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Academic

Our role as educators is to see through the teenage front, to look into the heart of that young person to see who they are and who they are capable of becoming. The role of the pupil is to be open and willing to engage.

John Devitt, Deputy head academic

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While exam results open doors in life, an Ampleforth education more importantly forms the type of person who walks through that door. Our Benedictine principles of Community, Faith, and Scholarship lead us to seek to truly know and love each child, to cherish their unique gifts, draw these out, and help them to flourish. 

The key to this is the strength of our community and our relationships.  We learn from each other, we respect each other, we learn to treat others as more important than ourselves, we want the best for each other. This is true in the classroom too.  

Being ‘academic’ is a state of mind, a desire to know more and to learn more, a behaviour everyone can show whether they are particularly strong in a subject or not. Everyone can want to know more and to be better. 

In a supportive environment where everyone is encouraged to contribute, question, critique respectfully, and be able to get it wrong, we all learn, we all improve, we all grow. We encourage each pupil to give of themselves, to have high expectations, and to realise their full academic potential. 

Our broad curriculum together with personalised teaching and learning, and an enormous wealth of opportunities for pupils to develop their interests and talents both inside and outside the classroom, enables us to fully develop each child’s unique gifts.  

Ampleforth pupils leave school with a strong sense of who they are, what they can be, of the world around them and what they can offer to it. 

Our pupils have a broad range of academic ability, the criteria being that they are able to access our curriculum and to flourish here. Exam results are consistently good and if a pupil is capable of a top Grade 9 at GCSE or an A* at A level they will have every opportunity to achieve it. Approximately 70% of pupils go on to study at Russell Group universities, as well as European and North American universities. We also encourage apprenticeships and other pathways. 

Students are able to access a highly ambitious curriculum and meet expectations

catholic schools inspectorate

A Compass for Life

Full Boarding & Day School for students aged 11 to 18