Basic Information & Location
Ratcliffe College is a co-educational Catholic independent school in Leicestershire, approximately 7 miles from Leicester, the East Midlands of England. They are situated on a beautiful 200 acre campus. Birmingham Airport (1 hour) and East Midlands Airport (30 minutes) are within easy reach. The school is founded in 1847. Girls were admitted to the Sixth Form in 1977 and full co-education was introduced in 1984. Ratcliffe College was inspected by the Independent Schools Inspectorate in 2015 and was awarded “excellent” in each of the nine categories category. It is the first time in its history that the school achieved such an outstanding inspection result. The East Midlands of England is not the most suitable place for studying but there are many universities such as Warwick University. However, University district may not be good. The tuition fee of Ratcliffe College is relatively cheap (below £10,000). Ratcliffe College is an average Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference’s school.
Recently, Leicester City Football Club (LCFC) chose Ratcliffe College, as their educational base for sixteen students from Thailand. The students have been brought over to the UK by LCFC and will spend two years getting a first-class British education as full-time boarders at Ratcliffe College. Susan Whelan, Leicester City’s CEO, said: “We chose Ratcliffe College because it is committed to delivering an all-inclusive education to extremely high standards.”
Academic Development
The vision is to educate young people in the spirit of the Gospel and the traditions of the Catholic Church, seeking to nurture the God-given talents and potential of each individual so that each one may become a confident, responsible and useful member of society. In 2017, there is a 99% pass rate and 76% of A-Level results are A*-B. For GCSE, 92% of all grades are C or better and 44% of all grades were A*-A. The majority of leavers have secured their First Choice University. 88% of them achieved their first choice university in 2016 with 5% to Oxbridge or Ivy League universities and 53% going on to the elite Russell Group universities. Careers education commences early in Year 7 and carries on through to Year 13 to eble students to make well informed choices about careers and to be well prepared to make transitions through their career exploration.
Pastoral Care & Boarding
The school offers full, weekly, part-time and occasional boarding from age 11. There are many activities available to boarders throughout the week, as well as on weekends. There are inter-school sports fixtures for the teams each week. Students can go to local towns or retail parks on a Saturday afternoon. On Sunday, all students attend Church for Mass in the morning, followed every week by an organised trip supervised by members of the boarding staff. Trips to theme parks and to cities such as London, Oxford and Cambridge are always popular.
Extracurricular & personal development
The Extra-Curricular Programme, revolving around six categories – Chaplaincy, Sport, Music, Drama, Combined Cadet Force and The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. All pupils are encouraged to take part in sport at Ratcliffe College. Apart from traditional team sports, there are also a wide variety of other activities available during extra-curricular clubs, games lessons and P.E lessons, including fencing, equestrian, cross-country, basketball, squash and Tae Kwon Do. They recently invested over £1 million into new and improved sporting facilities and have added a second all-weather sports pitch, a four lane synthetic running track and additional netball and tennis courts.