Head of Grounds

Ardingly College is a successful and modern co-educational school in a beautiful and traditional school setting in West Sussex.

The Prep School has over 200 pupils from Reception to Year 6, as well as a Nursery. Reception and KS1 are based in the Farmhouse and Years 3–6 in the main school building, School House. The Prep School lives and breathes the values of Shaping My World, through which primary-aged children learn to explore the world around them in ways that are adventurous, curious, generous, and ingenious.

The Senior School has over 800 students from 11 to 18, 300 of whom are boarders. The school puts the values of Collaboration, Compassion, Engagement and Resilience at the heart of its education and strives to help its students to become ready for the next stage of their lives beyond school in a programme known as World Ready. Students are drawn from the South-East and London as well as abroad, and a modest but growing endowment supports a bursary programme for talented students with limited financial means. In recent years, the College has educated half a dozen Ukrainian and Afghan refugee children free of charge.

The wellbeing and welfare of our students is paramount, with a strong emphasis on pastoral support provided through house staff, the Health & Wellbeing Centre, the Chaplain, the DSL and the Mental Health Lead. In the most recent ISI inspection of educational quality in 2018, the College was judged excellent for both student achievement and personal development, and in 2021, the College passed all elements of the Regulatory Compliance Inspection.

The curriculum is designed to be broad and stimulating, with over 25 subjects offered and a choice of A Level, IB Diploma or BTEC courses in the Sixth Form. Academic results are high and have been on an upward trajectory since 2015. Results in 2023 surpassed those achieved by the pre-pandemic 2019 cohort, with 90% of Sixth Form candidates achieving grades between A* and B at A Level, or 7–5 in the IB Diploma. At GCSE, two-thirds achieved between grades 9 and 7, with 48% scoring all 9s and 8s. All except a small handful of leavers progress to one of their top choices of university, with between five and eight each year to Oxbridge.

The College offers an outstanding range of co-curricular activities based on inclusive participation as well as excellence. In sports, students compete successfully at local, regional, and national levels in the main sports of football, hockey, swimming, netball, cricket, and athletics. Music, Art, Drama and Dance are equally thriving, with exciting programme of concerts, performances and exhibitions. In this, as in all ways, the school aims to live up to one of its mantras that nobody can excel in everything, but everyone can excel in something.

Local and global partnerships are integral to the College’s mission. Every week, hundreds of Ardingly pupils participate in an active voluntary service programme with the local community and primary schools, and the College sustains a STEM partnership with Ifield Community College, which was awarded the TES STEM project of the year in 2020. Internationally, the College opened its first overseas school in China in 2020 and is currently planning towards further schools in Kazakhstan and other geographies.

Campus facilities are excellent, with considerable recent investment in the College campus bringing it up to the highest school standards. Recent additions include a new STEM faculty and upgrades to classrooms, as well as major refurbishments of boarding and day houses. A new café and dance studio were opened in 2021 and new Lower School and a third day boys’ house in 2022.