Basic Information & Location
Queen Ethelburga’s College being an independent boarding school for girls and boys, was founded in 1912 and is situated in Yorkshire, North of England. QE is set between York and Harrogate, giving it an edge in locality. It is close to historical site as well as the recreational spots. Pupils aged from 3 months to 19 years old can receive quality and personalised education there. About half the current students come from over 50 different countries and regions, and QE has became one of the most popular UK boarding schools in Hong Kong. In the past decade, the population of students in QE accelerates from 550 in 2007 to almost 1000 in 2017 which is a rapid increase. In the League Table published by The Telegraph in 2017, QE was ranked 5th.
Academic Development
In the past few years, pupils in QE have achieved excellent grades in A-Level, which makes QE become one of the Top 10 UK boarding schools. According to statistics, more than 80% of students from QE achieved A*-B in A-Level from 2012 to 2015. In 2017, 97% of the graduates received A*-B, and over 80% of them received A*-A. Between 2011-2014, more than 205 of the graduates entered top 20 universities of QS World University Rankings. As one of the most popular UK boarding schools in Hong Kong, QE has set up a one-year A-Level course especially for Hong Kong students who had received diploma of HKDSE. Therefore, students can take this one-year course to get ready for further studies, and get into prestigious universities in the UK, HK or other countries.
For pupils aged 14 plus, they will have to choose fromQueen Ethelburga’s Collegiate and Faculty of Queen Ethelburga’s. The former one pays more attention to traditional academic subjects while the latter one offers more special subjects and courses, like BTEC diploma, which meets the needs of different students.
Pastoral Care & Boarding
Every boarding bedroom is provided with a direct-dial phone and voicemail, timer controlled plasma 32 inch TV, DVD complete with Sony PlayStation, mini-kitchen with fridge, a hair dryer, iron and board, heated towel rail and fan. All bedrooms are air-conditioned and have their own individual private en-suite bathroom with toilet and shower. All staff have a great deal of experience and common sense, providing the warm and supportive atmosphere which has meant more and more pupils choose to live on campus.
For international students, QE offers parent portal to help parents keep an eye on their children’ studies and boarding lives. If parents need to contact school, they can dial the hotline and speak to hotline operators who speak several fluent foreign languages including Mandarin and Russian. Compared with other traditional boarding schools, QE offers more opportunities to international students. For example, Hong Kong students have chance to win the title of Head Boy.
Extracurricular & personal development
The campus of Queen Ethelburga’s College is known as one of the most beautiful campuses in Europe, and campus is both modern and luxurious. The school has been expanding the infrastructure and the total investment in facilities has reached eighty million pounds. Students can utilise all kinds of facilities. Apart from dormitories, classrooms, theatres, swimming pools, there are also small racing fields, gymnasium and Art Center, and what’s more, there is even Transformer’s figures in the dining hall.
Queen Ethelburga’s rugby union first team secured the 2015 British Colleges National Cup, and school is now working with Leeds Rugby Academy and Foundation at Leeds Carnegie to breed talented rugby players. Another good new is that Yorkshire County Cricket Club has agreed a partnership with the school. This will include the creation of a joint cricket academy for 16 to 19 year old players.
