WHAT, WHERE?

Founded in 1847 for the boys of dissenters (not Church of England) this co-educational, non-denominational, independent day and boarding school moved to its current location at the northern end of Taunton in 1870. A large and interconnected range of buildings huddle together behind a slightly imposing Gothic revival building with an impressive central clock tower. With the look of a Scottish baronial hall, the central building peers over a vast swathe of open playing fields.

The 56-acre site houses the main co-educational Senior School for 13-18 year olds, a Prep (7-13 years), Pre-Prep (4-7 years) and Nursery (6 months-4 years) as well as Taunton School International (TSI) all on a single, integrated campus. This brings cohesion to the school with all generations passing each other en route to sports, music or meals in the light and airy new £4m dining hall – more Tate Modern than Hogwarts. Almost all the pupils in the Prep continue to the Senior School.

A pioneer in British education, the school went co-ed in 1973 and is fiercely proud of and true to the principle of teaching boys and girls together. It was an early adopter, too, of the provision of an international education (TSI was founded in 1996) for 14-16 year olds wanting to follow a one-year or two-year GCSE/pre-IB education. Post-16, students can follow an IB route, A levels, an International Business Foundation Programme and a range of BTEC options. Over 60 nationalities are represented and students are again integrated into the life of Taunton School, sharing facilities, meals and lectures.

Boys and girls can board from 7-18 years and with eight boarding houses across the Prep and Senior schools, boarding is a popular option, with typically 500 of the 1,200 pupils choosing to board.

Here children can make Taunton School their home-from-home, with a huge amount of pastoral support from the dedicated and highly experienced team of house staff.

Thone House has recently been given a £350k renovation, creating a cosy and fun environment that pupils can make their own, with a girls’ lounge, boys’ lounge, Facetime room, common/movie room and a homely matron’s room where pupils can sit and do their homework or enjoy a snack.

In contrast to the architectural austerity of the main Senior School building, the school has a relaxed vibe, with groups of teens chatting on “the front”, a crocodile of pre-preppers making its way through the school to listen to the lunchtime concert in the Chapel, and classes buzzy and relaxed.

This is a school that is unusually easy in its skin. It knows what it’s doing and is sure-footed, unstuffy and unstuck-up.

FACILITIES

With 56 acres to play with, the school is rich in a variety of both historical and contemporary buildings and theatres, Arts and Music, D&T and Science centres. The sports fields surround the school, including astro pitches, all-weather tennis courts, not one but two indoor swimming pools, indoor cricket, netball courts, squash, basketball, climbing wall, gym, three sports halls and a dance studio.

Specialist blocks for Science, D&T, Art, Music, Languages and Humanities are all fully equipped, inviting and airy.

The spanking new Dining Hall is open throughout the day for students to enjoy locally-sourced food all cooked on the premises. Taunton School is the only school in the area to have full kitchens on-site.

They’ve invested an eye-watering £20m developing a state-of-the-art 6th Form centre and library, the new dining hall, and a pedestrianised eco-friendly hub (dubbed ‘the green heart’ of the school) linking boarding houses, teaching and dining blocks. Coming soon: two new astro turfs and a brand new International School.

PRE-PREP AND PREP

The Nursery and Pre-Prep are housed in airy classrooms spilling with collections of bricks, dinosaurs, fossils, pens, puzzles and, yes, books. But learning at these earlier stages appears rooted in the experiential. The Nursery is having a re-furb; the new library is looking good.

Classrooms are arranged round a large play quad, bordered with passenger trikes – a major hit. There are “wild” forested areas right on the doorstep of the classrooms for exploring within the safe boundaries of the school campus, and the many rows of Wellington boots are evidence that children spend plenty of time in the fresh air.

The Prep has more traditional classrooms with dedicated Science labs and a D&T space filled with grown-up-looking jigsaws, laser cutters, and children’s models. Kids learn to code in the ICT class and classrooms are fitted with interactive whiteboards and video cameras to allow remote learning using Microsoft Teams. The prep has a professional-looking kitchen for cookery classes also used in Saturday Enrichment classes, of which more later.

There is outstanding performing arts provision that starts with the prep and continues through to the senior school. A fully-equipped large theatre is home to full-scale productions that rope everyone in: it’s all about teamwork and inclusion. No-one is left out.

The school choir (all abilities) tours to sing across Europe and music is a major strength and even in the prep years there are 20 specialist music teachers coming in to teach instruments.

ACADEMICS

With all the co-curricular activity, you’d be forgiven for thinking there’s hardly time for study, but 96% of Tauntonians leaving at 18 go on to university here and overseas. The most popular university courses include Business, Marketing, Economics, Engineering and Sport Science.

In 2022, 95% of GCSEs were graded A*-C, 52% were graded A*-A. At A Level, A-Level pass rate was 97%, with 61% being graded at A*-B. In the IB, the average points score was 32. In BTECs, 61% were graded D*-D.

It seems that spending time acting, playing golf or learning violin only enhances academic performance, rather than dilutes it.

HEAD TEACHER

James Johnson became Headteacher and CEO of Taunton School in Sept 2022. He studied English at UCL, took an MPhil at Trinity College Dublin and a PGCE at Cambridge before landing his first teaching job at Cheltenham College in Gloucestershire. Then followed 11 years at Tonbridge School in Kent, positions as Senior Deputy Head and Head of the Senior School at Ardingly College in West Sussex, before taking up his current position here in Somerset. That’s just a brief bio until we meet up with him to find out more, so watch this space.

REPORTS

You can see the latest reports from the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI), equivalent to Ofsted in the state sector, here.

SPORTS

The sports provision includes plenty of options for all: rugby, netball, hockey, golf, football, cross-country, swimming, athletics, basketball, squash and tennis are all taught and played, both in competitive inter-school matches and for fun. A fully-equipped fitness centre and dance studio offers both classes and options for individual work-outs.

All-weather pitches and courts extend seasons. Coaches include former professional sports men and women like ex-England cricketer Marcus Trecosthick. It pays off: the school has been named as one of the top cricketing schools by The Cricketer, two school cricketers have toured to Sri Lanka with the Somerset County Cricket Club, and former pupil Tom Abell, formerly Somerset captain and an England cricket player, is sponsored by Taunton School.

WHAT ELSE?

The Prep school’s Saturday Enrichment classes (cookery, performing arts, art, DT and sport) are open to anyone in the locality who wants to come, and many do. This softening of the school’s boundaries to engage with the town is typical of the school’s ethos as inclusive and unselective.

Clubs a-gogo: choose from the Investor Club, Scientific Society, Enterprise Club, or chess, debating, modern languages, stomp percussion, saxophone ensemble…the list goes on and on as there are over 150 co-curricular clubs. The school supports the Duke of Edinburgh scheme and of course the Combined Cadet Force, of which it has the largest contingent in the South West.

Active stream of external speakers, lecturers and specialists from every walk of life to help inspire and stretch.

Music is big here: plenty of students gain places in the National Youth Orchestra and are encouraged to compete in both local and national music competitions. The dedicated music building, presided over by Director of Music, Toby Carden, fizzes with energy and even has its own student-produced magazine.

BOASTY BITS/QUIRKS

In 2019, a group of 12-year-old swimmers from the Prep School became one of the youngest ever relay teams to swim the English Channel, completing the 22 mile feat in just 12 hours and 38 minutes. Wow! They raised over £7,000 for the neo-natal unit at Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton.

Green credentials aplenty: the first school in Somerset to go “zero to landfill”; all waste is processed for recycling and residual waste used to generate energy; they use a chemical-free, environmentally-friendly cleaning product which turns tap water into a powerful cleaner supplied by a company founded by a former pupil; and they won the “Green Award for Environmental Impact” at the 2019 Independent Schools of the Year Awards.

One of the recipients of the 6th Form patrons’ bursary, Haleem Clift, was selected to join the fantastically competitive National Youth Theatre.

The school was ranked 7th in the Top 200 Sports Schools list published in 2023 by School Sport Magazine.

A virtual 60-strong school choir earned huge plaudits for its VE-Day concert, undeterred by COVID-19 restrictions.

No messy parental drop-off here: an excellent network of designated and branded school buses brings in many day students from across the county.

An amber light over the school’s war memorial is the first to be lit every morning and the last to be turned off. There is a poignancy in that.

FEES

Fees per term. Pre-Prep: Reception, Years 1 & 2, £2,780 (day). Prep: Years 3 & 4 £3,170 (day), £5,620 (full board); Years 5 & 6 £4,335 (day), £7,340 (full board); Years 7 & 8 £5,825 (day), £9,750 (full board). Senior School: Years 9-13 £7,310 (day), £13,740 (full board). 10% discount for siblings at the school at the same time.

Scholarships are available at entry to Years 7, 9 and 12; Headmaster’s Awards are offered at entry to other year groups; and means-tested bursarial support is accessible through the Assisted Places scheme.

WORD ON THE GROUND

Parents say that the school feels like home, with ‘incredibly dedicated’ staff who really ‘get’ each child, developing strong individual connections, which the pupils cherish. They work as team, with no barriers between departments, and take time to connect with parents too.

Being non selective, having such a broad curriculum and a ‘wealth of opportunities’, means that each child can find at least one area in which to excel and usually many more. Whilst there is academic rigor, even in the Prep, no SATS or Common Entrance takes unnecessary pressure off.

The school feels really nurturing when pupils are little, moving to an environment where they are expected to take greater responsibility for themselves. It encourages them to try out new things, be adventurous, take a lead but always be part of a team.

The school is super welcoming to new families, with a ‘Classmates’ app for parents to make contact – and friendships – with other parents, and boarding house staff communication is ‘off the chart’.

Parents appreciate the school’s traditions and strong culture but say that the school feels fresh, exciting, dynamic and responsive; it’s continually evolving and aiming for the highest levels and is ‘agile and humble enough’ to make changes that work for the whole school community.

MUDDY VERDICT

Good for: Parents seeking an excellent all-round co-educational experience fit for the 21^st century with a strong emphasis on international community and plurality.

Not for: The snobbish, the narrow-minded or the entitled.

Don’t take our word for it: Contact them for a video appointment, phone call or tailor-made, personal tour around the school or book yourself onto one of their open events. Upcoming open days: Virtual Open Day – Saturday 28 September; In Person Open Day – Saturday 5 October; Pre-Prep & Nursery Open Afternoon – Friday 11 October; Sixth Form Evening – Friday 11 October.

Taunton School, Staplegrove Road, Taunton, Somerset TA2 6AD. 01823 703 703. tauntonschool.co.uk

Taunton School, Taunton

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