Eastbourne College

Address: Old Wish Road, Eastbourne, East Sussex, BN21 4JX
Website: eastbourne-college.co.uk
Founded: 1867
Number of Pupils: 650
Fees: Day £23,895 – £24,375. Boarding £36,420 – £36,975 (2019/20)
Ages: 13-18
Head Teacher: Tom Lawson MA (Oxon)
Religious Affiliation: Church of England and welcomes all faiths
Entrance Procedure: For Year 9 entry: scholarship or early offer process – underlying ability score data and a detailed headmaster/mistress reference about a Year 6 or 7 pupil who is registered with us and whom we have been able to meet during a personal visit in order to make a firm offer of a place.
For sixth form entry: visit College by end of Year 10 / early Year 11, including interview with headmaster and tour; scholarship or entry requirement at GCSE grade average of 6 or above.
Contact: Louisa Cluskey, admissions, 01323 452323
Email: [email protected]
School Visits:Open Mornings: Saturday 5 October 2019, 9.00am till 1.00pm; Saturday 29 February 2020, 9.00am till 1.00pm; Saturday 6 June 2020, 9.00am till 1.00pm. Individual visits are available during term time. Please contact admissions for further information.

Watch the video to find out more…

The Curriculum

The College offers a gold standard curriculum, GCSE and A-level being the core assessments taken at the end of Year 11 and Year 13 respectively. Gold Arts Award and the popular Extended Project Qualification are also an option. The College has one of the most comprehensive co-curricular programmes of any independent senior school and ranks in the top four per cent in terms of ‘value added’ (the measure of how much improvement a pupil shows against their original predicted grades); the majority of subject areas adding a whole grade boundary to predicted grades on average from GCSE to A-level.

Games & The Arts

The school day allows our boarders and day pupils to enjoy the widest possible range of opportunities in sport, music, drama and a whole host of co-curricular activities. The College is situated a stone’s throw from the sea and the South Downs National Park, both off which the pupils use regularly for sporting and academic pursuits. The Arts are very well represented and the Drama department productions number more than most other senior schools with around seven quality productions per year; many of which are performed to the public as part of the year-round Arts programme (which also integrates music, dance and art exhibitions).

Pastoral Care

Pupils’ lives at Eastbourne are centred on their houses and boys and girls find themselves very much part of a house community. In both boarding and day houses, pupils receive the unstinting support of a housemaster or housemistress.

University Places

Over 70 per cent of pupils go on to Russell Group universities every year.

Head Teacher’s Philosophy

Headmaster Tom Lawson (MA Oxon) believes in healthy learning for the long term. He also believes that a whole-of-learning education means producing good people that others want to be with. The academic results achieved by boys and girls at Eastbourne are consistently very strong and higher than many more selective schools. A great deal of this is down to the College’s ability to foster a balance between cultural engagement, schoolwork and sport, and enjoying the company of friends.

Outstanding Characteristics

The College has recently completed a £33 million redevelopment, the Winn Building, which has transformed the main campus into a bright, contemporary learning space with facilities on a par with the best in Britain.