Ages 
An idyllic school which expects to keep its youngsters until the end of their schooldays and where they can grow into themselves, learn and experience wonderful things. Rendcomb makes sure that those teenage years are about more than grades, grades, grades, yet still manages to get its students successfully to the next stage of their education.
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Overview & data
- Pupil numbers
- 386 ·
- Sixth form numbers
- 63 ·
- Offers boarding
- Yes ·
- Religion
- None
- Fees
- Day £10,116 - £35,064; Boarding £38,340 - £55,890 pa
- Local authority
- Gloucestershire County Council
- School ownership
- Rendcomb Foundation
Headteacher
Head of college
Mr Andy Murphy
Since September 2025, Andy Murphy, previously senior deputy head at Stamford School. Raised in Scotland, he read biology at the University of Edinburgh, then ventured south to the University of Oxford, where he did a master’s in science and a PGCE.
Entrance
Straight into the nursery from the age of 3. Junior school hopefuls have to attend a taster day, a two-way process designed to check the fit between child and school and a chance for some informal academic assessment. All entrants for the senior
- Open days
- Open mornings: September, November, March and May; Sixth form event: June
Exit
Most junior pupils to the senior school (any child unlikely to make it will have been identified a couple of years before); tiny numbers to local state schools. As an ‘unashamedly through school’, no CE or 11+ prep, eg for very competitive
Latest results
In 2025, 29 per cent 9-7 at GCSE; 33 per cent A*/A at A level (59 per cent A*-B).
A levels or equivalent - Average points score (2024)
What is this?
These figures tell you the average grade and average points that pupils achieved in their academic qualifications. A maximum of 60 points are available for a grade A* at A level.
Teaching & learning
The junior school follows the national curriculum, but peps it up with some French (specialist teachers for that, music and PE) and lots of time in the marvellous forest school, which is what it says – not some apologetic little patch of scrub off
- Qualifications taken in 2024
- A level
- BTEC
- EPQ
- GCSE
Learning support & SEN
Exceptional – and we don’t often say that. Part of it is the beautiful new centre opened right next to the sixth form centre in 2021, expressly designed as a calm space with the minimum of sensory stress, hence muted décor, bare walls and frosted
Arts & extracurricular
Let us start with the beautifully designed Griffin Theatre, which also houses a proper dance studio. ‘Industry standard,’ according to the website, the theatre provides opportunities not only for acting, but also for lighting, sound design, costume
Sport
Quite a range and quite a standard provided by what is essentially a small school, such as serious lacrosse: it’s the girls’ sport of choice for prominent local schools Westonbirt and CLC. That said, senior girls’ hockey teams remained unbeaten for a
Boarders
No junior boarding, and thereafter in four houses grouped by age and, in case of years 10 and 11, by gender. All houses have a mix of day students and boarders; when the day students leave at latest 6pm, the houses revert to the boarders’
Ethos & heritage
Founded only in 1920 – so extraordinarily unlucky in terms of a centenary year – by Noel Wills, a member of local tobacco magnates who gave Bristol University its most iconic building, the school occupies a site and mansion rather older that it is.
Pastoral care, inclusivity & discipline
Highly rated, and the reason that some choose the school: ‘end-to-end,’ as one mother described it – though another thought that a closer eye needed to be kept on the junior school playground to ensure that every child had a playmate. Support for
Mobile phone policy
A clear mobile phone policy is a really important part of modern schooling. This school has provided us with their policy.
Mobile phone policy
Provided by the school and not part of our review There is a staggered approach to introducing mobile phones usage to our pupils, which focuses on our mission to prepare pupils for the modern world. At Rendcomb pupils from years 7-11 are not permitted to have phones on them during the school day and all day and boarders must hand them in at the start of the day and do not receive them back until 5pm (for day students) or 6.30pm for boarders. Once pupils reach sixth form they may keep their phones on them during the day but these must not be used outside the houses. Phones are taken in overnight.
Pupils & parents
Surprisingly ordinary and down to earth for the Cotswolds: ‘a good cross-section ethnically and economically,’ as one father summed it up. A maximum of 30 per cent from across the globe, including Japan, South Africa and Nigeria. A few German
Money matters
Boarding fees increase as students go up the school, falling in line with comparable schools by year 10. The head is proud to have been able to reduce the day fees slightly, so as to make Rendcomb possible for more families. Usual array of
- Fee information
- Day £10,116 - £35,064; Boarding £38,340 - £55,890 pa
The last word
An idyllic school which expects to keep its youngsters until the end of their schooldays and where they can grow into themselves, learn and experience wonderful things. Rendcomb makes sure that those teenage years are about more than grades, grades,
