Academic extension

All our students are encouraged to be academically ambitious, curious and intellectually open-minded. Extension is built into our whole curriculum and every teacher routinely offers a broad range of stretching and challenging learning opportunities in their lessons to successfully fulfil their potential. All students are monitored so we can identify gifted or highly motivated students and give them opportunities to develop their mastery of subjects in which they shine. This could be through class tasks, homework assignments or co-curricular activities. Scholars are offered bespoke opportunities in line with their area of expertise, such as university lectures, museum visits, workshops and theatre trips. In Year 7 and 8, scholars and other highly able students are offered termly Aspire discussion sessions which aim to stimulate critical thinking and academic research.

Students are invited to join the Aspire group which meets fortnightly throughout the year and aims to prepare students for the demands of a challenging interview process. The Aspire group is designed for those students in Year 9 and above who specifically enjoy reaching beyond the curriculum, grappling with new ideas and being pushed out of their intellectual comfort zones. This approach to excellent all-round academic scholarship underpins successful applications to Oxbridge, medical school and other highly-regarded university destinations. Aspire Lectures, compulsory for scholars but encouraged for all, are designed to complement the academic life Royal High School Bath. These are an exciting way to impart knowledge about a range of academically challenging topics from across the curriculum and beyond. Previous topics have included ‘What Have The Romans Ever Done For Us?’, ‘Algorithms: Beautiful or Beastly? and ‘Black Literature Matters.’

The lecture programme runs throughout the year, with two sessions per half term.