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Woodcote is a happy school with a positive ethos. We take pride in our diverse cultural community and believe that all children can be encouraged to do their best in a positive, hardworking, learning environment. We value each child as an individual and work hard to foster resilience, adaptability, thoughtfulness, respect, inquiry, co-operation, communication, and morality. We have an experienced and enthusiastic team of staff who are committed to your child achieving the highest standards of education and behavior. We are fortunate to be a well-resourced school set in a wonderfully green setting with plenty of space for the children to play and learn. We aim to encourage children to work to the best of their abilities, not just in the essential basic skills, but in all aspects of their learning. We enrich learning by providing plenty of opportunities for broadening children’s experiences in all areas of the curriculum and through the links made by our international curriculum. As well as encouraging intellectual growth, we will work with you to develop the whole child. Everyone in our school community is looking forward to a happy and productive association with you, your child, and your family. By working together as parents and staff, we will ensure your child has the best possible opportunity to reach their personal best. Woodcote Primary is extremely well resourced, set in a wonderful green setting with educational facilities that offer unique learning opportunities. Woodcote classrooms are bright, attractive, and well equipped with an excellent range of reading books, science and technology equipment, construction toys, and mathematical apparatus. Woodcote teachers have high expectations of children’s learning. A balance of teaching styles is used across all year groups, including whole class, group, and individual work. Teachers differentiate work, based on every child’s ability, to ensure that every child has the opportunity to work to his or her personal best. Where necessary, children are supported by teaching and learning assistants to enhance their learning or assist with learning difficulties. Children who have a particular gift or talent are catered for both within the classroom and the wider school community. Your child deserves the best start in life and our ‘play and learns’ activities ensure exciting, fun-filled educational opportunities linked to the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum. We work hard to ensure your child’s progress and development through a dynamic approach of planning and interaction, aiming to ‘catch’ learning and build understanding as your child plays and interacts with the learning opportunities within Woodies. This is carefully planned and supervised by experienced, friendly, and professionally trained staff. View full school

Woodcote House has been in the Paterson family since 1931, although the school’s history dates back to 1816. We believe the guiding principles upon which we run our school are fundamental to the longevity and popularity of Woodcote. For Woodcote House, being small is one of our strengths. It allows us to operate as one large family, getting on with life and with each other. The school’s motto is ‘Live to Learn and Learn to Live’ and this is something that the whole school puts into practice. We also believe it is important to generate and sustain self-confidence in each individual in our care and to foster an atmosphere of mutual tolerance, respect, and good manners. Our teaching and pastoral staff know the boys as individuals and take a genuine interest in their welfare. The average class size is kept to just 10-12 boys ensuring that boys receive individual attention and class discipline is always maintained. Small classes also give all the boys the chance to contribute to lessons – enabling them to listen and to be listened to. A boarding school that is effectively ‘in loco parents must set clear and appropriate boundaries of behavior. With many years of experience on the staff, we know almost instinctively when boys are happy and therefore achieve. Above all, Woodcote House is a friendly school and we encourage good, clear lines of communication between staff, pupils, and the school and its parents. Every boy is important at Woodcote – indeed every leaver’s photograph is on permanent display. Located on the former London to Portsmouth Road, Woodcote House’s main school building was originally a Coaching Inn, almost certainly called The Pelican. It is believed that Snows Ride, off which the school is sited, was the favorite haunt of the infamous Captain Snow who, possibly in league with the innkeeper of The Pelican, made 18th century commuting extremely hazardous. Following the battle of Waterloo, the building housed a small Gentlemen’s Academy, the purpose of which was to prepare around 20 young men for the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. The school still has some toy muskets used for arms drills. In 1854 a boys’ boarding school was founded. The Paterson family bought the school in 1931 and with the help of a significant bonus from the wartime government for “staying put” during the Blitz, the school was expanded. The school marked its 150th anniversary in 2004. We may never know quite what dastardly deeds took place down in the school’s White Cellar in Captain Snow’s time… it is currently the haunt of the school’s Warhammer Club. View full school

As a fully comprehensive school, we are very much the school of choice for students in Coulsdon, Woodcote, and Purley and we are regularly up to five times oversubscribed. We enjoy the confidence of parents because we are a continually improving school with results way above the national average, and are in the top 10% of schools in England for student progress. Students feel safe and happy at Woodcote and the school is a community resource used by many community organizations. Our Fitness Suite is open to members of the public. We are a non-selective school that both serves the local community and has the faith of the local community, a classic example of the good local school that all parents should have a right to send their children to. We aim to give our students seven years of world-class education and equip them for the wider world of higher education and exciting job opportunities.No one is saying that this is an easy journey, from time to time things go wrong. However, if parents work with us, support what the school stands for, and stay a part of that essential team of school–parent-student, then we will all continue to grow in success. With well over 1200 students, we are a large institution and we have a responsibility for many future lives. A school of this size can’t operate successfully without excellent staff, both teachers and colleagues who support the teaching and learning in school. It has always been our priority to recruit the best people possible, colleagues committed to ensuring that every student, no matter what their ability, achieves the very best they can in years to come. The vision of education at Woodcote includes the key element of 'ability, so therefore the school is extremely focussed on providing a broad and extensive program of learning beyond the school's curriculum hours. All departments offer opportunities for every pupil to access within the school year. The provision is often directed towards an external focus, allowing the pupils to test themselves against their peers or in new and challenging environments. The breadth of our extracurricular offer is a major stimulus to our pupil's achievement and impacts directly onto their love of learning and self-development. View full school