WHAT? WHERE?

d’Overbroeck’s in Oxford is a progressive, co-ed independent school for approximately 750 kids, set across three sites: a day school for local 11-16 year olds, a boarding school for 13-16 year old international students (who come from around 45 countries), and a day and boarding Sixth Form with an almost 50:50 split of British and international students. The only school I’ve ever reviewed whose name translated from the Dutch means ‘over-trousers’ (am I the only person to find this amusing?).

The school is housed in buildings just north of the city centre with a third site in a stunning Sixth Form building in chichi Summertown, a couple of miles from the city centre. It’s absolutely state-of-the-art – part Victorian villa, part 21st century glass and concrete, with a stunning concrete spiral staircase and bright, pristine spaces. Today, it’s home to just over 450 Sixth Form students.

The old Sixth Form building (now used for pre-sixth form overseas students) was one of those typical red brick mansions on the Banbury Road, higgledly-piggledly and no longer big enough to house a Sixth Form that has expanded from a mere handful in 1977 to the 431 Sixth Form pupils it has today. The Sixth Form population is a balanced mixture of both UK and International students, with around 50% of the intake each year coming from over 40 different countries.

The Years 7-11 building is about 10 minutes away at Leckford Place and is a smaller site with 200 students. There’s been significant investment in the building in the last two years, including an outdoor play area about to be zshushed to the tune of £500k – this one’s looking a bit tired but not for much longer.

FACILITIES

This is not a school where I will regale you with onsite swimming pools, multiple sports fields and music auditoriums! Facilities are, in fact, pretty good, using many of the Oxford University grounds, it’s just that they’re off campus (ergo, what minibuses are made for). As they say at the school, ‘restriction breeds invention’.

So swimming takes place at Oxford University pool; hockey, rugby, cricket and athletics are held at University of Oxford sports grounds and Oxford City Football Club arena, plus Oxford Brookes University for facilities like their climbing wall; while pilates, dance, martial arts and yoga are either held in the school hall or Summertown’s Ferry Lane sports centre. The Year 7-11 kids have at least 2 double lessons of sport each week with extracurricular sport on Wednesday afternoons.

d’Overbroeck’s does play the gamut of trad sports – rugby, hockey, and netball – but it recognises it’s unlikely to compete massively in this arena (and in fact, doesn’t want to as it’s not keen to promote a ‘cool’ First XV mentality which it feels is at odds with its relaxed, collaborative ethos). Instead, d’Overbroeck’s has started a Tennis Academy in conjunction with the nearby North Oxford Lawn Tennis Club.

On the buildings front, a £2m Arts Centre opened in Summertown in 2022 with tiptop facilities for Fine Art, 3D Art, Photography and Textiles (Art and Textiles are hugely popular A-Level subjects at d’Overbroecks, hence the investment), and just recently the top floor of the building has also been commandeered to extend the d’Overbroeck’s space.

There are now negotiations taking place for a new boarding house closer to the school, as well as the ongoing search for a new, bigger, flashier home for Year 7-11 students – it’s just a question of finding the buildings or land in this excruciatingly expensive part of Oxford.

Drama in particular is highly regarded at d’Overbroeck’s – the Sixth Form building has its own 180 plus seater auditorium for concerts, drama performances and lectures for use by the whole school.

In keeping with smaller schools, the emphasis is on chamber orchestras and choirs, but thanks to the new building work there’s no shortage of music space, with practice rooms, music technology teaching space and a recording studio in the new site.

ACADEMIC RESULTS

Strong. For 2024, 50% of pupils achieved A* or A grades, double the UK average, and 82% of all entries achieved A*-B grades. 100% of students earned A*-B grades in their Extended Project Qualification. For GSCE 47% of grades were 9-7 and nearly a third were 9-8. Over 80% achieved 9-6 in Maths and over three quarters in English Language.

The top university destinations from d’Overbroeck’s (2023) included Warwick, University College London, King’s College London, University of Edinburgh, University of Manchester, University of Bath and Queen Mary University of London. Students have also gone onto leading art, music and drama schools such as the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, RADA and the University of the Arts London, as well as various internationally renowned institutions overseas such as the California Institute of Technology, Harvard University and Yale University. Academic entry requirements for Sixth Form entry are not particularly high – a minimum of an average 6Bs at GCSE – so the A-Level results are pretty incredible.

THE PRINCIPAL

Patrick Horne, joined d’Overbroeck’s in 2022 with a wealth of experience working at a number of outstanding schools including Harrogate Grammar School and the British International School Shanghai and the British International School Abu Dhabi. Thoughtful and smart, he has a quiet charm and you have to respect a guy who offers you a doughnut at 9.30am.

No need to reinvent the wheel here – instead Horne has spent his time so far creating a stronger feeling of what he calls ‘one schoolness’ between the juniors and seniors, creating more centralised teaching (for example, why have three different physics faculties when you can have one?). Service and student voice have also been high on the agenda, as has been leveraging the power of parent company of Nord Anglia – dance teachers from The Juilliard School in New York (The Juilliard!!) have been over to teach the children, and the head of science has spent a week at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to bring back latest teachings. Meanwhile thanks to Horne’s links with his Abu Dhabi school, d’Overbroeck’s has just sent its first children to climb Mt Kilimanjaro.

HEAD OF SCHOOL

Nick Haines has been teaching at d’Overbroeck’s for 14 years, and made it to Head in 2022. It’s rare these days to find teachers who don’t move around every few years but it’s not unusual at d’Overbroeck’s, and that’s because it’s such a freeing environment for teachers – they teach what helps the kids, they can be responsive and their own development is nurtured.

Haines looks boyish and I’m guessing is in his mid thirties, but seems very comfortable in the role and exudes confidence and contentment. He’s cut the number of GSCEs from 10 to 9 (a move I agree entirely with – what’s the point of more?), and interestingly he is not forcing through three sciences and a language as compulsory. The idea at d’Overbroeck’s is to support children in what they’re interested in – though don’t get sweaty, parents are involved in the decision!

The school has benefited from some smart improvements under Haines’s watch including a new study area and next up, a brand new social space underneath.

BOARDING

Boarding provision starts in the Sixth Form, and since 2017 there has been a boarding house located across the road from the new Sixth Form building in Summertown, housing 60 students.

d’Overbroeck’s now offers both a weekly boarding option for students who want to go home at the weekends, as well as the more traditional full-time boarding option. All Lower Sixth and most Upper Sixth students can be offered boarding house places and a new boarding house in 2022 with more boarding coming this year means that the reliance on host families is being phased out.

The original Masons star, retained on the ceiling

QUIRKS

I rather like the fact that the Sixth Form site at d’Overbroeck’s has taken over the Victorian masonic lodge in Summertown. Plenty of humorous opportunity for ‘knock knock knock’ jokes for starters.

And if the ‘norm’ is a school where your child is kept firmly in his or her ‘place’ and spoon-fed what they need to pass exams, d’Overbroeck’s is quirky indeed. The clear emphasis on personal relationships, respect for others, collaboration and kindness seems to really work here and particularly in the Sixth Form feels like an inspiring half-way house between school and university. The emphasis on first names for all teachers will either make you feel very uncomfortable or have you booking up your site visit immediately. No prefects, head boys/girls or dress codes are designed to remove any oneupmanship frictions and possible resentments, allowing the kids to enjoy learning. It’s a very progressive model, but you only have to look at the results to see it’s working.

WHAT ELSE?

Well, there’s no place for the entire school to congregate which is quite unusual and a bit of a shame in some ways – they get around this issue by holding drama productions as whole-school affairs and also inter-House sports days. Year 7-11 classes are small at up to 16 – and several classes I went into are much smaller, almost feeling collegiate and for Sixth Form it’s a maximum of 11 per class. So despite its groovy first name credentials there’s no place to hide for would-be blue-tack flickers.

FEES

Not cheap my friends – on par with the other top local private schools. Tuition fees for September 2023 are £7250 per term for Years 7-11, and for Sixth Formers £9515 per term. Weekly boarding house fees are £5,180 per term and full-time boarding is £7,740 per term, or fees with host families £5,885 per term.

WORD ON THE GROUND

Super-positive. I spoke to several very different kids and they all talked about the quality of teaching, friendliness and lack of friction at the school. Without adults putting up barriers between them and the students, there’s nothing for the kids to actually rebel against.

THE MUDDY VERDICT

Good for: Parents looking for a change for sixth form, a more relaxed, mature educational grounding to get the kids ready for university or life beyond. Children who respond to smaller classes, and a less hierarchical approach to teaching – education is not something inflicted on kids here, it’s an active collaboration with the teachers.

Not for: Anyone who wants to luxuriate in a mile-long country drive up to their child’s school (er, nope, this is Oxford, more like gridlock). Sport is well catered for as a ‘life interest’ rather than a competitive contender – I’ve seen private schools locally with more sport time offered on the curriculum. Years 7-11 have their small outside play area but finding grass means leaving the school premises.

Want to see for yourself? Be my guest! Sixth Form and Years 7-11 Open Day on 16 May 6-8pm. Register here.

d’Overbroeck’s, 333 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 7PL, UK. Tel: 01865 688600.

d’Overbroeck’s, Oxford

You may also like