Queen Ethelburga’s Collegiate

About the School 

An Excellent rated school (ISI 2019), Queen Ethelburga’s has provided a vibrant and supportive school community for its students since 1912.

Set in more than 220 acres of beautiful North Yorkshire countryside, we welcome girls and boys aged from 3 months and support them through four schools - Chapter House (3 months to Year 5), King’s Magna (Year 6 to 9), The College and The Faculty (both Year 10 to 13). 

Nestled in a secure rural location with 450,000sqm of beautifully maintained grounds, Queen Ethelburga’s is an incredible place to live, visit and explore. The campus sits between three cosmopolitan centres close by; historic York, once the Viking capital of England and home of Roman Emperor Constantine; Harrogate, the Victorian spa town now renowned for its shopping, fine restaurants and relaxing open spaces; and Leeds, widely considered Yorkshire’s capital city, with a cultural, shopping and entertainment offer to match. York railway station is only 25 minutes by car and a then a 1 hour 50 minutes direct rail link to London, giving QE the perfect balance of a beautiful learning environment with doorstep access to three of the North’s top cities, and quick and easy access to England’s capital city.

Our ethos 

The QE ethos is centred on supporting each student to be the best that they can with the gifts that they have, by creating the right learning and living environment for them to thrive. We have a unique offering. We have four individual schools, with their own heads and staff teams, that are small enough to maintain a family atmosphere. This allows staff to know their students thoroughly and successfully guide them through each stage of their formative years. 

We place great emphasis on our children growing into resilient, caring, compassionate and confident adults, who develop independence and initiative, and who can take responsibility for their own learning and futures. 

Academic 

Our exam results speak for themselves, consistently ranking us amongst the top 10 day and boarding schools in the UK, with students benefiting from incredible study, boarding and leisure facilities as part of campus life.  In 2021, students in the academically focused College achieved 96 per cent A*/B at A level. The Faculty, which offers a wider range of academic, creative, and vocational courses, achieved 92 per cent A*/B at A Level and 75 per cent D*/D in BTECs (equivalent in university points to A* and A grades at A Level).

QE students also achieve much success in a wide range of sporting, cultural and outdoor activities as part of the school’s enrichment and co-curricular programme, focused on helping them to gain necessary skills in leadership, teamwork and decision making.

Pastoral care 

Care is the most important element within the QE community; every member of the Collegiate, staff and student, is responsible for the pastoral care and happiness of the site.  QE offers support and guidance to all students and parents to ensure that we are all working to support individual students needs and equipping them with the right skills, not only to be successful in education, but to excel in their chosen career and life in general.

We have a dedicated team of trained staff on call 24 hours a day to offer support and guidance to all students within a specialist welfare area in the school for students to visit at any time. 

Our Buddies and Peer Leaders show new students around, explain the school systems, introduce students to new people and help them to settle in.  In the Sixth Form we have trained Peer Mentors, who offer a wide range of support to students and can offer mentoring on a one-to-one basis to help with academic progress, cultural understanding, contacting parents in the Forces, or day to day routines. 

Our dedicated THRIVE@QE programme offers all QE students a huge range of activities to support their positive mental health and wellbeing. This includes activities and support such as; building self-esteem, strategies to help with exam stress, adjusting to change, home sickness, staying safe online, bounce back, and Forces and international support. Everything possible is done to prepare students for the many experiences they will encounter as they move through their educational journey and future life. 

Sport at QE 

All of QE’s students follow a sports programme with the values of fair play, honesty and determination at its heart. We cater for all abilities and encourage each student to make the most of all the fantastic opportunities on offer during their time here. We have a well-honed mix of physical education teachers and specialist sports coaches, many of whom are ex-professional sportspeople themselves. This means there really is no limit to the level our students can train to. 

Health and fitness are so central to school life for students that many continue with sport and exercise, either recreationally or as a route of study, that it continues to be a key part of their lives long after they have left us. What enables us to deliver all this sporting activity so successfully of course is the outstanding range of high-quality facilities on campus. 

We have a dedicated Sports Village, completed in 2016, to which all students have access to inside and outside of formal school hours. The Village is home to a 25-metre swimming pool, triple court sports hall, 100 station fitness suite and free weights centre. Outside we have a four-lane synthetic cushioned running track and over 30 acres of both grass and artificial 3G pitches. We also have a number of specialist studios used for; martial arts, wrestling, dance, gymnastics, table tennis, cycling, archery, fencing and boxing. 

In addition to all this, the students can make use of an eight-metre climbing wall at the campus activity centre, which also houses an assault course, BMX track and additional tennis courts.