Royal Tunbridge Wells Lifestyle Dec 2019 / Jan 2020

ADVERTISING FEATURE
21st century
boarding approach
Hurst College’s boarding approach is
about achieving academic excellence,
developing confidence, independence,
leadership and teamwork skills, as well
as gaining a sense of community and
cultural understanding...
The system at Hurst means they are
able to give parents what they want.
“Our rhythm is focussed on families
buying into the weekly and flexi boarding
lifestyle. Parents and children who want a
full-on five-day week, match on Saturday
and the right balance between home and
school,” says Headmaster Tim Manly.
Their boarding community is now made
up of flexi and weekly boarders, as
they decided to move away from full
boarding last year. The college believes
these options provide a healthy workhome
balance. Students make the most
of the educational and co-curricular
opportunities during the week, leaving
weekends free for quality family time.
Flexi boarding for three nights each week
is a huge attraction, as it really is flexible,
with students able to choose their nights
even at short notice, while retaining
their own bed throughout the term.
Weekly boarding is also very popular
with students and parents as there is no
school run to worry about.
“Parents are very busy and this fits in with
logistics of modern-day family life. They
want to be in partnership with the school
and not just kiss their children goodbye at
the start of a half term and not see them
again for weeks on end,” says Deputy
Head Pastoral Caty Jacques.
Key to the home-from-home environment
is their innovative Guardian Scheme
through which pupils look out for
one another and house prefects take
on the role of mentors and coaches.
Hurst’s small, well-managed houses
are organised ‘vertically’ (except Upper
Sixth) allowing older pupils to mentor and
support younger pupils. Boarding houses
are separate until the Upper Sixth when
male and female students co-exist in
the same house, which works well as a
bridge before university.
A Hurst education is much more than
purely academic, the extra-curricular
teams are constantly seeking innovative
ways to engage each student, to help
them develop these qualities. Total
engagement is encouraged: “No-one on
the bench, and no-one under the radar.”
Their range of activities is second to none
with more than 240 in total, and provide
many opportunities for pupils to try new
ventures, confront risks and learn from
experience.
They were awarded excellent grades
in all categories at their recent ISI full
inspection and achieved their strongest
ever set of results at GCSE and A-level
in the Summer. In fact, they were in the
top 1% of UK independent schools for
GCSE value-added scores and the top
3% for A-levels. This metric is key for
parents who want their child “to do their
best” - not something you can measure
by a league table. Hurst’s philosophy is
to celebrate individual performance in all
aspects of life, judging each student’s
success against their own potential.
Hurst’s over-arching aim is to provide a
genuinely excellent all-round education
with a strong academic core and develop
confident, successful, independent
individuals with a good sense of
themselves and the world around them,
who will succeed in their lives whatever
route they choose. A bold claim but this
is what drives them and their mantra
‘Work hard, do good, engage’ supports
this.
The college operates a bus route to and
from Tunbridge Wells, on Monday and
Thursday mornings and Wednesday and
Friday evenings, to accommodate flexi
and weekly boarders from the area.
For further information or to arrange a
visit please call 01273 836937
www.hppc.co.uk
12 | www.tunbridgewellslifestyle.co.uk