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Campus MapThere are six boys' houses and four for girls. Each is in the care of a housemaster or housemistress who, as well as looking after around sixty boys or girls, also teaches an academic discipline in the classroom. 
In the upper sixth both girls and boys move to Nelson House, which is modelled on a hall of residence, giving pupils the best possible preparation for university.
In every house there is also a matron who is responsible for the day to day well-being of the pupils. The matrons have a range of responsibilities from overseeing the maintenance of boarders' uniforms and clothes to dealing with minor medical matters but most importantly, they are in their house at all times and always available to talk to the boys and girls. Five tutors make up the ‘team’, one of whom is normally resident, and most houses also have a deputy housemaster or mistress.
Each tutor has primary responsibility for a year group and it is the tutor with whom you will usually have first contact if you have a concern about your child. They spend time with their tutees each week and make a point of talking individually with each of them. Tutors arrange social events for their tutor groups such as visits to the cinema or to the seaside, to a restaurant or for a meal or barbecue.They will also oversee academic progress, just as parents might at home, but with the great advantage that they always know what’s going on in the classroom. Help and encouragement are always at hand and the tutor really is an important person in your child’s life. 
Most boys and girls join us at the age of eleven or thirteen on the ‘junior side’ of the house. Here boarders sleep in bed clusters of four, known as ‘cubies’ or, in the newly refurbished houses, four-bedded rooms with workstations. Everyone has their own bunk with desk and wardrobe and drawers below (we also recommend that everyone brings a lockable tuck box) and our youngest pupils really enjoy living with their friends in the extended school family. As boarders grow older and move to the top of the house, they are accommodated in small double studies and then larger doubles.
Within the house, day pupils have their own areas for studying and for storing books and possessions and, subject to space available, there is the opportunity to stay overnight from time to time. Downstairs every house has two main leisure areas, known as day rooms. These are places of relaxation and, whilst varying from house to house, they are well equipped for a variety of leisure activities such as table tennis and snooker .There is also a seating area with a television and video/DVD, controlled from the house office.
Before joining the school you have the opportunity to discuss your children’s needs and we will normally be able to advise you as to which house would best suit your child. If you wish to join a particular house, perhaps as a result of a family connection or because you have friends in a house then we can usually organise this.
