Shrewsbury School
Intus Si Recte Ne Labora
Founded in 1552 by Royal Charter of Edward VI, Shrewsbury School sits on a hill above the River Severn, where it has stood since 1882. The school became fully co-educational in 2014, among the later of England's historic boarding schools to do so, and its most famous pupil, Charles Darwin, remains a genuine point of identity.
Key Facts
Location : Shrewsbury, Shropshire
Type : Co-educational, boarding and day
Age Range : 13 to 18
Pupil Numbers : Approx. 840 pupils
Founded : 1552
Motto : Intus Si Recte Ne Labora ("If All Is Right Within, Trouble Not")
Academic Profile
In the Fourth Form, pupils at Shrewsbury follow a curriculum built to develop curiosity, independence of mind, and critical thinking, before taking their GCSEs and IGCSEs. In the Sixth Form they study A Levels, and Old Salopians proceed to Oxford and Cambridge, alongside leading Russell Group universities including UCL.
Co-Curricular Life
Music is woven through the life of the school, centred on the award-winning Maidment Building, a purpose-built music school with a concert hall, and expressed through choirs, a nationally recognised big band, and orchestras. Drama has an outstanding home in the Barnes Theatre, with its own auditorium and two studios for drama and dance, and Shrewsbury has taken a series of original musicals to the Edinburgh Fringe, earning five-star reviews and a Fringe First award. Sport is a genuine strength, with a rowing tradition of more than 150 years on the Severn that reaches Henley Royal Regatta, alongside football and cricket played to national standard and the school's own game of Fives.
Admissions Essentials
Pupils join Shrewsbury School in Year 9, at age thirteen, with further places available at Year 10 and in the Sixth Form. The school's admissions process is currently moving towards a Guaranteed Place model, in which candidates sit the ISEB Common Pre-Test in Year 7, ahead of a holistic assessment including a Headteacher's reference and an assessment day in the Lent Term, with the process shifting to allow testing from Year 6 for entry from September 2028 onward. At Year 9 entry, scholarships are available across academic, art, design and technology, drama, music, and sport, alongside the named Sir Michael Palin Scholarship.
In Essence
For a child drawn to the natural world, whether through science, the river on the doorstep, or simply being outdoors, Shrewsbury lets that curiosity flourish at the centre of school life, in the town that first shaped Darwin's own.