Royal High School, Bath


Royal High School Bath is an independent day and boarding school for girls and in the city of Bath, Somerset, England, catering for up to 700 pupils. The school is on Lansdown Hill, just outside Bath city centre, and has boarding facilities for about 150 girls.

History

Bath High School for Girls

Bath High School for Girls was founded in 1875 by the Girls' Public Day School Company, now the Girls' Day School Trust. It was a direct grant grammar school from 1946 until 1976.

Royal School

Merger

Royal High School Bath was formed by the merger in 1998 of Bath High School and the Royal School.
As a result, it is the only member of the Girls' Day School Trust to provide boarding accommodation.
Today, the Prep School has Cranwell House as its main building, whereas the Senior School has the main school building and the Winfield centre for sixth form students – both on Lansdown Road.

Prep School

Girls can start in the Nursery School one and a half months before they are three years old. The Prep School will take pupils in the September after their fourth birthday. The Prep School has around 200 full-time pupils from Reception to Year 6, and around 20 part-time pupils in the Nursery.
The Prep School is in Cranwell House, in Weston Park, near to the Senior School.

Senior School

The senior school is on Lansdown Road near Bath city centre.
The main building was built in 1856-8 by James Wilson and is a Grade II listed building. There is an Art School; a Sixth Form café; a fitness suite, a separate Sixth Form building and newly refurbished boarding houses; two Performing Arts Theatres ; The Hudson Centre for lectures and meetings; a sports hall complex, netball and tennis courts, an astroturf; a library, a Media Centre, and a new music school and state of the art recording studio.
The boarding houses are situated in Lansdown Road. The Senior school has a medical centre.

Academic performance

It regularly comes near the top of league tables for Bath schools for GCSE and A-Level results. The school provides Modern Languages including GCSE French, which girls start to learn in Reception class. German, Spanish, Italian, Mandarin, Arabic, and Japanese are also available. The school also provides the IB Programme, where it had an average score of 37 points in 2019.

Arts

The art school was opened by Professor Sir Christopher Frayling – Rector of the Royal College of Art and Chairman of the Arts Council, England in November 2008. The art school comprises four studios, where specialisms vary across activities including painting, sculpture, printmaking, film and photography. In 2006 it received an award from the 'Good Schools Guide' for gaining the best A' level results in the country over a three-year period. Leavers have gone on to St Martins, London, Edinburgh University, Glasgow school of art, Falmouth school of art and Parsons New York. Degree choices vary from Fine Art and Fashion through to Architecture and Photography.
The Art School operates as an art school within a school. It was purpose designed by Textus Architectural Practice, bath and built to replicate other professional Art Schools, like the Royal Academy Schools and the Prince's Drawing School, which can be transformed from working studios into exhibition spaces. The Art School offers a high degree of professionalism through each of the disciplines offered. It is an environment where art is taken seriously, and for those who want to pursue a career in an art-related profession, a place to study. There are designated studio spaces for drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, and three-dimensional work. Each of the studios are well lit and make for wonderful creative working areas.
In 2011 a History of Art A-level began.

Music

The Music Department is housed in a purpose-built Music School and consists of a 60 seater Recital Room with a Model B Steinway Grand Piano, state of the art, fully soundproofed Professional Recording Studios with 2 Model AS Steinway Grand Pianos, 10 soundproofed practice rooms each containing upright Steinway pianos, Apple Mac Suite, main teaching room, Green Room, reception area, offices and instrumental storage facilities.
Ensembles consist of Vocalise, V20, Chamber Choir, The Sixth Sense, Orchestra, Concert Band, Jazz Band, Brass Ensemble, Sax Ensemble, Percussion Ensemble, Pop & Rock Bands.
The department produces 35-40 concerts during the academic year, both internally and externally and a whole-school production every Summer Term. International tours take place every two years and there are opportunities for all student to learn any musical instrument, provided by a dedicated team of 18 professional visiting instrumental staff.
As part of the department's Steinway Music School status, we have a regular programme of masterclasses and recitals led by leading artists who work closely with the students.

Drama

The Drama department has use of the school's two performance venues; the Memorial Hall is a traditional 'end on' performance space and has movable raked seating, the Sophie Cameron Performing Arts is a converted chapel with almost limitless performance possibilities. There is an annual Summer musical, open to all students. Previous productions include, 'Guys & Dolls', 'Annie', and 'Oliver!'.
There is an annual Lower School play for students in Years 7–8 and an upper school play open to Year 9 and upwards. Previous KS3 productions include, 'Cold Comfort Farm', 'Pride & Prejudice', 'The Wind in the Willows', 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', and at KS4; 'The Crucible', 'Antigone', and 'Numbers'. The Year 13 Theatre Studies students run the weekly Year 7 Drama Club and the drama scholars regularly produce their own evening of performances throughout the school year. Students can participate in Speech & Drama lessons, and the school also participates in the National Theatre Connections Festival biannually.

PE and sports

The sports facilities at Royal High School Bath are situated on its Lansdown site. Girls play a wide range of sports with elite performers in equestrian, gymnastics, swimming, netball, biathle, fencing, and martial arts. Royal High School competes with a range of state and independent schools, participates in national leagues and competitions, and accesses high-performance facilities at the University of Bath Olympic Sports Training Village.
On-site facilities include:
Sporting achievements within the school are awarded by the presentation of "Colours" annually for commitment to clubs and extra-curricular activities.

Houses

There are four houses for the Prep School and four for the Senior School:
For Charlcombe and Brontë
For Grosvenor and Du Pré
For Lansdown and Wollstonecraft
For Northfields and Austen

Notable alumni

Royal School