Nigel Helliwell
Headmaster
We believe every child is uniquely gifted. The size and ethos of our school enables us to first discover a child’s talents and then make the most of them. It is an exciting journey for the children and hugely rewarding for us to see them develop into happy and rounded young adults.
In 2020, 90% of Year 8 pupils secured places at their first choice senior school; and 30 scholarships were awarded in the process. Over the past five years, an average of 92% of leavers have moved to their first choice senior school, with an average of 30 scholarships awarded annually. Pupils move on to a wide range of senior schools: approximately half move to The Leys with the others moving to The Perse Upper, King's Ely, St Mary's, Uppingham, Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Framlingham College, Haileybury, Gresham's, Oakham, Bedford, Culford and high performing state maintained schools in Cambridge.
In 2015 we became the first UK Prep school to introduce Engineering as a core curriculum subject for children from age 7. The government has designated St Faith’s as a lead school for Computing. Thanks to our Computing curriculum, pupils leave St Faith's highly skilled in a number of sophisticated programming languages. Spanish is our first foreign language (other languages taught include Latin and French as well as Mandarin, Arabic and German in Year 8). Sustainability is a key theme across the school. We continually adapt to ensure that our curriculum is at the leading edge of education and prepares our pupils for the future.
Over 20 music ensembles rehearse each week; drama productions are organised for all children in every year group; every child learns almost 20 sports – all taught by specialists; all children play competitive sport for their House and School teams; in 2018/19 nine teams and eleven individuals were crowned National Champions in Hockey, Gymnastics, Athletics and Trampolining. Over 80 extra-curricular clubs per week are on offer. All children enjoy regular day trips to places of interest in Cambridge, London and other areas of the UK. We also offer a number of residential trips including Rome and Pompeii (Classics), Salamanca (languages), Ardèche (outdoor activity holiday), Austria (skiing) and South Africa (to visit our partnership township school).
Our reputation and location enables us to attract the very best teachers. Our teaching staff include IAPS national lead teachers, regional and national sportspeople and highly skilled individuals recruited from industry. We encourage our staff to be innovative, dynamic and ambitious and to push the boundaries of teaching convention to achieve the very best from our pupils.
Nine beautiful acres on-site and a further 20 acres of sports fields just two minutes’ walk away. St Faith’s has some of the best facilities of any school in the UK. Our children have easy access to the City’s many museums, art galleries and historical buildings. Having such a spacious site so close to the city centre really is the best of both worlds.
St Faith’s is well-known for its warm and family-friendly atmosphere. Regular social events, organised by our Parents Association, ranging from Fireworks displays to Christmas Fairs and a Quiz Night to the Summer Ball, are very well attended. After-school care, until 18:00 (17:30 for Pre Prep) can be booked on-line on the day. Over 200 parents and children have breakfast at school from 07:20. Bus services run on a number of routes and park and ride services operate from Babraham, Trumpington, Milton and Newmarket sites each morning. Morning drop-off service (staffed) for Pre Prep children. Families are encouraged to attend sporting, musical and dramatic events.
We truly believe in the excellent all-round education we offer, but don't just take our word for it, take a look at what other's have to say about us.
2 days ago ·
