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Our View
Reddam’s stunning grounds complete with period drama mansion house, lake and woods belie its diverse, international feel. Very much an all-through school with a principal across the juniors and seniors, it offers a one-stop education that is a happy mix of traditional English public school with a global modern outlook. It’s part of the international schools group Inspired and there are also Reddams in Australia and South Africa.
Where?
The 125-acre grounds near Wokingham in Berkshire certainly have the wow factor – so much so, an episode of The Crown was filmed here. The interiors of the imposing mansion house feature wood panelling, an open fire and the biggest head’s office we’ve seen with wonderful views over the grounds – including that lake which you could easily imagine Mr Darcy emerging from. A capacious chapel serves as an exam hall as well as hosting the annual Christmas carol concert and there are acres of playing fields, a shooting range and neighbouring Bearwood Lakes Golf Course which pupils have access to. A spanking new sports hall is in the pipeline; building work started in August 2024 with a completion date of September 2025.
Most children are local and the school runs a network of bus routes with more being laid on soon. For international students, Heathrow is a handy 30 minutes away.
Head
Rick Cross joined Reddam in 2021 from Bedales where he held three deputy head roles; before that he was a history and politics teacher at Alleyn’s and The Perse. An ultra-marathon runner, Mr Cross has boundless energy and has already redesigned the school’s senior leadership team to create more bandwidth for pastoral care and boosted pupil numbers, which are up from 650 to 800 – he’s aiming for 1,000 across all age groups from six months to 18.
Admissions
Reddam is non-selective, but it does use testing to get a rounded profile of prospective pupils' ability in verbal, non-verbal, quantitative and spatial reasoning. They also look at references and reports from an applicant’s current school. The main entry points are Years 7, 9 and 12.
Academics and destinations
Learning is tailored to the individual here, with academic progress tracked through its ‘cycle testing’ programme, which it describes as ‘low stakes assessing’ that sees pupils learn, test, learn, test, and so on. Every pupil from Year 4 onwards sits a cycle test during the first period on a Monday morning in a subject that rotates each week, with results available to them and their parents through an online portal. Come Year 9, they sit these twice a week. Popular with everyone, pupils like the way it gets them used to revising and sitting exams, and parents like the fact that the tests enable them to track their child’s progress in every subject with real data. Pupils are stretched with what the school calls its CHEX programme, ‘Challenge and Extension for All’, which sees them trying more challenging questions once they’ve grasped the basics. English as an Additional Language is offered in one-to-one or group settings and academic support is available for those with SEN.
In line with the school’s attitude to bespoke education, pupils can choose to do eight, nine or 10 GCSEs. Everyone takes maths, English language and literature and two or three sciences with options including computer science, French or Spanish, history, geography, PE, art and design, drama, media studies, music and business studies.
Many pupils do four A-levels and, as well as the traditional subjects on offer, they can take psychology, economics, music and a BTec in sport. Most do an EPQ. They’re well set up for flying the nest to university with a sixth-form centre in the basement that feels very grown up with its own pool table, sofas and large study room. Plenty of UCAS guidance from the head of the sixth form and deputy head (the Year 13s we met raved about them) help students win places at top-notch institutions, including Oxford, Durham and Imperial. A handful also head off to overseas universities in Japan, Germany and the US.
Co-curricular
Among the traditional sports – rugby, football and cricket for boys, hockey, netball and cricket for girls – pupils can swim in the school pool, shoot in the indoor shooting range and do clay-pigeon shooting as well as play golf at the adjoining Bearwood Lakes Golf Course. Art, music and drama are all offered with one-to-one lessons in whichever instrument they choose. A modern, 350-seat theatre hosts the annual panto. On our visit, the children were rehearsing for Jack and the Beanstalk with a twist. Optional LAMDA lessons take place in the chapel.
CCF is a big part of school life – Reddam House won the Rifles Cadet Cup Competition in 2022 and came second in 2023. Years 7 and 8 go on an Outward Bound trip in Yorkshire and the seniors often take part in the Three Peaks Challenge. Clubs include scuba diving, bread-making and debating.
Boarding
Most of the 100 boarders are international students, with over 28 different nationalities at the school. There are three boarding houses: for boys in Years 7 to 10; for girls in Years 7 to 10; and a mixed house for Years 11 to 13 with single-sex areas. The Loft on the top floor of the main building has 12 covetable, new, ensuite rooms, kitchen facilities and a cinema. Dedicated boarding staff live in and there’s a nice family atmosphere with full, weekly and ad hoc days all options, though most boarders are full-timers.
School community
The core values of responsibility, integrity, respect, courage, kindness and ambition pulse through the school’s veins. We love the inspiring Antoine de Saint-Exupéry quote it lives by: ‘If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea,’ and expect a diverse cohort bound together by an egalitarian outlook. There are ‘multiforms’ rather than uniforms, and individuality is celebrated.
And finally....
A progressive attitude to academics marks this school out from its competitors. The knockout campus may need some modernising TLC, but when it comes to turning out confident young adults ready to take on the world, Reddam has the formula nailed.