Repton School Five Year Strategic Plan

A PERFECTLY BALANCED EDUCATION IN THE HEART OF ENGLAND.

OUR VISION FOR THE FUTURE OF REPTON SCHOOL

This document demonstrates our commitment to becoming outstanding in every area of school life. It shows our determination, dynamism and ambition to be, without fear of contradiction, sector-leading in all that we do.

Our strategic plan is laid out by area of activity, but it is important to note that we will function at our best when everything interweaves – our excellence in sport helps to build our academic achievement, our multi-dimensional pastoral care underpins performance in every aspect of the school, our arts, drama and music form rounded, culturally aware young adults who are ready to become global citizens. On top of this, our transformational bursaries have immediate benefit for all, not just the recipient.

Sustainability and the wise husbanding of energy are now key factors for all schools. We cannot reach a satisfactory outcome in small increments. That is why, as you can see on page 13 of this document, we have plans to build a ‘Decanting House’ which will enable the radical energy-saving renovation of all our Boarding Houses.

Our aim has never been continual growth in numbers. We will keep our student roll at 630, despite, at many entry points, greater demand for places than we are able immediately to satisfy. The reason is simple; at this number, and what that means for our House and class sizes, there can be recognition of potential and individual attention for each and every pupil.

In short, our plans for our pupils and staff aim to reinforce the sense of balance in all aspects of life, at school and beyond.

THE CONTEXT FOR THE FIVE YEAR PLAN

Repton has an educational story to tell reaching all the way back to Anglo-Saxon England, when it was the capital of Mercia and home to King Offa.

The Repton School of today dates from 1557, when it was founded by Sir John Port. Repton is therefore older than many of our most long-established schools and yet different in how fast it moves with our times:

• E xcellent academic results at every level.

• Full boarding ethos, fully integrating our day pupils into the all-important House life.

• Outstanding and sector leading pastoral care.

• International reputation for sporting success.

• B uildings and grounds demonstrate seamless mix of ancient and modern (£30m investment already in awardwinning design).

• Committed, skilled staff with career enhancement opportunities.

• E stablished internationally with a growing Repton family of schools across the Middle East and Asia and with plans for other parts of the world, the opportunities present themselves for global collaboration in teaching and learning best practice, for example Latin online from UK or debate competitions involving all our schools.

• Further development of our family of schools across the UK, demonstrating that like-mindedness rather than geography is our guiding principle.

Areas of competitive distinctiveness include:

Being intentionally small enough for every pupil to be known and appreciated for their individuality, yet large enough to compete and win on a national and international stage.

Having all the valuable tradition that comes with a heritage encompassing the Vikings, yet with a modernity of outlook in its staff body, its facilities, and its ambitions for the future.

Pupils have a no-nonsense groundedness, as suits our position at the very heart of the country, and yet are taught social consciousness and global awareness as an integral part of the timetabled curriculum.

Being at the forefront of the EdTech revolution and the hub of a growing, interconnected global family of schools.

An enviable record of sporting, academic and cultural achievement at the highest school level, allied to a focus on character, values, social skills and collaboration.

Having facilities that will increasingly allow a financial contribution from Repton Enterprises.

ACADEMIC STUDY

Our pupils achieve in the classroom because they never have to prioritise academic achievement over their love of the theatre, their aptitude for sport or their passion for music.

A healthy balance between work and rest is proven to improve performance in all areas of endeavour.

OBJECTIVES

To ensure the delivery of a creative curriculum that forms the foundation of rigorous, empirically measurable intellectual development yet now recognises that ‘softer skills’ can propel and accelerate learning.

To reinforce and build upon our culture of intellectual ambition, which will increase an individual’s potential and engender a more dynamic academic climate born of curiosity.

To harness and exploit the creativity and resourcefulness that arose out of necessity in countering the Covid threat.

To respond with increasing precision to individual academic need through more sophisticated assessment strategies and targeted support.

To enhance the academic curriculum through the use of new technology, thereby enabling us to take full advantage of the EdTech revolution with all its implications for our international family of schools.

To provide proactive and wider-ranging higher education mentoring, leading to higher-reach, more ambitious university entrance.

To place greater emphasis on the development of entrepreneurial thinking with a view to our pupils gaining an early appreciation of innovation within the commercial world.

To equip Reptonians with the knowledge of world events and essential skills, for example: communication, self-motivation, leadership, teamwork, time management and adaptability.

Digital Classroom

The architect’s drawing of our planned digital classrooms can only hint at the exciting, ground-breaking possibilities offered by creatively harnessing technology for enhanced teaching and learning.

PLANS TO DELIVER ON OBJECTIVES

New IT infrastructure and technology.

Development of a Business Centre with entrepreneurialism and innovation as its aim.

Refurbished DT, Art, and Textiles facilities.

Re-imagined Sixth Form experience (study galleries and social spaces).

Enhanced staff training and career planning.

See the ‘Centre of Gravity’ plans, page 28.

PASTORAL CARE

By interweaving traditional care with scientific, data driven tracking we have developed a highly tuned pastoral care provision that works for each individual.

This coherent, all-encompassing system is called WellWorks – a latticework of care that is sufficiently sophisticated that no child can slip through.

At the heart of Repton School is the Boarding House, where much of the WellWorks system is grounded. The sense of belonging, essential if the child is to gain the maximum from the Repton experience, is nurtured here. This is reinforced not only by the House Parents, House Tutors and Matron but also by the fact that we keep each House smaller in number than most schools and take all three daily meals in the warm familiarity of the House dining room.

OBJECTIVES

FOR PUPILS

To continue to create a consistent, inclusive, evolving and age-appropriate framework of care and encouragement which supports the individual child and in which they are known, safe, happy and valued.

To maintain a first-class, co-educational, modern boarding ethos alongside a fully integrated day pupil experience.

To link respect for each other to respect for the environment.

To prepare our pupils to be global citizens through awareness of and engagement with the important issues of our time, of which equality, diversity and inclusion is an integral part.

To employ sophisticated methods and models of pastoral assessment to sit alongside the very best professional guidance and parental insight in the understanding and support of each individual child.

To provide an ever improving quality of catering that supports growth and development, enhancing the highly-valued House dining experience.

FOR STAFF

To establish a culture of openness, organisation and accountability that extends from the Governing Body and the Executive across all management structures of the school.

To offer greater career progression and create a teacher training programme within the Repton Family of Schools that allows international movement, career opportunities and quality assurance.

To attract staff of the highest quality, sometimes from outside the sector, and provide them too with high calibre pastoral care.

PLANS TO DELIVER ON OBJECTIVES

Create an 11th Boarding House in order to allow the phased refurbishment of the ten Houses which will be wellbeing-centred and space-conscious for each age cohort. Upgrade the catering to be increasingly health driven and satisfying. Put in place protocols to maintain a healthy work/life balance for pupils and staff in the pursuit of the wellbeing of the whole community.

The architects drawing shows the planned ‘Decanting House’ which is needed in order to make possible, House by House, the far-reaching energy efficiency and design upgrades that we will undertake.

DECANTING HOUSE ALLOWING REFURBISHMENT OF OUR HOUSES

Recent events have highlighted the fragility of energy markets. We are taking significant steps to radically improve our energy efficiency at all levels.

As we refurbish our ten Boarding Houses one by one, space is required for the whole House community to move into while the substantial works are completed. This refurbishment will entail not simply modernisation, but a ‘root and branch’ move to thermal efficiency, therefore there is a requirement to build a ‘Decanting House’. Throughout Repton the programme of enhanced energy efficiency is underway.

SPORT

Sporting success carries our brand across the country and across the world. Achieving in sport at the highest levels of performance and participation for all are in no way mutually exclusive.

Over 80% of Reptonians represent the School in at least one sport. 100% of pupils participate in sport at least three times a week. Sport, academics and the co-curricular complement each other, with each being critical to the success of the whole.

SPORT

OBJECTIVES

To make Repton the most successful, academic, sporting school in the country.

To ensure that we always offer a sports programme for all abilities: a structure of access and expertise that embraces the intensity of an elite sport programme, the pride in representing the School, the enjoyment of involvement in House sport and the personal satisfaction of physical exercise.

To continue national and international success through the appointment of inspirational coaches of proven pedigree.

To attract talented pupils from across the country and from around the world to the promise of sporting excellence and a proven academic track record that creates pathways to professional sport, to universities in the UK and, increasingly, to colleges in the USA.

To underpin the centrality of sport to wellbeing.

To focus on a co-educational approach to sporting excellence.

To offer an unrivalled breadth of opportunity for our pupils through Repton Hockey Club, Repton Swimming Club and Repton Tennis and Rackets Club but also through our connections with professional football and cricket clubs.

To use our sports credentials in our widening access strategies.

PLANS TO DELIVER ON OBJECTIVES

New floodlit artificial surfaces for football. Conversion from sand to water based hockey pitches and a further water based pitch.

Two more indoor Tennis Courts and new Padel Tennis Courts. Enhanced cricket and swimming coaching facilities. Enable constant upgrading of our provision for our five focus sports (Hockey, Swimming, Cricket, Football and Tennis).

Refurbishment of Fives Courts.

TWO 3G ASTRO FOOTBALL PITCHES

There will be two new 3G pitches dedicated to football (as shown in these architect visuals). This facility will dramatically improve the efficiency and effectiveness of training and coaching for girls’ and boys’ football.

EXTRA CURRICULAR INVOLVEMENT

Repton will be leaders in this increasingly important feature of the independent school sector, as it becomes more widely recognised that everything you do makes you better at everything you do.

EXTRA CURRICULAR INVOLVEMENT

OBJECTIVES

To be ever more ambitious in our programmes that, indoors and outside, build skills, resilience and test ingenuity, whilst being principally for the enjoyment of the pupils and another counterpoint to academic study.

To encourage more pupils to take part in music and in musical and choral large and small-scale productions. House music plays a large role here.

To develop the breadth and quality of our dramatic output, giving every pupil the opportunity to be involved in performance, technical delivery or both.

To develop Art as both a vehicle for wider aesthetic appreciation and understanding but also to cultivate and showcase individual creative talent.

To ensure a culture of engagement in the pupil body by enthusing and surprising young minds with programmes of workshops, inspirational speakers, enriching projects and stimulating trips and opportunities.

To cater carefully and consequentially for the growing scope of digitally based activities.

Art Studio

Architect’s drawing of our planned all new Art Studio, where creativity will be given space to breathe.

PLANS TO DELIVER ON OBJECTIVES

To become a ‘Steinway School’ with all that implies for the quality and consistency of our musical ambition and output.

Enhanced Art, DT and Textiles facilities.

Re-purpose empty areas to dedicated, equipped activity spaces.

SPIRIT OF PLACE

The entrance to Repton is an arch not a gate; it has invited people in for as long as it has been here. How we invite people in, and what, as part of a larger Repton community, can be achieved, must keep pace with the times.

The actions of all those many people: staff, pupils, parents, Old Reptonians and friends, will: Create a world-class educational experience for every one of our pupils.

Place Repton at the forefront of educational best practice in the UK and around the world.

Establish Repton as a global educational brand synonymous with developing rounded, grounded, unbounded young adults.

Define and confirm the quality of the Repton brand with clarity and confidence, nationally and internationally.

OBJECTIVES

To improve in Reptonians and Old Reptonians a culture of giving back, both to the school and to the wider world; a giving of time, of expertise, of money, of energy and of help when it is most needed by others, exemplified by an ambitious Partnership programme.

To ensure a Repton education is available to a growing number of those who will maximise all that it has to offer through life-changing bursaries that will create a lasting impact on not just the recipient, but our global community.

To make initiatives and actions in sustainability integral to policy and practice.

To exploit the possibilities now offered by technology to convey the relevance of our Repton community.

To re-invigorate the relationship with the OR communities by maintaining old friendships and establishing stronger ties more quickly with recent leavers.

To strengthen our sense of global connection between the Repton family of schools, where sharing experiences across national boundaries becomes the norm.

To create effective ways to extend our pastoral care to the undergraduate student as they enter university – a sometimes difficult, confusing, and anxiety-laden time.

To establish productive relationships with local, national and international business communities.

PLANS TO DELIVER ON OBJECTIVES

A re-imagined online community with global reach and relevance. An enhanced system for mentoring Reptonians at the outset of their careers.

A programme of sustainability actions that leads by example. An increase in transformational bursaries.

THE CENTRE OF GRAVITY

For centuries Pears School and the Old Priory formed the locus of operations of the school day. In recent years the School has spread somewhat to other parts of the village, creating an opportunity for the renaissance of these magnificent buildings.

We now have a bold plan to bring the fulcrum of activity back within the Arch. The plans show an exciting amalgam of the ancient and the modern, providing hugely improved working space, collaborative study facilities as well as flexible social and relaxation areas. A strength of these plans is that they pre-figure for our pupils the way work is increasingly being conducted in the offices of the future.

The Grubber and Wellness Garden

The Wellness Garden

Alongside the Grubber will be a Wellness Garden. We are conscious of the sheer pace of life at Repton where everyone’s day is tremendously busy. A place for a short stepping off into quiet will be a welcome addition for all our community and the best place for it is right here, where it is totally accessible to all.

The Grubber

The Grubber has always held a special place in the heart of Reptonians. It is now time not only to modernise but to expand. We plan to build two floors of modern, airy, lightfilled, comfortable space that will continue to be the ‘go to’ place for pupils, staff and an ever-increasing number of visitors of all kinds.

The Sixth Form Centre

Under Pears School we plan to convert existing classrooms into an entirely new facility. This will become a genuinely enjoyable social space, more suited to the lead up to University life.

The Sixth Form Centre

FROM REPTON, PUPILS AND OLD REPTONIANS ACCOMPLISH THE OUTSTANDING –AS INDIVIDUALS AND AS TEAM PLAYERS.

TITLE

We are proud of our academics, our entrepreneurs, our doctors, our business leaders, our Olympians, our international sportspeople, our premiership footballers, our test match cricketers, our linguists, our writers, our actors on stage and screen, our virtuoso musicians, choral scholars and creatives.

For all our pupils, we want their educational journey at Repton to be one that gives them a sense of place and balance, with the friends that matter and with the Arch as the symbolic gateway to their future.

“Repton is already a wonderful school. My responsibility and that of every single person here, whether teacher, pupil, support staff, governor, is to make it more wonderful still.

It is as simple as that. That is what we are here to do.

The objectives and plans that you see here will help us achieve that and it is where all our energies and money will be spent.”

Mark Semmence Headmaster & CEO of the Repton Group

A PERFECTLY BALANCED EDUCATION IN THE HEART OF ENGLAND.