The Purcell School A GSG School
- The Purcell School
Aldenham Road
Bushey
Hertfordshire
WD23 2TS - Head: Paul Bambrough
- T 01923 331100
- F 01923 331166
- E info@purcell-school.org
- W www.purcell-school.org
- An independent school for boys and girls aged from 11 to 18.
- Read about the best schools in Hertfordshire
- Boarding: Yes
- Local authority: Hertfordshire
- Pupils: 198; sixth formers: 89
- Religion: Non-denominational
- Fees: Day £34,053; Boarding £43,479 pa (last updated on 14/08/2024)
- Open days: November
- Review: View The Good Schools Guide Review
What The Good Schools Guide says..
Ultimately it’s all about the music. Pre-breakfast practice starts at 7.15am (although some parents told us their children start as early as 6.30am when at home), with instrumental tuition and rehearsals interspersed throughout the day and supervised practice for younger students. Blessed with music rooms containing two grand pianos apiece, pupils have up to two hours of academic music lessons a day, around two hours weekly of individual instrumental tuition plus between three and (in the final years) five hours of daily timetabled practice. Theory not taught as a matter of course beyond…
What the school says...
This is Britain's oldest specialist school for promising young musicians, founded in the belief that special talent needs the support of a school where music is in the centre rather than at the edges. Pupils are able to focus on their musical studies alongside an academic programme of GCSEs and A-levels. Most pupils go on to Music College in the UK or overseas, but a small number take up places at university to study a range of subjects. ...Read more
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Other features
Music and dance scheme - government funding and grants available to help with fees at selected independent music and dance schools.
All-through school (for example 3-18 years). - An all-through school covers junior and senior education. It may start at 3 or 4, or later, and continue through to 16 or 18. Some all-through schools set exams at 11 or 13 that pupils must pass to move on.
What The Good Schools Guide says
Principal
Since 2018, Paul Bambrough, previously vice principal at the Birmingham Royal Conservatoire where he also, inter alia, taught in the vocal and operatic studies department and contributed to the orchestra conducting course. While director of music at the Sixth Form College Farnborough, he created the largest A level music department in the country of 500+ students. A concert artist himself, he has sung at most of the UK’s foremost concert halls and cathedrals, is a harpsichordist, organist and pianist and has worked as a répétiteur with some of the world’s finest singers.
A self-taught musician from ‘agricultural stock’, it’s been quite the journey for a lad from Wiltshire with no musical heritage. ‘I remember going to church at 10 years old and just being transfixed by the sound of the organ....
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Overall school performance (for comparison or review only)
Results by exam and subject
Subject results
Entry/Exit
Special Education Needs
Who came from where
| School | Year | Places | Scholarships | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exeter Cathedral School | 2024 | 1 | 1 | Scholarships: 1 Music |
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