Head's welcome
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Edward Elliott
The Perse is Cambridge’s oldest secondary school and was founded by Dr Stephen Perse, a Fellow of Gonville & Caius College, nearly 400 years ago. Today the Perse is one of Britain’s top co-educational day schools with over 850 pupils aged 11-18. The secret of our success lies in who we are. Put bright young people together and they spark off each other, spur each other on, and form a peer group culture in which success is celebrated. In turn, such a concentration of talented, young minds creates a wonderfully vibrant learning environment, allowing us to recruit and retain the best teachers.
We provide our boys and girls with an excellent all round education which whilst recognising the importance of academic achievement, also emphasises the need for wider social, cultural and sporting development.
Perse students achieve some of the best GCSE, A level and Oxbridge entry results in the country, but we also want our students to gain the personal qualities, inter personal skills, character, hobbies and interests needed to make a success of adult life. In recent years, education has become very focussed on exam results, and whilst success in public exams is vital we prefer to educate for life, not just for A level.
We are proud of our independent status, and the Perse uses its independence and freedom from direct government control to innovate in the best interests of its pupils.
As such, in recent years, we have introduced new exam qualifications such as International GCSE and the Pre-U which better meet the needs of our talented pupils. We have also greatly extended our foreign language provision which now includes Arabic, Japanese, Mandarin, Russian, Portuguese and Italian alongside French, German and Spanish.
A recent extra-curricular innovation has been the development of the Perse Exploration Society which undertakes ambitious expeditions to Africa, Latin America and Asia. These expeditions see Perse students carrying out valuable charity work before completing demanding climbs and hikes.
We aim to be true to our founder Stephen Perse, who set up the Perse as a ‘free grammar’ school. Whilst the modest size of our endowment does not permit us to offer universal free places, we do have an extensive bursary programme that provides financial support from 10 to 100% of fees for families who could not otherwise afford our full fee. In keeping with our charitable aims, bursaries are awarded to pupils who pass our entrance test on a means-tested basis. This financial assistance allows the Perse to be accessible to pupils from a wide range of backgrounds, and the resulting student diversity is a real strength of the school.
For my part, I try to be accessible as possible to pupils and parents. I have an open door session every day for any pupil to drop in and see me unannounced and monthly surgeries for parents. Parents and prospective parents are welcome to make an appointment to visit at any stage by phoning my PA, Karen Gibson, on 01223 403800.
I am very proud of the Perse and its pupils. We combine the best of our academic grammar school heritage with an innovative outlook that strives to provide students with the skills needed for a successful life in the twenty-first century.
The Perse School is a member of the HMC
The Perse School is a member of the Independent Schools Council
ISC Reference Number: 71232