BEYOND THE CLASSROOM

Students are encouraged to develop passions, nurture talents and pursue interests wherever they may lie

British boarding schools offer an unrivalled spectrum of co-curricular (also known as extracurricular) activities in the firm belief that it takes more than academic achievement to develop as a rounded, confident, kind and caring individual. In order to be ready to face the challenges of today’s ever-changing world, what young people learn outside the classroom is all too important.

That means positive risk-taking, pushing themselves outside their comfort zones, expanding their knowledge and following new routes of inquiry, acquiring new skills and interests every step of the way.

Pupils have every opportunity to participate in team sports, whether competitive or taking a ‘sport for all’ attitude, as is the case at St Leonards. There’s art, photography, drama, dance, aquathlon, debating, Model United Nations, nature club, and beach club. At St Leonards, families will

find a musical activity, pipe band or orchestra for every day of the week, as well as a concert for almost every week of the year.

Staff are proud to share their specialisms with students. For example, the Head at St Leonards leads the running club along the beach and up the nearby coastal path, and one of the parents, ably assisted by the beekeeping club, tends to the three hives, which produce honey each year.

The global approach to the curriculum and co-curriculum means pupils studying classics experience the ruins of Ancient Greece in reality; the drama students try their hand at maskmaking in Venice, and enjoy the opera in Verona, and the golfers grow their game in specialist facilities in Spain.

There’s so much to explore beyond the four walls of a classroom, and schools such as St Leonards have both the appetite and expertise to maximise every opportunity.