Blundell’s School

Blundell’s, founded in 1604, is one of the oldest and most significant schools in the Westcountry. It can be reached in just over 2 hours from London by train, and a little over 2 and a half hours by car. Covering over 100 acres of glorious Devon countryside, the beautiful campus blends a host of historic buildings with state of the art, modern facilities.

Blundell’s is a fully co-educational community of just over 600 pupils consisting of a mix of Full, Weekly and Flexi Boarders as well as Day Pupils, aged 11 to 18. There is a strong boarding ethos which is underpinned by excellent pastoral care, and all pupils join a boarding house which will be their home throughout their time at Blundell’s. Year 7 and 8 pupils have their own dedicated house, and pupils from Years 9 to 12 reside in one of our five Senior houses. All pupils in Year 13 spend their final year in our purpose-built Upper 6^th House, this is a fantastic step before University bringing the year group together and encouraging them to take more responsibility and prepare for life after school.

Blundell’s has a growing reputation on the academic front, which is driven by a strong research based approach to teaching, excellent teachers, and a varied enrichment program. We are a non-selective school and have a broader intake than academically selective independent schools. This means that our raw exam results do not tell the whole story; this is where value-added data is so important. All our pupils, across all ability levels, achieve significantly more highly with us than if they were at any of the vast majority of independent schools. We were 31st in the entire UK for “value added” (the progress made from GSCE to A-Level) the last time the government released official figures. Recently, the top half of our year group, who would typically be able to attend a more academically selective school, consistently achieve over 70% A*/A and over 90% A*-B grades, which is better than the vast majority of these selective schools. Over the last few years, we have averaged 4 Oxbridge and 2 medic offers a year. Over 90% of our pupils gained entry into their first choice of University in each of the last few years, mainly Russell Group.

On the extracurricular front, there is an enviable range of opportunities in Sport, Music, Art, Drama, and Outdoor Pursuits, which all pupils participate in at least five times per week. Blundell’s really is about educating the whole person, and our pupils invariably leave us with strong academic results, a passion for something extracurricular, some lifelong friends, and the confidence to go out into the world and make a difference.