Despite the School being closed to visitors, life in the Admissions Office is as busy as ever.
I am delighted that there continues to be considerable interest in King’s Bruton - be it from local families, those further afield, families relocating to the West Country or families living abroad, and it is wonderful to see that the popularity of King’s continues to grow and grow. In the past week, alone, we have made offers to pupils from as far afield as Germany, France, India, Austria and Azerbaijan, not to mention several offers made to those living in the UK. Our overseas pupil numbers remain at approximately 15%, with the boarder/day ratio at 55:45 and boy/girl ratio getting very close to 50:50.
The Easter Term is always a busy term in the Admissions Office, but despite not being able to welcome visitors to the school site, I am pleased to report that I am busy - the phone is ringing, and the enquiries are still flooding in. It is also the term in which we hold the scholarship assessments, both for 3rd Form and 6th Form entry. Last week nearly 40 candidates were assessed for Scholarship entry into the 3rd Form in Music, Art, DT, Drama and Sport and I am delighted to say we have offered 28 scholarships and awards in recognition of talent to pupils from Hazlegrove Prep School, Perrott Hill Prep School, Sherborne Prep School, Millfield Prep School, Port Regis, All Hallows, St Andrew’s Eastbourne and Twyford Prep School. Next week we will be assessing six external and internal applicants for scholarship entry (Art, Drama and Academic) into the 6th Form; this, in addition to the two 6th Form Sports Scholarships already offered. Scholarship applications for 2022 entry, both into 3rd Form and into 6th Form are now open, so if this is something of interest, please do get in touch.
We have recently launched a series of new films, all of which can be seen on our website. This is King’s Bruton gives an overall insight into life at this wonderful 500 year old school. Performing Arts at King's Bruton demonstrates the talent that our pupils have and the facilities we can offer in the Art, Music and Drama Departments, and Sport at King’s Bruton shows just how much we punch above our weight for a school of 350 pupils and the individual attention and support that all our pupils get from our excellent and highly qualified sports coaches.
The restructuring of Wellesley House has created much needed space for more girls, and I am thrilled that this additional space, for September 2021, is already almost full. The restructuring of the boys’ Houses, too, will create more space, create a better balance between all three boys’ Houses and ensure that there is a good number of boarders throughout all three Houses. It will also help us ensure that the skill sets of Music, Sport, Drama, Art and Academia are spread evenly between all the Houses. At King’s Bruton we avoid, where possible, having skill specific Houses (a sporty House, a musical House) and indeed the House Cup has been won by five different Houses over the past five years, proving just how evenly shared this skill set is.
Living on site as I do, I am working from my office (all 100 steps from kitchen table to desk!) and I would love to hear from anyone who is keen to find out more about King’s Bruton. Please do get in touch by email or by phone on 01749 814251, or look at the newly updated Admissions Section of our website.
Gilly Bunday - Registrar