Clifton College A GSG School

Curricula

Cambridge Pre-U - an alternative to A levels, with all exams at the end of the two-year course.

Other features

Music and dance scheme - government funding and grants available to help with fees at selected independent music and dance schools.

All-through school (for example 3-18 years). - An all-through school covers junior and senior education. It may start at 3 or 4, or later, and continue through to 16 or 18. Some all-through schools set exams at 11 or 13 that pupils must pass to move on.

Sports

Unusual sports

Equestrian centre or equestrian team - school has own equestrian centre or an equestrian team.

Rowing

Fencing

Shooting

Sailing

What The Good Schools Guide says

Head of College

Since 2016, Dr Tim Greene. Educated at Methodist College Belfast (Methody, as it’s affectionately known), which he says has a similar ethos to Clifton College. Read chemistry at the University of Oxford and stayed on to do his DPhil. He became a senior research fellow at Jesus College, taught chemistry and was part of the governing body. He moved to the University of Exeter as a lecturer but seized the opportunity to teach chemistry at Queen’s Taunton as part of a year’s sabbatical. ‘And that was that,’ he says. ‘One of the great things about schools is the positive atmosphere. They’re such joyous places to be part of. You can feel the buzz, the energy and the excitement when you walk in. It lifts the spirits. There’s no better job.’

After his stint at Queen’s, he arrived at Clifton College in 2006, first as head of chemistry, then head of science, deputy head and head. He still teaches a year 12 chemistry set. ‘All heads should teach,’ he says. ‘It’s great fun.’ We heard from others that a three-minute standing ovation greeted news of his appointment as head when it was announced in the school’s magnificent chapel. ‘It’s been an absolute joy,’ he says of his role. ‘Obviously there have been tough times – Covid was particularly challenging – but the school did unbelievably well. The spirit of togetherness could not have been stronger. There is a great camaraderie and support here, which is very special.’

He takes huge delight in how ‘infinitely diverse’ Clifton College is and turns up to as many events as possible, from the scholars’ dinners to musical extravaganzas to his Friday meetings with the school prefects, or praepostors as they are known. ‘I try to get to as much as I can – quite selfishly, because it tends to be good,’ he says. ‘The music and drama are of a professional standard. If you’d bought tickets to go and listen you wouldn’t be surprised.’

Friendly, welcoming and approachable to all, he is quick to pay tribute to the Clifton College team, from the teaching staff to the cleaner tasked with polishing the vast array of silver trophies (all won by pupils) on display next to his wood-panelled study. ‘I’m very lucky,’ he says. ‘We have made some superb appointments, which makes managing and running a school such a treat. The desire to work hard and further the college is engrained in all of them.’ He’s popular with parents. ‘Everyone has a lot of respect for him,’ said one. ‘He’s quite humble and has a good sense of humour.’

He admits that he’s slightly ‘school-centric’ but his chief outside interests are music and walking the family dogs. Married to Lydia, whom he met at Oxford and who is also a teacher, and they have three sons. The youngest was at Clifton when his father became head and is now studying physics at university.

Entrance

Around 60 to 70 pupils arrive from the prep school every year, having sat a transfer exam in advance. They are joined by a similar number from preps like Beaudesert Park, All Hallows, St Peter’s in Lympstone, The Dragon, Exeter Cathedral School, Polwhele House and Monmouth Prep. The process starts early, with visits in years 5 and 6 and a pre-assessment day in year 6, when places are offered. Pupils offering Common Entrance can apply in year 8, but there’s a risk that boarding may be full at that stage. Asked about the type of pupil who will thrive at the school, the head says: ‘We’re looking for someone who is open-minded and ready to make the most of the opportunities here. It would be a shame if they didn’t.’

At sixth form, the 50-ish newcomers need a minimum of three grade 7s and three grade 6s at GCSE (or equivalent for overseas candidates), plus entry tests and interviews in two potential A level subjects. Some subject specific criteria too. For applicants with English as a second language there’s an English language paper too.

Exit

Around 20 per cent decamp after GCSEs, sometimes because they have itchy feet and want a change or because their families are relocating. At 18, the vast majority of leavers head to university. Top three university destinations are Durham, Exeter and Cardiff to study subjects like STEM, social studies and business. Five to Oxbridge in 2023, and four medics. Some head overseas – TU Delft (Netherlands), University of Groningen (Netherlands) and Sorbonne University (France) in 2023. A handful do art foundation.

Latest results

In 2023, 62 per cent 9-7 at GCSE; 51 per cent A*/A at A level (77 per cent A*-B). In 2019 (the last pre-pandemic results), 62 per cent 9-7 at GCSE; 71 per cent A*-B at A level.

Teaching and learning

Teachers go the extra mile to help pupils make their sixth form choices, whether it’s A levels or BTECs or a mixture of both. ‘It’s about plotting the right course for each individual pupil,’ says the head. Around 35 different options to choose from, including A level philosophy, photography and psychology and BTECs in business, IT and sport. Pupils can opt for virtually any combination. At the moment sixth formers start with four subjects, usually dropping one halfway through the first term of year 12, but this is under review (although they’ll still be allowed to take four if they like). EPQs are popular – recent projects included a boy who asked if AI could replace teachers (‘The answer was no,’ laughs the head) and a girl who designed her own surfboard. A level stand-outs in 2022 were economics and maths while maths, biology, physics and history shone at GCSE. ‘They are bright kids but we like the fact that it’s not an academic hothouse,’ said a parent.

Bristol is such a vibrant city that it’s not surprising that the school is keen on languages. French, Spanish, German, Russian, Latin, and Greek are offered at GCSE and A level and Chinese is available for native speakers. Maximum class size is 20, although often smaller in the sixth form. Staff hold academic clinics for every subject twice a week, enabling pupils to ask for help – and there are student-led clinics too.

The stunning Percival Library overlooking the Close is a veritable mix of ancient and modern (‘It gets compared to Hogwarts,’ our guide told us). Housed in a Grade ll listed building dating back to 1870, it has a computer suite with a mezzanine study space and 15,000 resources. Pupils reckon the three full-time librarians ‘know everything’ and in turn the librarians told us that two books were massive when we visited – A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson and One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus. ‘We have to get multiple copies,’ they said. The school has dedicated maths and science libraries, the latter having a collection of rare books and manuscripts, including first editions of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species and Isaac Newton’s Principia Mathematica. As science is a strength of the school, it’s perhaps not surprising that it was home to the first school science lab and boasts three Nobel Prize-winners among its alumni.

Learning support and SEN

Learning support is housed in the Fife Centre, a key part of the school. Support is offered to pupils with specific needs one-to-one and in small groups. ‘I wouldn’t be where I am now without them,’ said a sixth former. ‘To be in the comfortable environment that the staff create is so positive and so safe.’ Another told us that his dyslexia was picked up by the school and now he’s predicted a clean sweep of A*s at A level.

The arts and extracurricular

With 35 visiting music teachers and a third of pupils playing an instrument, it’s no surprise that music is sublime. Joseph Cooper, an Old Cliftonian, gave his name to the music school, which is equipped with a first-class recital hall, high-tech recording studio and a suite of practice rooms. There’s music for everyone – orchestras, ensembles, choirs, pop groups, a soul group and even a marching band – ‘a nice balance between traditional and modern,’ says the former director of music. In art, students get a thorough grounding in draughtsmanship, oil painting, composition and colour theory and are encouraged to work across a range of different media. Teaching staff are practising artists themselves, including a fine art painter, printmaker, ceramicist and sculptor.

Clifton has always been a trailblazer and was one of the first schools to have a theatre – named after Sir Michael Redgrave, yet another former pupil. The school hosts up to 40 productions a year (most recently, The Addams Family Musical) but one of the biggest events is the house drama competition, which involves every house staging a play. There have been some bold choices over the years, from Withnail and I to Posh, a play about an exclusive Oxford University dining club. Occasionally, enterprising students write one themselves. At the end there’s an Oscar-style ceremony with awards for best director, best newcomer and more. They even get Oscar-style statuettes. The head is keen on young people getting up on the stage or public speaking – skills they’ll need in most jobs – so there are myriad opportunities to do just that.

There’s a dizzying array of extracurricular opportunities – CCF (around 200 members), DofE, Ten Tors, rock climbing, community work and a year-long wilderness and survival skills course. Trips going off ‘left, right and centre’, to the battlefields of northern France, Madagascar, India and Iceland. We were impressed by the student newspaper, The Clifton Herald, complete with articles about climate change, feminism, Afghanistan, conspiracy theories and ‘four books I hated (and what to read instead)’.

Sport

The school has an impressive sporting history, including the remarkable achievement by Arthur Edward Jeune Collins, who held the record for the highest individual score in cricket for 116 years. In 1899, at the tender age of 13, he hit 628 not out in a house match played over four afternoons. Amazingly, his record held until 2016. More recently, a number of former pupils have played for Gloucestershire and Glamorgan, while James Kirtley played for Sussex and represented England. Other sporting old Cliftonians include GB hockey Olympic gold medallist Lily Owsley and Welsh rugby union player Ioan Lloyd. There are some big names among the high-performance sports coaches at the school, such as director of rugby Matt Salter and former England rugby player Danny Grewcock.

No Clifton College entry would be complete without the celebrated lines of famous poet and former pupil Sir Henry Newbolt: ‘There’s a breathless hush in the Close tonight – ten to make and the match to win – a bumping pitch and a blinding light, an hour to play and the last man in’, and the later exhortation to ‘Play up! play up! and play the game!’ Cricket in summer and rugby in winter are played by boys and girls (girls’ rugby has really taken off here) on this same hallowed turf, overlooked by the school’s elegant Victorian buildings. However, most ball sports take place at Beggar’s Bush, a short coach ride away over Bristol’s famous suspension bridge. There, 90 acres encompass all-weather and grass pitches, indoor tennis courts, a real tennis court, two indoor gyms, a low ropes course and even a mountain biking trail – with a new indoor sports complex due in September 2024. Pupils play sport on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, but some manage to fit in some kind of sport or exercise every day of the week.

The school is big on inclusivity. Boys’ and girls’ sport are promoted equally, with huge pride in the fact that a girl played in last year’s first cricket XI and the girls’ under-15 team recently came third out of 900 schools in the national indoor championships.

Boarders

Everybody, whether they are day pupils or boarders, belongs to a house. As well as five day houses, there are seven boarding houses – four for boys and three for girls. Just under half of pupils board. ‘The school has grown and now every bed is full, with a waiting list in some year groups,’ says the head. The houses are dotted up and down the elegant roads surrounding the school so there are no long treks back and forth.

We visited a boys’ house with 63 boarders; younger boys in rooms of three or four and sixth formers in singles. The rooms we saw were wholesome, comfortable and fairly tidy, although like every other boys’ boarding house we’ve seen in 20 years, boys have little interest in decorating their rooms. ‘We’re strict on things like sheet changing, signing in and out of the building and doing their washing up, but you are never going to get utopia,’ said a member of the boarding team. All houses are staffed by a live-in housemaster or housemistress and their family, plus an assistant, a resident tutor, five non-residential tutors and sometimes a pet or two. International boarders from all over the world – from Europe to Bermuda, Hong Kong and Trinidad and Tobago – while UK boarders hail from Devon, Cornwall, London and the Channel Islands. With EasyJet flights to Bristol from Edinburgh and Newcastle, it’s a feasible option for pupils from up north. As well as full boarders there are around 30 flexi-boarders who board for three to five nights a week.

Ethos and heritage

The school was founded in the 1860s by local businessman Sir John Percival, who placed equal emphasis on scientific and religious study. His progressive thinking extended to racial and religious tolerance and a belief in the education of women, although it took more than 100 years for the school to admit girls (they arrived in 1987). There is no longer a Jewish boarding house, but the synagogue is still there, still used and now presided over by the first ever rabbi on the school chaplaincy team.

The impression given by high Victorian Gothic buildings, built of warm red stone and surrounding the manicured green velvet of the Close, is of a traditional public school, but Clifton College is constantly moving forward. Despite the historic setting and chapel every morning, an atmosphere of acceptance prevails towards those of different faiths, races and sexuality. There are two Pride groups – Pride Society, which meets every week to discuss issues of gender and sexuality, and Pride Action, which focuses on activism and change.

Students seem genuinely appreciative of their surroundings and abide by the rule of silence when walking through the memorial arch commemorating the names of pupils who died during the Second World War. Our tour guides took huge pride in the school’s history, pointing out paintings of former headmasters in the East Cloisters (one portrait features a tiny giraffe in the corner), the table in the council room where plans for the D-Day landings were drawn up and even the secret staircase down to the tomb where John Percival himself is buried. The glorious expanse of the Clifton Downs is close by – and so is the former site of Bristol Zoo, which recently closed its gates to the public. One of the most curious events in the school’s history occurred when 12 rhesus monkeys escaped from the zoo in 1934, with one managing to get into a house dorm. Nothing as dramatic as that has happened since but in the old days pupils could sometimes hear the lions roar.

House identity and friendly rivalry flourish, with masses of ways to compete, especially in house water polo and the eagerly contested house song. Recent song choices ranged from Abba’s Lay Your Love on Me to The Greatest Showman, with everyone dressing up, having a laugh and singing their hearts out. Most meals are eaten in the stunning two-storey dining hall, where an impressive 1,000 lunches are served every day. Extra rations can be bought from Grubber (the tuck shop) and each house has a kitchen for pupils to make their own snacks. Sixth formers have their own space to gather – the Crypt Café.

Pastoral care, inclusivity and discipline

The house and tutorial systems are the backbone of pastoral care, supported by an independent person, a counsellor and the chaplain. Housemasters and housemistresses are all Mental Health First Aid trained. ‘The pupils are more confident in addressing issues,’ a housemaster told us. ‘They didn’t used to like people knowing they were going to see the counsellor. Now they’re quite open about it.’ Parents love the house system – ‘It’s the USP of the school,’ said one. Day pupils register in their houses every morning, before going to assembly and lessons. ‘It’s where they base their days,’ a parent told us. ‘They have matrons in the house so it’s where they go if they need a chat or a cry or they’ve forgotten their sports kit.’ Her only quibble is that she’d like the school to introduce co-ed day houses. ‘My children have mixed opinions about it though,’ she admitted.

The school is big on pupil voice, offering pupils countless opportunities to air their views. ‘If you want something you can help to make change,’ a sixth former told us. There’s a head of school rather than a head boy and head girl, two deputy heads and 20 praepostors, all nominated by staff and pupils, with the head making the final choice. One told us he’d received an email asking him to go to the headmaster’s study and thought it must be a punishment, but found to his delight that he’d been chosen as a praepostor. It says a lot about the school that the most eagerly anticipated prize on Commemoration Day in June is the Gordon Hazell trophy. Named after Clifton’s former boxing coach and preceded by a huge drumroll when it’s announced, it’s awarded to a pupil who exemplifies the qualities of dedication, loyalty, generosity and gentleness. Behaviour doesn’t seem to be an issue here – pupils are polite and well-behaved – but there’s a marshal who supervises the school’s detention and absentee systems. ‘He’s a softy really,’ whispered a sixth former.

Pupils describe the school as ‘forward-thinking and liberal’ but love its old traditions. Sixth formers can go into Clifton in the afternoon if they haven’t got any other commitments and younger pupils are allowed to go shopping in central Bristol in groups at the weekends. Everyone loves being in a city school, with lots to do. ‘I’m going to cry so much when I leave,’ said a praepostor while the relative of a boy who had recently joined the school said he was ‘having the time of his life’. Similarly, a sixth former who arrived from a Welsh comprehensive at 16 told us: ‘I have loved every minute of it. It’s a place that gives you stability and structure.’

Pupils and parents

Currently slightly more boys than girls (55:45). Up to 25 per cent of youngsters from other countries, including day pupils, and a number from Forces families. ‘Clifton handles military kids really well,’ a pupil said. Day pupils come from as far afield as south Gloucestershire and north Somerset but many live in Clifton itself (around half walk to school). The east side of Bristol is less well represented, partly because of the busy rush-hour traffic.

Former pupils are fiercely loyal to the school; some even choose to get married or have their children christened in the chapel. Famous alumni include LP Hartley, Field Marshall Sir Douglas Haig, John Cleese, Simon Russell Beale, Leslie Hore-Belisha, who invented the Belisha beacon, artist Roger Fry and Roger Alton, former editor of The Observer.

Money matters

Academic, art, drama, DT, music and sport scholarships available at 13+ and 16+, plus a separate 16+ organ scholarship – all merit based and competed for via exams, auditions or other assessments. There are also Polack’s scholarships for Jewish pupils, supported by the Polack’s House Educational Trust. Scholarships are honorary and don’t carry a fee reduction but around 100 pupils benefit from means-tested bursaries, including one offering a 20 per cent discount for Forces families.

The last word

Set among the elegant Victorian villas of one of Bristol's most beautiful residential areas, this is a friendly, welcoming school that achieves superbly on all fronts, whether it’s teaching and learning or sport and the arts. ‘I would have loved to have come to a school like this,’ a parent told us – and we couldn’t agree more.

Special Education Needs

Clifton College is able to make learning support provision for pupils who have a range of specific difficulties including Aspergers, ADHD, dyspraxia and dyslexia. The learning support department offers timetabled group lessons and chargeable individual lessons based on the specific needs of each pupil.

Who came from where