Gina’s recent visit to Uppingham School

While it’s a British boarding school Gina knows well, it never hurts to refresh the memory and find out what’s new, so here’s what she thinks you should know about Uppingham School.

Named after its charming little market town, Uppingham is around 100 miles from London, and the nearest airports are East Midlands and Birmingham. It is a traditional full-boarding school with around 850 pupils, of whom about 85% board. The house system is central to school life – this September a new day house opened to supplement the 14 boarding houses as the school started admitting day students at age 11 into Years 7 and 8. Each house has its own dining room, lending it a particularly homely feel.

Uppingham has a strong academic reputation, with around 25 subjects typically being offered at A Level and nearly all leavers going on to university. As befits the first English school to appoint a Director of Music (in 1865), provision for the study and enjoyment of the subject is excellent, and the music department is housed in a stunning state of the art building combining traditional and modern architecture. Music plays an important role in the whole school community. Other arts are similarly well supported, Drama in a beautiful theatre and Art and DT in a recently refurbished art centre.

An impressive range of sports is offered: athletics, badminton, cricket, cross country, fives, football, golf, hockey, netball, rugby and tennis, all of which are supported by the well-equipped gym and swimming pool in the sports centre that opened in 2010.

To give you a feel of this British boarding school’s campus, here are some views including the theatre, library, the music department, the science building, the lecture theatre and the art/DT department.