Established in 1868. Still asking questions.
Aldergate has been a school for more than 150 years. The buildings have changed, the curriculum has changed and the school has changed with them.
What has remained is an expectation that young people are capable of more than they think, and that they have a responsibility to the people around them.
A welcome
Most school websites will tell you that every child is known, that the community is like a family and that excellence matters.
I'd rather tell you what you would notice if you came on an ordinary school day.
You would notice that lessons are quiet, and then suddenly not. You would notice pupils arguing about Latin translations over lunch. You would notice the Lower Sixth running the debating society without a member of staff in the room. And you would notice the music school filling up at 13.50 without anyone having been told to be there.
You would notice pupils who are comfortable speaking up and equally comfortable listening.
We ask a great deal of our pupils. We try to give them every reason to rise to it.
Our results are strong and we publish them clearly. But I hope you will judge us on something harder to put on a website: the young people you meet here.
Do come and see for yourself.
Dr Eleanor Whitcombe
Head, since 2019
A short history
In 1868, a group of Gloucestershire families led by mill owner Josiah Brooke bought Aldergate Park and its 140 acres to establish a boarding school for boys.
They wanted pupils to study science alongside classics and opened the school to boys from a wider range of backgrounds than was usual at the time.
The first admissions register records 41 pupils. The chapel followed in 1881, the Great Hall in 1904 and the library in 1923.
Girls entered the Sixth Form in 1972 and the school became fully co-educational in 1984.
The Whitcombe Theatre opened in 2021.
Today, the six Houses carry the names of the founders and those who helped the school develop over the years: Ashworth, Brooke, Fairfax, Harcourt, Lisle and Wren.
What we ask of pupils
Four things sit behind everyday life at Aldergate.
- Prepare
Bring the reading, practise the instrument and arrive ready. Lessons start with what you bring to them.
- Take part
Join the play, the match, the debate or the House song. You don't have to be good at something before you start.
- Look after each other
Older pupils help younger pupils find their feet. Prefects are chosen partly for the responsibility they show towards others.
- Tell the truth
About what you did, what you didn't do and what you think. Staff are expected to do the same.
The week
Monday begins with the whole school together in the Great Hall, with a pupil at the lectern.
Wednesday morning is chapel, led by pupils and attended by pupils of every faith and none.
Thursday evening belongs to the Houses.
Saturday brings lessons for older pupils until lunch, followed by fixtures and a different pace for those who remain at school.
Who teaches here
- 92 teaching staff
41 have a higher degree in their subject and 26 live on site.
- Sets of 16 or fewer
Nine or fewer in the Sixth Form. No lesson is simply a lecture.
- A tutor for every pupil
Tutors see pupils every morning and meet with them properly every week.
- 40 visiting music teachers
Most are practising musicians and several are former pupils.