Information for Those Interested in Working at the School

Information aboutthe School and the post of Head of Gatton Hall

We are looking for an experienced member of boarding staff to take on the leadership of this 47 bed co-educational Sixth Form Boarding House.

Royal Alexandra and Albert School

This is a Boarding School, NOT a School with boarding. With 465 boarders, there are very few independent or state schools with more boarders. When our plannedexpansion is complete we expect to be 1,100+ on roll including 500+ boarders, having been 500+ pupils, of whom 360 were boarders,back in 2001. We only admit UK or EU passport holders who have the right of residence in the UK so we have very few overseas boarders (primarily Spanish or French and numbering fewer than 20). We have a similar or slightly larger number of ex-pat boarders. We do not admit Tier 4 boarders.

The origins of Royal Alexandra and Albert School

We are an amalgamation of the Royal Alexandra School, which admitted its first pupils in 1760 and the Royal Albert School which began in 1864. Both were originally foundedas Orphanage Schools and we still continue this charitable work. Some 50 Boarders and 30 Flexi Boarders are “Foundationers” so called because their places are funded by the School’s Charitable Foundation and other charities.

We have various categories of pupils:

Full Boarders, whose parents currently pay £4,691 per term which is just over £14,000 per year ! There is no fee reduction for boarders who “weekly board”. We usually have 250+boarders on a Saturday night.

Flexi Boarders, who are attached to boarding houses, entitled to all meals, take part in all activities andboard between 7 and 10 nights per year, for whom the termly fee is £1,751

Local pupils in the Sixth Form pay just £600 per term which gives them lunch and they benefit from our facilities over the whole day but they do not have the facility to board overnight as we need all our Sixth Form beds for boarders !

We do not admit day pupils. We teach on Saturday mornings and have no compulsory exeat weekends.

Places for local children are very heavily oversubscribed - for September 2015 we had 100 first choice applications for 67 places and for Year 3 all 20 places went to siblings of current pupils and staff children, leaving no places for any other applicants. Despite this we always manage to find a place for the children of new colleagues.

Boarding Structure

We have a co-educational Primary House - Rank-Weston - with a capacity of 50+ beds. This is the only primary boarding provision within the state sector.

Albert and Edinburgh Houses are Lower Secondary Boys (Years 7 - 9). Gloucester and Kent cover the age range 14-18 and they each havean annexe with 21 study bedrooms for Sixth Form boarders.

Elizabeth House is Lower Secondary Girls (Years 7 - 8). Alexandra and Cornwall cover the age range 13-18 and they each have an annexe with 21 study bedrooms for Sixth Form boarders.

Gatton Hall accommodates up to 47 Sixth Form students with boys and girls on different floors or with an alarmed door separating them if they are on the same floor (!)

Our Boarding Houses

Allnine boarding houses have been totally refurbished within the last ten years. Subsequently we constructed ground floor extensions, providing an extra Common Room and an ICT room with 27 workstations, to Albert and Elizabeth House (2007), Gloucester House (2008), Alexandra and Kent House (2010), Cornwall House (2011) and Edinburgh House (2012). Each cost almost half a million pounds, representing an investment of £3.5 million over six years, and at the same time we spent a similar sum on other capital projects.

Wehave also built two two-storey boarding annexes, which each contain 21 study bedrooms with en-suite shower rooms for Sixth Form boarders and a two-bedroom staff flat on Kent, Gloucester, Cornwall and Alexandra Houses at a cost of one and a half million pounds each.

Education

The Junior School has one class in Year 3, one in Year 4 but two in each of Year 5 and Year 6.

We have five classes in Years 7, 8 and 9 (of up to an average of 27) and six in Years 9-11 with a maximum of 160 pupils.

The percentage achieving five GCSEs including English and Maths at grade C or above rose from 37% in 2005 to 62% in 2011 and in 2015it was also 62%.

In addition to Maths, English Language and English Literature and Dual Award / Triple Science we offer a very wide range of optional subjects at GCSE: Art, Biology, Business Studies, Chemistry, Citizenship,Drama, Food Technology, French, Geography, History, Music, PE, Physics, Product Design and Spanish.

The Sixth Form only opened in 2010, so we only have four lots of A level results.

In 2012 the 24 Upper Sixth achieved 19% grade B or above.

In 2013 the 55 Upper Sixth achieved 39% grade B or above

In 2014 the 55 Upper Sixth achieved 61% grade B or above.

In 2015 the 70 Upper Sixth achieved 53% grade B or above and 66 out of 70 went to university.

We have already established a reputation as a strong Sixth Form with three former pupils already studying Medicine and 2014’s year’s Head Boy declining a place at Oxford to go to UCL. Reader: I did not strangle him !

We currently have 175 in the Sixth Form and our target for 2020 is270, including 180 boarders, once we build another Sixth Form boarding House. The Sixth Form is selective as each subject has its own admissions criteria.

We offer A levels in Art, Biology, Business Studies, Chemistry, Computing, Drama, Economics, English Literature, English Language & Literature, French, Geography, History, Maths, Further Maths, Music, Physics, PE, Product Design, Psychology, Sociology and Spanish

We also offer BTEC Courses in Business Studies and ICT.

Children of staff

We currently have 50+ staff children on roll. All staff, teaching and non-teaching, are entitled to a 33% discount on the fees.

Improving Facilities – work since 2003

Teaching: We have built three new Primary classrooms, a new teaching block with two new Science Laboratories, two new general purpose classrooms and a Dance Studio. We converted an old gymnasium into a Performing Arts Centre, created the Bothy Music Centre which includes 10 practice rooms and two classrooms. Six extra temporary classrooms were brought in during Summer 2011 to allow us to cope with rising pupil numbers and a further two were installed in 2012. For Summer 2012 we also created another Science Laboratory and a new Art Room

Sport: We have constructed a floodlit Astroturf pitch for hockey, three floodlit netball courts and a tartan athletics sprints track, built a Cricket Pavilion and a large covered play area for wet weather use and refurbished the Swimming Pool changing rooms. An outdoor gymnasium was opened in 2010 followed by a professionally equipped Fitness Centre in 2013. We have also invested in other sports with a new Stable Block, floodlit outdoor Riding School and an indoor Riding School.

The Dining Hall and kitchens have undergone a million pound programme of refurbishment and enlargement, allowing us to serve up to a thousand lunches an hour.

ICT facilities are excellent. Seven secondary boarding houses also have ICT rooms with 27+ workstations which are usedduring the day as classrooms. Rank-Weston House and Gatton Hall have smaller ICT rooms. The Sixth Form Centre has further generous ICT provision. The Sixth Form Annexes allow pupils to connect their laptops to the School network. Every classroom has a PC or laptop connection and electronic whiteboard / projector. All teaching staff have the benefit of a school laptop. All units of staff accommodation haveat least one network access point.

Further Plans

We would like to terrace a large area near the Chapel in order to create more grass pitches with a floodlit First XV pitch and training area. When the Sixth Form has reached its planned capacity we will need a new Teaching Block with around a dozenclassrooms. An extra Sixth Form Boarding House is also on the shopping list,

Senior Leadership Team

I have been Headmaster since 2001 andamcurrently a member of the BSA National Executive as well as Chairman of the State Boarding Schools Association. I am also and an Additional or Associate Member of HMC.

My successor, Mark Dixon, is Academic Deputy of Bancroft’s School, having previously been a Housemaster at Clifton College. He started his career at Epsom College where he taught Physics.

The two Deputy Heads are Kathryn Hobbs ( Curriculum ) who joined us in September 2010, andMark Skidmore ( Pastoral & Boarding ) who joined in September 2015 from Pangbourne.

The SLT also includes the Bursar, Head of Sixth Form, Head of Juniors and three other Assistant Heads.

The Heads of House

All but two of our Heads of House were internal appointments with the “Father of the Chapel” ( a print union term for the longest serving ) being, most appropriately, Fr. Paul Johnstone who is School Chaplain. The external appointments are Dan Swan, who was previously Director of Sport at Shiplake College, and Alexandra Beer, who was a Deputy Head of House in Australia.

Gatton Hall

Gatton Hallhas47beds and because they are on two separated floors and we also have a system of dividing up one floor with an alarmed internal door, the male-female ratio is almost infinitely variable. 21 of which are for Sixth Form. As well as the Head of House’s flat, which is on the first floor, there are three other staff flats within the building.

In short this is a dynamic, go-ahead Boarding School which has been steadily expanding, as well as refurbishing existing premises and adding new ones. Visitors remark on the enthusiasm and friendliness of the staff, the excellent staff-pupil relations and the impressive, well-dressed Sixth Formers.

Still reading ? Good.

Applicants must have experience of working in boarding. Sounds obvious, but last time I advertised a HousemastershipI had two applications from people who had never worked in boarding !

Housemasters/Housemistresses have a timetable of 12 lessons out of a 34 lesson week .

All Heads of House enjoy a flat free of all expenses such as heating, lighting and Council Tax.

Gatton hall, as all our houses, is well-staffed in comparison to boarding houses in most other schools, with a Head of House, XXX resident non-teaching tutors, YYYY teaching tutors, ZZZ of whom lives in the house, and AAA matrons.

Making an application

Pleasedownload an application form from our website, fill it in and submit as an e-mail attachment.

You should submit an application form plus a letter in which you explain (1) what experience you would bring to the post and(2) the approach that you would take in running the house and the large staff team. (3) Please also state what subject(s) you offer and to what level. It would also be helpful if you could explain what other skills and interests you would bring to this boarding community.

InterviewsMarch GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG.

Further questions ?

Please have a look around the rest of our website if you have not already done so. It is constantly being updated and improved, but it does give an indication of the busy school we are.

If you would like to talk to me about any aspect of the post please e-mail me (I manage my own e-mail) with your phone number and some suggestions of convenient times to call.

If time allows it may be possible to arrange a visit before submitting an application

Paul D Spencer Ellis

Headmaster

March 2016