Ethelburga’s College

Set in more than 220 acres of beautiful North Yorkshire countryside, Queen Ethelburga’s has provided students with a vibrant and supportive school community since 1912. 

College students are expected to be strongly self-motivated and have a pro-active approach to their studies. They take responsibility for their learning and have the academic ability to succeed on the traditional GCSE or A Level curriculum, following a demanding study program.

Life in the College is demanding, yet exceptionally rewarding, for those students who are determined to rise to the challenge. Enrichment options allow students to broaden and deepen their knowledge in areas of interest and give a challenging and stimulating experience. Some of these lead to additional qualifications such as the Extended Project Qualification, highly prized by universities and helping to build on students’ independence and research skills. Students in Years 12 and 13 can benefit from super-curricular courses in subjects such as medicine and law, to extend them beyond the curriculum and develop a greater knowledge of, and interest in, fascinating and rewarding subject areas.

Benefiting from excellent teaching and facilities, students are able to achieve outstanding results, whilst taking full advantage of all the opportunities that you would expect in a day and boarding school, including a huge range of music, drama, sporting and co-curricular activities. Students also have many opportunities to develop and demonstrate leadership skills and contribute to the community, with roles as Prefects, Peer Mentors and as members of the various school councils.

International

The international department is here to help those students who have English as an additional language to develop their speaking and writing skills and to improve in listening and reading English.

English as an Additional Language (EAL) is offered as a subject to students throughout the Collegiate. An intensive approach to teaching, focused on student production, means that learners are able to make rapid progress. Through student-centered lessons in small groups, learners are able to access expert advice and personalized tuition which enables them to work on, and develop, their individual areas of weakness.

Their primary focus is the development of a strong awareness of grammar and vocabulary in order to help learners to access and make the most of the English-speaking environment around them and ultimately achieve their potential in their core subjects across the school. Their younger students take the Cambridge First or Preliminary exams which, alongside grammar, teach their learners how to write in specific genres and how to navigate and incorporate native speaker aspects of the language such as phrasal verbs and idiomatic language into their linguistic repertoire.

As students’ progress through the school they are trained on IELTS preparation courses where the focus is on the study of academic texts, and fully preparing students in the rules of academic writing in preparation for higher level studies. Their IELTS courses offer an in depth task based approach which provides their students with hands on practice of every possible task type and ensures they are able to meet the university entry requirements for their chosen course in the future.