Headington Rye Oxford is a curious, confident, ambitious school for boys and girls aged 3-11 and girls aged 11-18, with full, weekly and half-weekly boarding available from age 11. Set in 35 acres a mile from Oxford’s dreaming spires, the School is academically selective and the Senior School regularly appears in the top-performing schools in the UK based on results at GCSE and A Level, while Prep School pupils achieve high academic outcomes, many securing academic, art, dance, drama, music, and sport scholarships when they join the Senior School. Headington Rye Oxford has an unparalleled commitment to and investment in pastoral care, with each child treated as an individual and provided the support they need to succeed in every aspect of their lives.
The Senior School
There is a firm focus on preparing pupils for the future, both in terms of excellent academic outcomes and a comprehensive careers, university application and future-planning programme. The School benefits from strong links to Oxford and Oxford Brookes universities with lectures, workshops and masterclasses both on site and at university facilities.
There is a huge range of academic choice, with more than 30 subjects on offer including GCSEs, A Levels, BTECS, the HPQ and EPQ and Leiths Food and Wine Certificate. Exam results are excellent, with 75 per cent of all GCSEs graded at 7 or above in 2023 and 58 per cent as 8s or 9s. Nearly half of all A Levels received an A*-A grade, with 75 per cent at A*-B. Girls go on to study a wide range of challenging subjects at competitive universities, with many headed to Oxbridge or the Russell Group and a growing number acquiring places at top universities overseas.
Each week more than 120 extra-curricular clubs take place, covering academic enrichment, entrepreneurship, Leadership, Adventure and Community, Sport, and Performing and Creative Arts.
Facilities are wide-ranging, from state-of-the-art Science laboratories to a high specification set of teaching kitchens in our Food and Nutrition Centre and an award-winning library on the academic front, to a host of performing and creative arts facilities. This includes a 243-seat theatre, Music School complete with recording studio, performance spaces and practice rooms, and the Hive: Creativity and Innovation Centre, a fantastic space for Art, Photography, Graphic Design, Fashion Textiles and Creative Engineering and Design with a strong focus on cross-curricular links. On the sporting front, as well as all-weather pitches, hard courts, sports fields and a state-of-the-art Dance and Fitness Centre with dance studio, gym, spinning studio and ergo room, the School has also invested in a new Boathouse for its championship winning boat club on the River Thames.
Boarding
Headington Rye Oxford offers a range of different boarding options, including occasional, half-weekly, weekly and full boarding on site in one of the School’s five boarding houses. Around 1 in 4 senior school girls is a boarder, with the number of boarders starting relatively small in the lower years with a higher proportion choosing to board as they reach the Sixth Form.
Girls join the boarding community from all over the world, while our weekly and half-weekly boarders are often those for whom boarding makes more sense than a long and tiring commute each day.
As they move through the boarding houses, girls are supported to develop additional independence and given more responsibilities and more free time, while support and planned activities are always on offer along side this. Flexibility within the boarding provision means we can offer short stays to day pupils taking part in onsite dance, drama and music performances during production week, or as accommodation during local rowing camps.
