Hurtwood House

Hurtwood House, set in the beautiful Surrey Hills, specialises exclusively in the sixth form. We are famous for being both wonderfully creative and rigorously academic. Our alumni include the musical genius Hans Zimmer and legendary actor Emily Blunt.

Drama, art, photography, music and media are quite simply a way of life, but Hurtwood is also reassuringly academic offering a wide range of traditional subjects such as science, mathematics, psychology, business and economics. Our students also excel in the EPQ which they can take alongside their A levels.

A creative utopia, our professional performing arts department boasts 20 full time members of staff with specialists in acting, directing, screenwriting, lighting, costume and set design. The volume of our extracurricular drama is breathtaking. With 40 productions a year, including everything from rock concerts to Shakespeare to 10-night Christmas Musicals (think ‘Chicago’ or ‘Legally Blonde’) we believe no other school comes close. We employ professional choreographers, musical directors and musicians to give students a taste of the West End. With a theatre, amphitheatre and more intimate studio space, students develop their skills in performance, direction, design and production. For those aiming to go on to a career in acting via drama school such as RADA or Guildhall, there is the Hurtwood Acting Company to push students to reach the required high standards. Students also write and direct their own plays, with some performing them at the Edinburgh Festival.

Dance is popular and students benefit from a vast array of weekly dance classes with specialist tutors in every genre including tap, jazz, ballet street, hip hop and contemporary. Lessons cater for all levels and there are visiting professionals from dance schools such as Mountview and professional dance companies like Base Studios. Top dancers have the opportunity for even more intense training in the evenings with the Hurtwood Dance Company.

If students are interested in filmmaking and media A level, Hurtwood is the only place to be. Our facilities are second to none with an industry standard TV studio, kitted out with the latest cameras and cutting-edge post-production facilities and editing suites. Many of our media teachers are industry professionals and we have many alumni in the film world who come back to talk on everything from special effects to location management. We also have our own prestigious ‘Film Academy’, a production company within the school in which students take their training to another level. They make documentaries, film and broadcast Hurtwood productions live and experience traditional filmmaking methods using 16mm film. It’s no surprise that Hurtwood alumni now include BAFTA nominated directors, cinematographers and filmmakers working behind the camera.

Hurtwood House is a school like no other. It combines the best elements of the traditional boarding school and the modern sixth form college. Less formal and less institutional than traditional public schools, Hurtwood makes the A level experience as exciting and rewarding as going away to university.