Academic Excellence at The Grove

Our aim at Woodhouse Grove is to add value. We strongly believe that the outcome of our offering – our teaching, our staff expertise and the myriad of opportunities available to our students – is that every single child that joins us in Year 7 should, by the time they leave in Year 13, have achieved better results, in every aspect of their school life, than if they had gone to school elsewhere.

At The Grove, our academic success lies in personalisation. Class sizes are small – in the Sixth Form, often as small as just 8 students. The school keeps it this way to allow the timetable to be built around student choices; Grove pupils are never shoehorned into limited subject combinations. The school prides itself on its flexibility and an educational offering that is constantly changing depending on student needs and aptitudes. This personalisation filters through to curriculum planning lower down the school and enables Grove students to take GCSEs and A levels early, or study additional courses.

We see learning and academic success as a collaborative effort between the teacher and student. Our teaching is person driven – not data driven. Instead, we aim to be data conscious in a student-focused way; utilising the baseline data available to us when pupils arrive in Year 7 to further tailor their learning experience, whether this means additional stretch and challenge or more in depth focus on specific skills. The open-all-hours nature of a boarding school means that the environment in which this is done feels very much a home from home for all pupils, with a flexibility that maximises the opportunity to learn and thrive.

From the minute they arrive in Year 7, entering their form of just 20 peers, until the day they leave, having completed their own personal Pathway in the school’s unique Sixth Form, students benefit from the confidence and growth that comes from being known as an individual. Every member of staff works incredibly hard to understand each student’s drives and motivations, how they learn and what they want to achieve.

Woodhouse Grove leavers are well-rounded, go-getting and entrepreneurial. They are empathetic and personable with those all-important social skills that are key in the modern world. They have been encouraged to grow as individuals and offered the best pathways to succeed on their own terms – whether this is Oxbridge, apprenticeships or straight into the workplace. Grovians can be found excelling across a huge variety of fields – from the City to the West End – and the school’s alumni form a close, altruistic network across the world.

Ed Wright, Deputy Head (Academic)