The School welcomes international students, both from English and non-English speaking countries. They bring new perspectives to the Sixth Form and help to widen horizons. Technology is causing the world to become increasingly small and borderless and an international outlook is actively cultivated by the School.
A poor command of English can be a very real academic constraint. The School therefore offers an Intensive English Section which aims at rapid improvement in English. Pupils in this section take core subjects such as maths, the sciences and English itself with their normal year groups. In the lessons where they have a language problem – such as Geography, History, French or German – the Intensive English section splits off from the rest of the year group. The pupils are taught either individually or in very small groups by specialist teachers in English as a Foreign Language. Around a quarter of their lessons each week are taught in this way.
In the Sixth Form, students take the International Baccalaureate (IB). Those who do not have English as their mother tongue can benefit greatly from the IB system. They can either take their own language as their second language, ensuring very high marks, or they can take their own language as their first language, which allows them to take English as their second language, helping them to gain high marks in English.
Due to the very low teacher to pupil ratio in the Intensive English Section, there is a surcharge on the fees.