Abingdon School

Abingdon combines over 750 years of history and tradition with a modern outlook, offering a world class education that sees former pupils at the top of just about every profession and industry.

Situated just a few miles from the leading cultural and academic centre of Oxford and within easy reach of London’s international airports, Abingdon is ideally placed to welcome overseas boarders. Indeed, boarding has been synonymous with Abingdon throughout our history, attracting students who live locally as well as those from abroad.

We are an academically selective school and exam results are consistently excellent. In the Fifth Year, students typically study ten GCSEs and, in the Sixth Form, we follow A level and Pre-U syllabuses. The Sixth Form timetable is flexible, enabling pupils to take varied subject combinations from the 25 subjects on offer, all of which meet the School’s rigorous academic standards. In a typical year, close to 40% of pupils gain A* or A grades in three or more subjects at A level. We have a specialist team of career advisers who mentor the Sixth Form on university applications and, each year, Abingdon pupils go on to study at world leading universities, including the prestigious Russell Group and Ivy League colleges. In the UK, popular choices include Oxford, Cambridge (9 students hold Oxbridge places in 2022) and the London institutions – Imperial, LSE, King’s and UCL. Abroad, our pupils currently hold places at the universities of Toronto, Hong Kong, Auckland and a variety of US campuses including Yale. Popular subjects studied include Engineering in its many guises, Medicine, Economics, Sciences and the Humanities.

Our timetable also allows our students plenty of access to Abingdon’s extensive Other Half (extra-curricular) programme which, with over 150 activities on offer, is the envy of most schools – even those within the independent sector. Whether it’s music, science and computing clubs, chess,  finance and business, film making, journalism, the arts or sport – the opportunities are plenty and there for the taking.

We also believe strongly in broadening horizons through travel and, whilst this has been restricted over the past couple of years due to the Covid pandemic, the recent lifting in restrictions means our students are once again able to experience the myriad of language exchanges, cultural and sports tours, previously enjoyed in a ‘normal’ school year.

We also know that an individual’s success at school is intrinsically linked to their health and wellbeing. At Abingdon, our pastoral care revolves around the House system. Each pupil is both a member of a House under the care of a housemaster and belongs to a tutor group, led by a tutor with whom he meets daily. This system fosters a friendly atmosphere and promotes a feeling of identity and belonging – older students feel a sense of responsibility and experience; and younger pupils benefit from support, friendship and advice.

Over the last ten years, the School has undergone an extensive investment programme, adding our science centre; sports centre and swimming pool; dedicated sixth form centre, library and arts centre; and business, economics and computer science building, to our impressive list of facilities. Looking forward to 2023, there is much anticipation for the completion of a new dining pavilion and our extended and renovated boarding accommodation. This will offer a truly contemporary and vibrant home from home environment with extended study areas and single bedrooms for all sixth form students, but it is also set to enhance the Abingdon experience for our day pupils who are an integral part of our boarding houses.