Located in the Lake District, this small all-through, non-selective school offers a choice of academic and vocational pathways alongside a unique outdoor education programme which makes it most suited to the adventurous type.

Windermere School offers families a refreshingly rural alternative to the UK’s fee-paying city schools. For students who want to avoid the pressure cooker environment of some London and other urban schools – and are looking for a countryside location with access to plenty of outdoor space – this co-ed day and boarding school offers an escape to the country.

This all-through school for 360 students in total is spread across two sites in the Lake District’s scenic Windermere; the Early Years & Junior School (Elleray Campus) for three to 11-year-olds, and the Senior School & Sixth Form (Browhead Campus) for 11 to 18-year-olds. The two campuses share an impressive host of academic, boarding and sporting facilities. Windermere offers flexi-, weekly or full boarding from the age of eight years old and there’s an even ratio of boarding to day students across the school. Over half of the students are from the UK, and the rest come largely from China, Hong Kong, Eastern Europe and Russia.

Located in a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Windermere School could win the contest for most beautiful campus – but more importantly it’s won awards for a unique outdoor education programme that uses this glorious natural setting to full advantage. Outdoor pursuits and adventurous activities play a key role in the education here; while the school delivers a strong academic curriculum that works towards the rigorous IB Diploma Programme (it was named The Sunday Times International Baccalaureate School of the Year 2018), it also takes all students out of their comfort zones as they try fell walking, ghyll scrambling, sailing, camping trips, orienteering, caving and climbing, and plenty more.

This is a school where you’re more likely to be wearing a kagool than a blazer (and with the very changeable weather in Cumbria, you’ll need one). And, as well as leaving for university with an above average IB score or BTEC grade, your child may have a new spirit of adventure (as well as a healthy, rosy glow from the great outdoors). It’s not going to be popular with city-lovers and the most academic students, and neither can it rival the facilities offered at larger schools across the country.

The school says:

“At Windermere School we seek to provide the perfect physical and mental setting, allowing students to escape the everyday pressures and walk, run, play, learn or simply be…”

The Windermere School Adventure programme is a compulsory part of the curriculum in Years 7-9; students record their progress in an adventure logbook as they work their way through six challenging levels, each named after a famous explorer. Students in Year 10 and Year 11 can continue the Adventure programme as part of the PE curriculum, and Year 12-13 students carry on their outdoor activities for the Activity section of the IB’s Creativity, Activity, Service project.

Arthur Ransome wrote that “A love of boats and sailing is the surest of all passports to a happy life,” and students at Windermere will certainly thrive if they follow this advice. The school has its own Watersports Centre, which is located on the shores of Lake Windermere (England’s largest lake), it’s a Royal Yachting Associating (RYA) Training Centre and, it’s the only UK school to be a RYA British Youth Sailing Recognised Club. For students, this means that the summer months are spent out on the water, learning to sail through the different stages of the RYA Youth Sailing schemes and British Canoeing Paddlepower awards.

Windermere is part of the global network of around 180 Round Square schools that embrace a set of IDEALS – internationalism, democracy, environmental awareness, adventure, leadership, and service to the community – as part of their approach to learning. It’s the driving force behind events such as a Round Square Week of activities, student exchange trips, and regional and international service projects – all of which involve students from early years up to Year 13. By attending a Round Square school, you could say that students have extra opportunities to experience other cultures; for example, Windermere students have brought clean drinking water to remote villages in Thailand and helped to build accommodation under-privileged boys in Honduras.

Head of Windermere School Ian Lavender retires from the school after 12 years. 

Windermere School was rated Excellent in its most recent full ISI inspection, which took place in 2018. Inspectors noted that students’ skills in outdoor pursuits” are exceptionally well-developed” and praised the school’s “personalised, flexible education with individualised pathways throughout the school that respond to differing needs”.

The curriculum

Windermere builds on the strengths of the National Curriculum for England throughout the primary and secondary years with an increased amount of time learning outside the confines of a classroom, a broader choice of subjects, and a wider offering of school trips. It also has the resources to teach small class sizes and, as a small school, you can expect a higher level of individual attention from teachers.

Windermere says that it believes in ‘learning by doing’, and it promises to challenge your child while also being flexible enough to tailor the curriculum “to whatever is most appropriate to your child”.

Students follow the National Curriculum for England in Years 7-9. It’s a broad curriculum that is enriched by teachers taking 40% of all learning outside of the classroom; for example, in science, students safely boil water over a fire to make hot chocolate while discussing the process of evaporation.

It’s all excellent preparation for GCSEs. In Years 10-11, students can choose between separate or combined sciences, maths, English, as well as options including French and Spanish, music, art, drama, PE, music, computing, food and nutrition, drama, history, and geography. Windermere School offers a combination of GCSE and IGCSE courses, the latter adding an extra global perspective to some subjects.

In the Sixth Form, students have the choice of four different pathways which range from rigorously academic to specialist, career-related and practical. The most academic choice is the IB Diploma Programme; there is an option to take the vocational IB Career-related Programme (IBCP); students who may struggle to complete the full IBDP can take IB Courses (Individual Subjects); and there is a fourth choice to take a standalone BTEC Sport, Coaching and Development with an emphasis on outdoor education, BTEC Music or the BTEC National in Business. Most students study the full IBDP, and approximately 25% take the IBCP.

This choice of curricula – all of which work towards qualifications that are widely accepted for entry into universities worldwide – plays to the strengths of a child. It also means that you can confidently choose this all-through school from as early as Year 1 in the knowledge that the school can adapt to the learning needs of your child 10 years later, whatever these may turn out to be.

Sport and the arts

Windermere’s passion for outdoor education and adventure fuels a love for sport too. As well as encouraging students to sail, kayak, and challenge themselves with various adventure activities, the school encourages girls and boys to stay active on the pitch, court and track too.

The major competitive sports here are netball, hockey, football, tennis, cricket and athletics, and there are many after-school clubs and tournaments to take part in. Previous sports tours have taken the school’s sportiest students to Barbados, South Africa, Spain and France. Students can study PE up to GCSE, and have the option to take the BTEC Sport, Coaching and Development. Most activities take places on the lake, but there are other sporting facilities including tennis courts, a sports pitch, a full size floodlit all-weather pitch and a separate sports hall.

The arts are not overlooked either, and GCSE Drama and IB Theatre Studies are both popular subject choices in the curriculum. Exhibitions are held each term, individual music tuition is available in instruments as varied as the harp through to rock guitar, and students get to perform in regular ‘Concerts in the Corridor’, morning assemblies and termly plays and musicals. Creative facilities include art and drama studios, ceramics room, darkroom, theatre, numerous music practise rooms, a large gallery and individual workstations for creative projects.

One of the advantages of being a smaller school is that all students can take part in arts performances or to be selected for sports teams; it can also mean that students have a more limited choice of clubs compared to a larger school if the demand is not there.

Beyond the classroom

There’s a varied list of creative and academic extra-curricular clubs and societies including a debating society, chess club, art club, language clubs, Aikido, cultural exchanges and The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award; activities are offered daily until 5.30pm and as late as 7pm

Students are offered many opportunities for overseas travel, from an annual ski trip or service and safari trip to South Africa to a geography trip to Iceland and music trip to Spain.

Academic results

Windermere does not stand at the top of the league tables, but it is a non-academically selective school and its students do leave with places at their first-choice universities.

The largest number of students take the IBDP.

The Class of 2021 at  Windermere School achieved the highest IB average result in the school’s history, with a score of 36.3. (The 2020 average IB score was 34.5, and it was 33.7 in 2019 and 2018). A total of 40 students sat the IB and there was a 96% pass rate. 31% achieved 40 points or more, 71.4% gained 34 points and one student, Grace King, achieved the maximum score of 45 points.

Headmaster, Ian Lavender said:

“I am especially pleased to announce that the IB results published this morning are the best such results in the history of Windermere School. The IB continues to be moderated internationally, and despite the difficulties of 2021, we have obtained our best mean score ever of 36.3 points.

"This is an exceptional accomplishment for a small, non-selective school. Our staff go above and beyond to ensure that our students achieve more than they might have thought possible, and this has certainly been the case with the examination results that have been published today.”

Students go on to universities including University College London, Exeter University, Edinburgh University, St. Andrews and the University of Manchester to study courses as varied as psychology, business, biological sciences and sports management.

In 2020, 98% of GCSEs were graded A*-C (9-4), and 53% were A*-A (9-7), more than double the national average of 20%. Windermere School’s 13-year average for achieving A or above at GCSE is 43%.

Boarding

There are three boarding houses on campus – all with shared common views and views across the lake – two single sex houses for girls or boys aged eight to 16 years and a dedicated Sixth Form Boarding House, which is a university-style complex with flats and a bistro.

The school has a large cohort of day students who are encouraged to mix with the boarding students and take part in evening and weekend activities.

Campus and facilities

Despite its rural location, Windermere is well-connected, and it’s 90 minutes from Manchester and Liverpool International Airports and three hours by high-speed train from London.

The Senior School and Sixth Form’s Browhead Campus covers 23 acres and is home to the school’s main academic, sports, music and drama facilities, as well as its three boarding houses. There are newer and refurbished buildings (including an impressive Jenkins Centre for music, performing arts and languages) in the grounds of a Victorian mansion.

The school’s own watersports centre has a fleet of sailing boats and kayaks, two boathouses and a private beach used as a base for learning to sail, kayak, canoe or windsurf. Daily meals are served in a dining room overlooking the lake and surrounding mountains.

Admission and fees

The majority of Junior School students move up to the Senior School, and there are limited places available at 11+ as well as 16+.

Students are encouraged to experience a full ‘taster day’ and take part in lessons before applying to the school. There’s no formal exam, only an interview with the head and school references. Rather than selecting the most academically able, the school selects girls and boys “on the basis of their likely contribution to the community and whether they are likely to make the most of the opportunities on offer”.

Non means-tested scholarships in academics, performing arts, visual arts, and sport are offered to the most high-achieving students, and there are some means-tested bursaries available.

Annual tuition fees for day students are £16,860 for Years 7-8; £18,720 for Years 9-11, and £19,050 for Years 12-13; annual boarding fees are £29,730 for Years 7-8; £31,710 for Years 9-11, and £33,315 for Years 12-13.

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