Valley just a mile from the World Heritage City of Bath. With 770 pupils, aged 2–19, in the Pre-Prep, Prep and Senior, Monkton can currently boast more pupils than it has ever had before in its 140-year history.

Boarding is at the very heart of Monkton, and the unique atmosphere of the School is enjoyed by boarders and day pupils alike. All the Houses reflect the spirit and ethos of the School, but each exudes its own personality generated by its pupils, houseparents and staff as well as by its size, individual geography and location within the School.

Academic excellence
We take high academic standards as a given. Yes, many of our pupils achieve excellent grades at both GCSE and A-level, but we are just as concerned to create a genuine appetite for learning, in helping pupils develop minds that are open and questioning and in equipping them with the independent study skills that will enable them to follow through private passions and enthusiasms long after they have left school. Indeed our new £4.1m Maths and Science Centre at the Senior School is proving to be an exceptional facility for teaching, learning and research for pupils at all levels, and a new Music Centre is planned to open at the end of 2011.

Busy days and full weekends
For our pupils at Monkton, life is very busy and we run a full programme of activities every weekend. There is always something for our pupils to do at weekends once they have finished their Saturday morning lessons and fulfilled any sporting commitments. We believe that educating young people means helping them develop all their gifts, whether this is playing the trombone, acting or rowing, learning leadership skills through the Combined Cadet Force, or working within a sports team. The range of activities is exciting and there really is something for everyone – from ballroom dancing to chess to fencing.

Transforming lives
Monkton not only transforms the lives of its pupils but is also undertaking an exciting and ambitious programme of development across all areas of the School, embracing buildings, facilities and grounds, curricular and extracurricular programmes. Our outstanding pastoral care, strong moral framework and culture of service to others make us an ideal choice for parents looking for a school that will nurture and challenge their child spiritually, emotionally and socially as well as developing their academic potential to the full.

Come and visit
If you would like to find out more about Monkton, do come and visit us at one of our open mornings or telephone our Registrar, Mrs Patricia Neaverson, to arrange a private visit at your convenience. You will be assured of a very warm welcome.

These boys and girls go on to do well and do good. Monkton is a genuine and beguiling one-off.
The Good Schools Guide

A great day for Monkton at the Avon County Head

MCBC arrived in force for the Avon County Head on Saturday, bringing a total of 95 rowers and there is some debate over whether this is a record for Monkton Rowing! The focus was very much on gaining valuable race experience, particularly for those with little or no previous experience.

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A NEW MULTI-MILLION POUND MUSIC CENTRE OPENS AT A TOP BATH SCHOOL

Pupils returned from their half-term break to find a new state-of-the-art facility ready to be used. Work has just been completed on a £3.2m Music Centre at Monkton Senior School. A suite of practice rooms, a music technology classroom, a 100 seat rehearsal hall complete with a new Steinway Model B grand piano, percussion and rock studios, and recording and production rooms are just some of the features that pupils can look forward to enjoying.

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Monkton Coombe Celebrates 2011 A & AS results

Monkton Senior School pupils are celebrating today. Sixth formers picked up results today which included 48 exams in which a Monkton pupil scored full marks. In addition, one Y13 pupil scored 615 UCAS points, more than the equivalent of four A* grades at A level!

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Monkton Coombe Celebrates 2011 GCSE results

Another results day, another celebration at Monkton Senior School, as pupils and staff celebrated the best ever pass rate at GCSE for Monkton pupils. In addition roughly one in five pupils got seven A* grades or more, with two gaining an outstanding result of 12 A* grades; one of these pupils even got an A* in Afrikaans!

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Monkton Coombe - A new facility brings a revitalised vision for Music

Building work is now underway for a new Music School which provides an exciting and revitalised vision for music.

Music plays a very significant role in the development of children and young people and has always been an important part in the life of Monkton Combe School. It helps to develop life-long skills which provide immeasurable benefits not only for the individual but for the community and the wider-world. From the early days of the existing Music School opened by Sir Adrian Boult in 1959 to the present day, Monkton has been blessed with a steady stream of talented pupils.

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Monkton Partnership with Abbeyfield School

Monkton Combe School is delighted to announce a partnership with Abbeyfield School in Chippenham to share resources in their Combined Cadet Force. From September 2011 Abbeyfield students will travel to Monkton Combe School to take part in Combined Cadet Force activities each Wednesday afternoon.

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Monkton Combe Opening mornings

How old where you when you came to Monkton?

I came to Monkton in January Year 10 having recently left Africa where I had spent most of my childhood. Learning to adapt to a new culture as well as joining a new school midyear is never easy, but I found Monkton to be extremely welcoming, to the extent that within a week, I felt as if it were a place I could one day soon call home and indeed has been my home for the last 3 years.

How did you find settling in at the school?

Here we are surrounded by fantastic countryside, good facilities, great sporting opportunities, supportive staff and friendly pupils. It also has the kind of day to day life, that whether you are a boarder or day pupil, you are immersed in everything that is going on.

Something that I recognise as a beautiful part of the community is the sincere friendships. I experienced them grow in my life from the first moment I walked into my boarding house Clarendon. I was carrying my overly sized suit case up seemingly never ending staircase and someone came bouncing up to me offering to help me drag it up step by step. That person is now one of my greatest friends, who I doubt I will ever lose contact with due to many hilarious moments along the journey.

What sort of activities you take part in?

I love that in this school it is fully acceptable as an upper 6th former to run across the quad towards a Year 9 or 10 and warmly embrace them while asking them about their day without being seen as weird. It is things like this that make Monkton what it is for me.

Monkton gives you the opportunity to participate in extra–curricular activities, which build upon skills that you just can’t learn in a classroom. No matter what your capabilities are, the variety of sport means there will always be something for you; rowing, swim gym, hockey, rugby, netball, tennis, squash, badminton and cricket are naming a few. Our coaching staff are always encouraging, trying to get the very best out of us. We are even privileged to have some national players, past and present, to help us.

You also have the chance to experience the things you wouldn’t normally get to, flying with the RAF, sailing with the navy, or camouflage and concealment with the army. Along with these, various staff and students hold activities every evening, like cookery, swimming, chess and choir. And then, for those who wish to go, there are the Sunday trips to Splashdown, paintballing, bowling and loads of others. Monkton also offers you the chance to take part in the kind of experiences that you will never forget; trekking to the top of Mount Kenya, seeing Paris by night on the river Seine, and sporting tours to Barbados.

What is boarding life like?
The support system here is phenomenal. In the moments when I have had a good cry, there is nowhere I can go without someone asking if I’m ok! As annoying as that is in the moment when I want to be alone, it actually provides me with the knowledge that I’m not facing difficulties without help. With the wide range of opportunities to get enrolled with here, there is an endless list of people that you get to know and who would support you in a crisis, however big or small. Every houseparent has an open door policy into their home, where someone is always around to comfort you if you are homesick, help you work through any problem, or just have a good chat over a hot chocolate, sometimes with the odd marshmallow and cream wacked on top!

They really are a huge support for pupils during their time at Monkton, and play a special part in the lives of boarders. Having been a boarder and a day pupil here myself, I can testify that they have provided for my needs at whatever stage I have been at whether or not I sleep in the house. As well as Houseparents, you also have a tutor who helps you to stay on track with your work load, but again they are also there to check that you are ok.

I have found that there have always been plenty of people around to support me when I have needed it. The Christian heritage of Monkton allows for those who wish to explore a spiritual dimension to their lives. There is a student led weekly Christian union which provides a safe and secure environment where both Christians and non-Christians are made to feel welcome.

As a Christian, Monkton has allowed me to be in a school where I can freely grow in my faith and have regular input on a day to day basis which I am highly grateful for. There is a sense of respect for others around you, whether it is for one’s faith, sporting capacity, intelligence level, standard of humour or anything else. Monkton is a community, and I think that this has a lot to do with how we pick up on the general Monktonian way; for example respect for teachers, remembering acts of gratitude to the staff that work behind the scenes, and respect that nourishes beautiful friendships between peers.

Would you recommend it to others?

I am giving you my experience of this school and a way of life that I have found to be positively life changing. I know that soon I will be fully ready to leave school and move on, but I doubt I’ll be ready to leave the Monkton community.



How old were you when you started boarding and why did you go to boarding school?

As a small girl, boarding school was a foreign concept that was both daunting and frightening! As my father is in the RAF, boarding school was an option my parents presented me with on a number of occasions; however I had frequently turned it down! It was only at the words ‘sleepover’ and possibly with the arrival of the Harry Potter novels that I was persuaded to start considering it as an option for secondary school! I vividly remember the glossy prospectuses arriving in the post and sitting down and going through them from cover to cover. Monkton’s was the first to arrive and to a child of ten it looked idyllic.

My family and I only visited two schools. Monkton was our second and after looking around we saw no point in looking at others. I had found where I was to go. More than anything it was the pastoral care and Christian ethos that attracted my parents to the school. Just on a brief visit we had noticed the care in the place and the loving atmosphere.

That September I packed up my bags and trunk along with the uniform from an extensive list and headed for my first real adventure. I genuinely believe that choosing boarding school, and in particular Monkton, was the best decision I have made. By the age of eleven I had attended nine different primary schools; therefore knowing I could be in the same school no matter where my parents moved gave me a firm sense of stability.

How did you find settling in at the school?
I won’t pretend that the first term was easy. I had come from a state school background and therefore a day that finished past five o’clock was exhausting. I was also terribly homesick. This wasn’t uncommon and more than anything it just showed that I came from a very loving and happy family, a family I was sad to leave for a while. Through this my Houseparents were fantastic. Their support and their refusal to let me wallow in my own sorrows brought me through that period of sadness. As any child does, I immersed myself in the many activities at school, and soon my worries about home vanished.

In my first year at Monkton I went home at weekends. However, as my parents moved, I started to board full time. In any case there were far too many things on at the weekend that I didn’t want to miss!

What was the best thing about being a boarder?
The boarding community at Monkton is second to none. Due to that fact that there are so many students around school the whole time, including weekends, we were able to indulge in a number of activities such as swimming trips, going into Bath and in the summer, playing on the water slide! Despite my first impressions (and much to my disappointment), boarding school was not a large sleepover - nor was it Hogwarts. However, there is something magical about becoming independent, about talking late into the night with the other girls or the whole House piling into the lounge one evening and belting out the lyrics to “mamma-mia”!

On the academic side, Monkton, I believe, has provided me with the skills I need to study at university. The teaching in each subject is fantastic - especially at the top end of the school. I thrived academically because I was encouraged to enjoy a subject and engage with it - rather than just to achieve the top marks. As anyone can attest, enjoying a subject usually leads inadvertently to a desire to do well in it, and so the top grades follow. Thus, when I entered the Sixth form, the jump to study periods and extra working hours was far less of a shock, as I enjoyed what I did!

What sort of activities did you take part in?
Monkton in many respects felt far more than a school simply because of how much was always going on. I have never been a sporty person - however there were opportunities to try over five different sports at high level. I was always encouraged to have a go, however bad I was! I also had the opportunity to go to serious sporting events such as Henley and National schools events, to support my friends and enjoy the atmosphere. The most fundamental part of Monkton is the feeling of belonging – and to being part of the community.

What life at the school has been like?
From the boarding house to the sports pitch everyone knows each other. The school is small enough so that twelve year olds mix with sixth formers, that teachers treat the older pupils like adults, and that the pupils work together as a student body. In this way achievements can be praised, but failure is not dwelled upon. The community atmosphere builds people up and treats the pupils as equals. Monkton let me pursue those things I enjoyed and provided a safe environment for me to grow up in. If there is one thing that I have brought out of Monkton it is confidence - confidence in myself and my abilities.

When I first looked around Monkton I got the sense of people being interested in who I was and who I could become - not if I could boost their league table results. I have left Monkton a rounded and confident individual whose values come not from academic achievement but from whom I was destined to be.


• How old were you when you started boarding?

I am aged 10 and a full boarder at Monkton Prep. I have just finished my first term here in Year 6 and have done exactly 11 weeks! I have counted.

• Why did you want to go to boarding school?

My Dad is in the Forces and away a lot serving in Afghanistan. Both my sisters go to Monkton – my oldest sister is in Year 9 at the Senior School and Mimi is in Year 7 here at Monkton Prep. I missed them a lot at home so I begged Mum to let me come and join them and she finally gave in!

• Have other members of your family (or your friends) been to boarding school?

Both my parents went to boarding school and as I said my sisters are both boarders here.

• Is your school close to your home?

My father was stationed near Canterbury which was a long way away but now he has moved nearer and they are now 1 ½ hours away in Wiltshire.

• How did you find settling in at the school?

It was a bit hard at first but the staff were so kind – especially my Houseparent Mrs Hodges who made me hot chocolate when I was missing home (she is now like my second mummy). Also having my sister near helped tremendously as I could go and see her when I was feeling sad. I now feel like I am nearly settled – as I say to mum “I’m at 9 out of 10!

• What is boarding life like? (You could write about your boarding house, your dormitory, the common rooms, the boarding staff, your friends, the playground, the food and so on.)

I have a great boarding guardian called Toby who really helped me settle in – he is in my year and we get on really well. The dorm does get quite busy sometimes as there are weekly and occasional boarders who come and go! I keep loads of pictures of my family and my special teddy bear that Dad gave me before he went off to Afghanistan – it talks when you press it’s tummy!

• What’s a typical day like?

We just get up, get dressed, have breakfast and then get on with it! It’s a really full day which means I sleep well at night because I am so tired. Tuesdays is my worst day as I have 3 maths lessons!

• Which lessons do you enjoy the most, and why?

I love Design Technology – we did not do that at my old school and I have just made an ice-cream van – it is really cool as we were studying box vehicles.

• What happens after school? And in the evenings?

We do activities, have supper, get changed, play cricket and then go to bed. At 8.30pm it is lights out and I am so tired I just go sleep – sometimes we chat a bit but we are meant to be quiet!

• What do you do at the weekend?

We have Saturday lessons which is strange for me as we did not do that at my last school. I find Saturday afternoons very difficult as that is when I miss Mum but she comes up to watch me play cricket and then Sundays are just action packed. We always go on a trip, - I have been to a country park, splashdown, shopping in Bath and we have just come back from a boarder’s camp in Dorset by the sea which was amazing fun. We slept in tents and it was wonderful weather. We also go to Church in the village sometimes. Oh yes and we always have a roast on Sunday which is great!


• What sort of activities (eg sport, drama, music) do you take part in?

I have taken part in a play about e-safety which we performed in front of the school, played cricket for the A team and next year Mum has said I can learn the oboe!

• How often are you in touch with your family?

I am allowed to use my phone in the evenings to phone Mum if I want to but at first I think it is easier to limit it to a few times a week rather than everyday – that helped me settle in. I talk to Dad once a week too when he is away. Sunday is a good day for writing letters and cards and sometimes I send a card to my sister down at the Senior School!

• How often do you go home for exeats?

We have exeats every three weeks which is great.

• Do you know which school/college/university you want to go to after finishing at your school?

I want to go on to Monkton Senior School where I will board – there will be one year when all three of us will be together – I can’t wait.

• Would you recommend it to others?

Yes!

• In what ways do you think you have developed since coming to boarding school?

I know I have changed a lot in the 11 weeks I have been here but it took a while to settle in. I feel much more grown up when I go home and realise I am much more independent. I have made some great friends. I am enjoying all the new things that I can do here – playing cricket and I love athletics – I am always trying to improve my last performance. I really hope I get a golden sticker next term!