Ellesmere College – A Platform for Academic and Personal Success
Founded in 1884, Ellesmere is a co-educational boarding and day school which offers students between the ages of seven and 18 a platform for academic success and personal development.
A wide ranging academic curriculum and extensive activities programme allows each student the opportunity to advance in a range of disciplines, whether in the Arts, Music, Drama, Sport, or to develop leadership and entrepreneurial skills.
Ellesmere College treats every pupil as an individual and where success is doing the very best you can; a philosophy that all parents, pupils and staff recognise and support wholeheartedly.
The Lower school (7-13) provides an environment which focuses on individual needs, and helps children grow into happy, secure young people, with the confidence to tackle new challenges and understand the world around them.
Students joining the Middle School (13-16) enjoy a stimulating environment with an extensive academic programme and an even wider range of curricular and co-curricular opportunities. Ellesmere students consistently celebrate excellent GCSE results – where over a third of all grades were in the top A*/A, and more than half of all grades awarded were in the A*/B.
Music is a key element of Ellesmere life and there is something for everyone – from the Chapel Choir to National Finalists in the Barnardo’s Choir of the Year Competition. The standard of drama is also very high and Ellesmere is the only UK independent school to hold the Arts Council’s Arts Mark Platinum Award.
For sports enthusiast, Ellesmere is one of only nine schools in the world to be an accredited Athlete Friendly Education Centre (AFEC), which provides greater flexibility to students allowing them to balance their studies with heavy training and competition schedules. With the nationally renowned Titans Swimming team, 7 sporting academies, and incredible state of the art facilities, pupils can train in every Olympic discipline.
World Academy of Sport athletes Will Edwards, Shannon Davies, Charlotte Dixon and Chloe Golding in 2015. (Picture: Laura Dutfield / Shropshire Newspapers)
Following GCSEs, students have a choice of A-levels, BTEC or the International Baccalaureate Diploma. The College takes the preparation of students for Oxbridge and the USA very seriously and the academic enrichment programme offers extension activities in all subjects. With 82 per cent of applications gaining offers from the top 50 Universities in the world and an exclusive careers partnership programme which finds opportunities for sixth form pupils to experience the real world; preparation for life is central to the development of the individual.
What makes a successful school? A committed leadership team, an excellent set of professional teachers, a globally recognised set of qualifications and a broad approach to pupil development via an expansive academic and co-curricular programme.
At Ellesmere we believe that developing the whole pupil is much more than just passing examinations; a philosophy which is paramount to the continued success of nurturing our students.
Come and experience this unique environment for yourself in the Full School Open Day on Saturday 13th October 1-4pm.
Headmaster’s Message – Mr Brendan Wignall
“Ellesmere’s total commitment to developing individuals, enabling them to be successful human beings, is something that genuinely marks it out from the vast majority of other schools. The best thing about this focus on the individual, is that it arises out of a very real sense of family and community. The Ellesmere community is a wide one, and it is one of the great pleasures of my job that I have the opportunity to work with all its constituents: pupils, past pupils, parents and past parents, teaching, non-teaching staff, and governors, all of whom contribute to making Ellesmere such a wonderful place to work and to study.
“Families who visit Ellesmere comment on what an incredibly friendly place it is, on its great atmosphere and I am pleased to say that even after so many years as Headmaster I do not take this for granted. It is a friendly and supportive place where there is a genuine care and concern for the happiness of others.
“One of the best things about Ellesmere, from my point of view, is that it is also a very exciting place in which to work. Things do not really stand still here for very long and there is always some new innovation that we are considering. Ellesmere College can always be made better, and leading the desire for constant improvement makes my job stimulating and highly enjoyable. I trust you will enjoy taking a look around our website but, even more importantly, that you will come and visit, meet my staff and meet our students, whom we rightly feel are the best advert for Ellesmere College and the remarkable young people that develop at the school.”
Brendan Wignall, Headmaster 1996 – Present
