Shaping Future Generations of Successful, Visionary Women Strategy 2025-2028
Shaping Future Generations of Successful, Visionary Women Strategy
2025-2028
A Vision for Benenden Girls
At Benenden, everything we do is for the benefit of the students. As a world-leading provider of a British boarding education for girls, our mission is simple: to shape future generations of successful, visionary women.
This ambition has remained constant since our Founders – who were themselves successful, visionary women – opened Benenden 102 years ago. In an everchanging world, the methods for achieving this mission have needed to evolve, and this commitment to continual improvement is as true today as it was in 1923.
Of course, Benenden provides every student with outstanding academic outcomes – but their School lives are about so much more than exam results and onward destinations, as impressive as these are.
Our parents choose Benenden for their daughters because of its commitment to providing A Complete Education: that genuine preparedness for life that comes from wide-ranging experiences across all aspects of our academic, co-curricular and personal development programmes.
Benenden is undeniably an outstanding school. I firmly believe it can be even better.
Through this Strategic Plan, you will see that our commitment to delivering A Complete Education is not only preserved – but enhanced. We are reviewing our curriculum to ensure it is progressive and innovative for modern society. We have reviewed our Sport provision and are developing a facilities masterplan to enhance the sporting opportunities for our students. We are investing in continuous boarding house refurbishment. We are delivering sector-leading training to ensure that our culture of continuous improvement does not just benefit our students, but also those who educate them.
Every aspect of this Strategic Plan is focused on delivering our vision for the benefit of the students.
The work is already well underway –and we very much look forward to working with parents as we deliver this Strategic Plan in its entirety over the coming years.
Rachel Bailey Headmistress
Our Strategic Objectives
Our Strategic Plan is built on the following objectives:
OBJECTIVE ONE:
Be the flagship school for girls’ boarding and day education within the UK
Develop the concept of A Complete Education so that it is tangible in all areas of every student’s life.
Continue to develop the academic curriculum to ensure it remains at the forefront of educational practice whilst maintaining or improving academic outcomes.
Ensure that pastoral care provision is exceptional.
Develop a staff body whose commitment to self-improvement is embedded in the culture.
Ensure that the co-curricular provision of the School is a truly complementary part of the curriculum, becoming a focus for delivery of skills and character education.
Ensure the Admissions process is a premium experience.
Maintain the delivery of a premium educational offering whilst ensuring that the School is cost effective, operationally efficient and compliant.
Maintain and evolve the facilities to support the provision of A Complete Education.
1 Be the flagship school for girlsʼ boarding and day education within the UK (Operational)
2 Position Benenden globally as a champion for innovative educational practice (Operational and Business Development)
3
Increase the schoolʼs UK and global footprint (Business Development)
OBJECTIVE TWO:
Position Benenden globally as a champion for innovative educational practice
As an expert in every aspect of girls’ development and wellbeing, position Benenden as a thought leader for girls’ education.
Increase the awareness of Benenden amongst existing and new audiences.
Broaden the international pupil body to allow increased interaction with students from across the globe.
Review and reinvigorate the School’s sustainability strategy to include sustainability education.
OBJECTIVE THREE:
Increase the School’s UK and global footprint
Increase the international school portfolio to promote the Benenden educational model and diversify the School’s income stream.
Expand and increase the School’s development network to increase engagement with UK and international Benenden communities.
Actively explore opportunities within the UK which support the operational aims of the School and provide options for growth.
Continue to develop mutually beneficial links with equivalent boys’ schools to benefit Benenden girls’ lived experience and to enhance and support Benenden’s strategic position.
Expand and develop the School’s partnership programme in the UK and internationally to enhance students’ global awareness.
DELIVERING ON OUR OBJECTIVES
These objectives impact every aspect of Benenden life. Over the coming pages, we explore some of the ways we will deliver these objectives across the strategic focus areas of Pupils, Parents, Performance, and Partnerships & Community.
Pupils Strategic Focus:
At Benenden, the girls are at the heart of everything we do.
Our focus through this Strategic Plan is on ensuring that they receive an outstanding experience during their years at Benenden and that they are truly future ready when they leave School.
The girls’ lived experience is vital –and this means everything from their dorm to their Tutoring provision, and from their lessons to the day girls’ bus journey.
This area of strategic focus is categorised by our aims for Benenden students, of ensuring they are Future Ready, receive An Exceptional Lived Experience, and enjoy Breadth and Depth of opportunity.
Future Ready - Fourth to Lower Fifth
Our aim is to ensure that every Benenden student possesses the skills and experience to thrive in tomorrow’s rapidly-changing world.
The new-look Benenden Diploma (the CREATE Diploma) for the Fourth and Upper Fourth has been updated for 2025/26 to focus on the core skills for the future, based on the World Economic Forum’s Fast Growing Skills for 2030.
The refreshed Diploma features enhancements to the curriculum including:
A distinct STEM lesson which draws the links between the Sciences, Technology, Engineering and Maths
Digital Futures to include AI and Data Science
Oracy built into the Drama curriculum
A new rotation covering Business and ‘From Soil to Supper’ – a course designed to cover elements of sustainability, foraging and creating ethically sourced meals.
Our new Head of Diploma will be focusing on embedding and continually reviewing this updated Diploma to ensure it remains relevant for the future.
We will review our curriculum for the Fourth and Upper Fourth over the coming years to ensure it is delivering these core skills.
Meanwhile, the first phase of refreshing the Lower Fifth curriculum has taken place. Phase One includes the introduction of lessons in:
Natural Sciences
Data Science
Oracy built into the Drama curriculum.
The Lower Fifth will also benefit from a new curriculum course focusing on service and outdoor education . This course is designed to instil in students a keen understanding of environmental stewardship, the wider world and the importance of their contribution to community.
The Oracy Progamme for the Fourth to Lower Fifth is designed to help students express themselves articulately and confidently through a range of mediums: in interviews, in everyday situations and on virtual calls which form such a significant part of modern professional life.
Future Ready - Whole School
We have enhanced our Electives Progamme to number more than 70 options across all year groups, with a wide range of courses taught by professional specialists, including international relations, criminology, project planning, journalism, advanced genetics, an introduction to law, illustrations, sign language, generative AI and many more.
Building on the Lower Fifths’ service and outdoor education learning, we are developing a Sustainability Progamme, including curricular and co-curricular opportunities. This will incorporate cross-department working, Enquiry Weeks and international summer schools.
This programme will make better use of the School’s distinctive and unique environment. It will focus on educating girls about sustainability and will give students a better understanding of, and the chance to become involved in, aspects of managing the Benenden site through numerous outdoor projects. This programme will also promote student leadership through a student sustainability committee setting School-wide goals.
This focus on the natural world will provide balance alongside the technological focus of our curriculum, with continual advancements in our teaching around AI and algorithmic thinking as this technology rapidly evolves.
Our educational focus is on teaching our students the skills and practicalities of making the most of AI but also exploring and understanding the ethics and limitations of the technology.
We are refreshing our Sixth Form Professional Skills Programme to reflect the evolving demands of the modern workplace. In addition to building on the success of our Inclusive Leadership strand with personality profiling, teamwork development and insights from industry experts, over time we will tap into our parent and alumni community to integrate real-world learning into the Weekend Programme, ensuring girls gain practical exposure and inspiration. Additions to the existing programme will include mastering the art of leading a team remotely and practical skills.
We will also be introducing a specialist Oxbridge and World Top 10 University Preparation Progamme as part of our careers curriculum.
Our new Peer Mentoring Progamme will see Six Ones guiding younger students in social and practical skills, fostering leadership and continuity across year groups. This initiative will extend to our Seniors’ network, with Senior-to-Senior mentoring, ensuring that the Benenden experience extends beyond the classroom and into lifelong networks of support.
An Exceptional Lived Experience
Students excel when every aspect of their environment is outstanding –their physical surroundings as well as the tailored support and activities that are available to benefit their personal development and wellbeing.
Our boarding house refurbishments will become part of a continuous programme, with facilities in all the Houses updated on a regular basis.
In addition, we will soon launch a refurbishment programme for our Sixth Form Houses to ensure that Founders offers a modern, nurturing environment in which students can thrive.
We will be consulting closely with students as we develop our plans for communal areas and dormitories, but in the shorter term we will be introducing a Sixth Form coffee shop-style provision.
Alongside physical improvements to the students’ living spaces, we are embedding the Girls on Board Programme – an internationally respected initiative that equips staff, parents and students with tools to navigate the complexities of female friendships through training and sharing best practice. At Benenden we are experts in teenage girls, and this programme will ensure the support that we can offer our students remains cutting-edge.
Benenden is proud to be an exception in the sector by offering individual tutoring to every student in the School, and to enhance this provision we are in the process of redeveloping our tutoring model around 1:1 coaching principles. This includes launching bespoke data dashboards to track individual progress and establishing tailored coaching programmes for different year groups.
Recognising the importance of inclusive care, we are enhancing our SEND provision across all aspects of school life. This includes specialist training for House staff to support neurodiverse students beyond the classroom and ensuring every girl feels understood and empowered in her daily environment –from the dining hall to her dorm.
Our sector-leading Weekend Programme remains central to Benenden’s Complete Education, and we will be working hard to ensure it continues to provide a balanced, engaging and purposeful extension to the academic week.While we are fortunate to live on a beautiful site, we recognise it is important that teenagers are able to get off site and we will be introducing a greater range of significant trips and activities into our Weekend Programme.
Breadth and DepthEnrichment and Facilities
A wide range of opportunity is a fundamental principle of our Complete Education. This is underpinned by outstanding facilities.
We will develop a full site master plan to outline our facilities enhancements across Benenden’s grounds. This will define the School’s priorities for capital investment in the coming years – with students’ range of opportunities at the forefront of our decisions.
Beyond the core curriculum, we are expanding opportunities in our super-
curricular enrichment provision for students to gain depth in their chosen subject areas, including through engineering projects, service education and exchange programmes.
Our provision of academic extension across the younger years is being relaunched to run vertically in Houses, giving students the opportunity to stretch their skills and knowledge by mixing academically with different year groups and providing the older girls with leadership and mentoring opportunities.
Breadth and Depth – Sport
Enhancing the Sport offering at Benenden is a major focus of our Strategic Plan.
We have recently undertaken a thorough review of our Sport curriculum and staffing model, taking into account the changing nature of women’s sport in the UK alongside technological advancements.
Over the coming pages, we outline the main changes we are introducing as a result of this review, while also sharing our ambition for improving our Sport facilities.
Sport Curriculum
Following a comprehensive review of our Sport provision last year, which involved thorough consultations with students and parents, we have introduced a range of improvements which we are working hard to embed.
These include:
Through a new staffing model, we have been able to provide additional Hockey and Cricket provision.
We have strengthened our swimming offering, alongside a new Elite Swimming Programme.
By adjusting the timetable to introduce designated Sport afternoons, we have increased the number of local competitive fixtures in Netball and Hockey through weekday matches, while maintaining weekend Lacrosse fixtures.
We have increased the amount of timetabled Sport for our Fourth and Upper Fourth.
The introduction of additional inter-House competitions.
A new Sport Ambassadors Programme.
In addition, we have ambition to develop further links with clubs, following the success of our partnerships with London Pulse Netball and with local Football, Cricket and Athletics clubs.
This is all being achieved while retaining our commitment to the traditional sports, such as Lacrosse, which Benenden is synonymous with.
Sport Facilities
We will shortly be developing a master plan for Sport facilities across the site.
Girls at Benenden are fortunate to benefit from some stunning facilities but we remain committed to continuous improvement. Some facilities are nearing the end of their life cycle, while the changing nature of women’s sport alongside technological advances will be key drivers in shaping our provision.
This master plan will set the priorities for investment that will extend beyond the life of this Strategic Plan, but our aim by 2028 is for our plans to have been researched, developed, consulted on and thoroughly costed.
At this early stage, we cannot commit to specific projects within this master plan, but chief among this vision for the future of sport at Benenden will be a new sports centre.
In the shorter term, we are proceeding with targeted improvements to sport facilities in preparation for more significant investment in the years to come.
Having created an improved Dance provision in the Drama building, we will shortly begin work on expanding the gym facilities in SPLASH which will enable us to develop our strength and conditioning programme, while also widening opportunities for girls’ wellbeing.
Parents Strategic Focus:
We firmly believe that parents are as vital a part of the Benenden community as their daughters.
The strength of Benenden lies in its community and we are committed to working in partnership with families for the benefit of the girls and the School community (the Benenden Society) more broadly.
Engagement with Parents
Following the success of our recent series of Parent Information Sessions , in which members of the Senior Leadership Team discuss year group-specific matters across the areas of academic, pastoral and co-curricular, these will become a regular feature of our communications programme with parents.
In addition, our Ask an Hm Series will see our pastoral leaders sharing their expertise with parents on girls’ development as they navigate the teenage years, while our counsellors will host regular talks to provide guidance on adolescent development and wellbeing.
Meanwhile, By Parents, for Parents is a peer-led series aimed at existing Benenden parents sharing practical advice and lived experiences with their newer counterparts.
We will also enhance the quality and accessibility of our communications with parents.
The first phase of this work is our refreshed weekly Bulletin for parents that now separates the important information that parents need from the articles celebrating School life and students’ achievements.
We are also reviewing the Parent Portal to enhance its information and usability, along with the launch of a Parent Portal app.
In addition, we are implementing a tailored communications programme to ensure the arrangements of a 24/7 boarding school are fully inclusive for all our parent groups: Day families, international families and our UK boarders.
Partnerships & Community Strategic Focus:
Benenden works in partnership with its own community and with other schools in the UK and around the world, to ensure its students are truly globally aware and embodying our School values.
Our Global Community
The Benenden Society, which comprises both current and former Benenden families and friends, will play a vital role in the School’s Strategic Plan and we will continue to work collaboratively with the Benenden School Parents’ Association, the Parents’ Events Committee and the Benenden School Seniors’ Association to enhance the Benenden Society.
Philanthropy has shaped both the School campus and the pupil experience. We will continue to work in partnership with Parents, Seniors and Friends of the School to enhance our facilities and all aspects of the student journey.
We will expand and strengthen our network of engagement with Benenden’s communities here in the UK and around the world so they feel empowered to support the School in a variety of ways and to act as strong global advocates, and we will continue to grow our online community through our Benenden Connects platform
Educational Collaborations
Benenden is renowned as a leading provider of educational partnerships in the UK. Our network is extensive and has led to some notable events such as our conventions and conferences which attract similar premium schools including Tonbridge School and Eton College.
We aim to build on our network of school partnerships through mutually-beneficial events, sharing best practice and widening our student exchange programmes for the benefit of Benenden girls’ global awareness.
Additionally, while Benenden is unequivocally remaining a single-sex girls’ school, we plan to expand our partnership working with boys’ schools in academic, pastoral and co-curricular perspectives. This will include continuing to progress our working relationship with Tonbridge School and other boys’ schools, exploring opportunities for collaboration that benefit both institutions and their wider communities.
Performance Strategic Focus:
Benenden is committed to maintaining its position as one of the UK’s top 50 schools for academic achievement and Value-Added outcomes, while continuing its model of delivering A Complete Education to a diverse student body.
Central to this ambition is building the School’s profile within the UK and new markets, and building additional income streams.
Staff
A School’s success is not only judged by aspects that can be measured, such as exam results or onward destinations. A Complete Education is fundamentally about character and experiences, which are far more difficult to define. Our outstanding and committed staff are vital to the girls’ success.
We are introducing a professional development programme to ensure all our staff – operational as well as studentfacing – benefit from the culture of continual improvement that the students enjoy.
Additional Income Streams
To support the School’s long-term aims, we will actively generate non-fee income through a range of initiatives. These include expanding our international school portfolio , launching a programme of summer courses tailored to international students, and expanding our on-site commercial activity.
This will involve building on the success of our lettings and the Hemsted Park performing arts brand to maximise the potential of our beautiful surroundings.
UK Market Priorities
Further to our recent announcement about Orwell Park School joining the Benenden family of schools, the School will also explore new opportunities for growth within the UK market , with the potential for other schools to join the Benenden group.
Raising awareness and understanding of Benenden among both existing and new audiences is a key priority.
We will build on our position as a thought leader in girls’ education and strengthen engagement with prep schools to build a robust pipeline of future students.
At the same time, we will work to reduce the cost base while maintaining the premium quality of our educational provision, ensuring financial sustainability without compromising excellence.
Shaping Future Generations of Successful, Visionary Women Strategy
2025-2028
“A happy school with personal integrity and service for others always in mind and where everyone would be given the chance to follow her own bent.”
The Founders’ vision for Benenden, 1923