Royal High School Bath
For Girls. For Life.
Royal High School Bath is an all-girls school set on Lansdown Hill above the city of Bath, and the only boarding school within the Girls' Day School Trust, the largest group of independent girls' schools in the country. In its present form it dates from 1998, when two historic Bath girls' schools came together, and it continues a tradition of ambitious girls' education in the city that reaches back to the eighteen sixties.
Key Facts
Location : Bath, Somerset
Type : All-girls, boarding and day
Age Range : 9 to 18
Pupil Numbers : Approx. 450 girls
Founded : 1864 and 1875; merged 1998
Ethos : For Girls. For Life.
Academic Profile
Girls at Royal High follow a broad and notably language-rich curriculum in which Mandarin is taught alongside French, German, and Spanish, before taking their GCSEs. In the Sixth Form they choose between A Levels and the International Baccalaureate Diploma, and old girls proceed to Oxford and Cambridge, alongside leading universities in the United Kingdom and abroad, with a strong record of entry to science, engineering, and medicine.
Co-Curricular Life
Music is a particular strength, taught in the school's Steinway Music School, one of only around two hundred and fifty in the world, with a fleet of Steinway pianos, a sixty-seat recital room, and its own recording studios. A full range of choirs, orchestras, and ensembles performs through the year, alongside professional partners that have included Bath Philharmonia and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Drama and the visual arts are well served by dedicated studios and performance spaces, and sport is played across the school's hillside site, with hockey on an all-weather pitch, netball, and tennis, supported by a sports hall and fitness suite. The Duke of Edinburgh's Award runs throughout, and a boarding community drawn from around the world gives the school an international character alongside its strong local roots.
Admissions Essentials
Girls join Royal High most commonly at 11, into Year 7, and in the Sixth Form, with places at other year groups where available, and girls may board from Year 7. Entry at 11 involves an assessment and an interview, in which each girl is invited to give a short talk on something that matters to her. Sixth Form entry is based on GCSE results and an interview. Scholarships are available for academic distinction, music, dance, drama, art and design, and sport.
In Essence
For an ambitious girl who wants to be taken seriously and to be herself, Royal High offers a spirited all-girls education in a city she can grow into, where curiosity, confidence, and a strength in the sciences are encouraged in equal measure.