I know that choosing a school is a verydemanding and time-consuming task, butwhen that choice turns out well it can shapea child’s future to a remarkable degree.

When I look around me I am delighted thatso many children who have been given theopportunity of an Aldenham education arebeing shaped into well rounded citizens andthey, and their parents, speak so warmly ofthe School.

I hope that you will want to pay us a visitand find out more about the School in orderto make the right choice for your daughteror son.

I look forward to meeting you.

James Fowler – Headmaster

Welcome

Founded by Master Brewer Richard Platt, the connection ofthe School with the Worshipful Company of Brewers iscommemorated each year by the presentation ‘Beer Money’to all pupils in Year 9.

Achieving and Caring

Only one of the runners can come first, soit's good to remember that schools are notracetracks: competition is not with otherstudents but with inferior versions ofoneself. Here we remember thatachievement is an individual matter: for onestudent, it may be to enter an Oxbridgecollege; for another, it may be a sporting orcultural goal; for yet another it may simplyinvolve growing up into a well-balancedindividual. Dedicated teaching is at theheart of this endeavour: as we help ourstudents to focus on their own plans, ourteachers focus on our students.

And we don't just aim at the highestacademic standards. We try to cater forthose who sometimes fail, as well as thosewho habitually succeed. Our system ofpastoral care is therefore professional aswell as personal and, when they need to talkto someone, our students can approach anindividual tutor, a housemaster or mistress,a chaplain, a counsellor, a nurse. If theyprefer, they can go to an older student,trained in peer-group counselling.

“Are you a good school, or a friendly school?”asked the inspector.“Both!” said the child, without hesitation.

The extensive playing fields and Artificial Turf Pitchaccommodate 12 football teams, 10 hockey teams and 8cricket teams, from the Under 12s to the 1st XI.

Music scholarships make use of the fine three manual pipe organ inthe School Chapel.

Small is beautiful, or so they say. But can asmall school offer its students the sameopportunities as those available in a largerestablishment?

It is perfectly true that we don't offer A-levels in sociology or law, although there areover twenty interesting A-Level courses tochoose from. Our major team sports ofcricket, football, hockey and netball aretaken very seriously, but we also delight tosee our pupils succeed at fives, golf, orsailing.

Therefore we still offer our young men andwomen a full and wide-ranging programmeof studies and activities which ensure muchof the diversity of a bigger school whileallowing us to maintain that emphasis onindividual care and attention which smallerschools properly regard as their speciality.

It is this combination which many parentsfind reassuring. At Aldenham, they knowthat their sons and daughters will besampling many intellectual, cultural andsporting experiences, mixing with fellow-students from a variety of internationalbackgrounds.

But they will never be lost in the crowd.Here it is still possible for every name to beknown, and for every voice to be heard.

Small and Diverse

Modern facilities abound with the most recent additions being anew classroom block, theatre and Sixth Form Centre.

Sailing has long been a traditional activity at Aldenham; in the 1940s pupils corresponded withsailors on the Glenartney, a merchant ship which was adopted by the School. The School enjoyslinks with its affiliation to HMS Albion and pupils regularly go to sea with the ship.

Individual and Community

In the age of the computer and the facelessbureaucrat it's good to know that some stillcelebrate the characteristics of an individualhuman being. This is important to us atAldenham: whether a student is flamboyantor reserved, a deep thinker or a ready wit,we do more than merely accommodatethem. We seek to provide a structure inwhich all of our students can be educated asindividuals, not as one of the herd.

The House is a primary focus in all of this.This is where a student lives and works whennot in the classroom or on the sports field. A Housemaster or Housemistress overseesthe progress of about seventy students,each of whom is assigned a personal tutorwho looks after the pupils in one year group.It is in the House that pivotal friendships areformed; in the House where an individual’scharacteristics can be known andappreciated by pupils and teachers alike.

But we are also mindful of the need to beformed into a strong community. We falland rise together: together we establish thecode by which we live, and together wecontribute to the community whichsupports us as individuals.

Old Aldenhamian, Field Marshal the Right Hon the Lord Vincent of ColeshillGBE KCB, DSO was the last ever Field Marshal appointed in the BritishArmy. He is a former Chairman of the Military Committee of NATO and aformer Chairman of Imperial College.

Approximately 30% of the pupils board in the fiveboarding houses.

“But it’s not fair!” pleads the child. “I did mybest.”

And what does the teacher reply? Does heagree, praising the child and offering furthersupport in a difficult enterprise? Or does shechallenge the assertion, insisting thatthey're capable of more?

It's true that an internet search-engine cando many of a teacher’s jobs but, in thisparticular task of discernment, a well-trained professional is invaluable. On anoverseas trip, it's the highly-skilled teacherwho can get his weary charges to the top ofthe mountain, across the baking sand, orsafely to the bottom of the terrifying slope.It’s the inspiring teacher who can get fasterquavers or more accurate bowling out of adiffident adolescent, and the wise teacherwho can persuade her 21st century pupils toremove from their ears the deep throb of thelatest sounds and to listen instead to thestory of Elizabethan Stratford, war-ravagedYpres or ancient Mycenae.

This is our aim: to support those who havegiven of their best and to challenge thosewho have more to give.

Most of all, we seek the wisdom to know thedifference.

Supportive and Challenging

The Sports Centre accommodates 9 badminton courts and 5cricket nets, in addition to a viewing gallery, martial artsroom/dance studio and fitness suite. The newly laid artificialsurface accommodates two netball courts and 3 tennis courts.

Dynamic and Deep-Rooted

Living in a fast-moving and perplexingcentury, it’s easy to feel unsteady, swayingon shifting sands. “What are the roots thatclutch?” asks the poet Eliot. We askourselves the same question.

We can’t just bury our heads and pretend it'snot happening: we must face the futureboldly. So we train our students to movewith the times, to navigate the theoreticalrapids and practical deep waters of a newage. We help them learn to live in atechnological universe, sifting fact fromfiction and truth from lies.

Yet moving with the times doesn’t meanslavishly following the latest fads orabandoning the values we have come tocherish. It was as a Christian school that ourfounder conceived of Aldenham, and likehim we continue to search not only forlearning, but for wisdom and virtue. Unlikehim, we are able to rejoice in a far richerdiversity of culture and religious tradition,and to form lasting friendships built onrespect for the dignity of difference.

We would not slow the world down. Weenjoy the challenges of our day. The rootsthat clutch are those that grow with agilityas well as stability. Here we aim at both. An annual Eros charity run takes place on the last day of the

School year from the Piccadilly Eros to the Aldenham Eros, bothsculpted by Alfred Gilbert (OA). Records were set in 1986 of 1hr31’ 31” for the fastest pupil (Edwin Latter) and in 2013 of 1hr 28’39” for the fastest adult, which is held by a former member ofstaff Mr Paul Cheetham.

For more than 40 years, continuous observation of local weatherconditions were recorded daily at the Aldenham Observation Stationand sent to the Met Office.

"Boarding School" remains for some aphrase full of mystery, reminiscent ofunloved buildings and unfriendly staff.Here, we like to think that times havechanged, and the comments of our boarderspersuade us that this is so. They regardboarding as an opportunity to spend moretime with their friends, to live a little moreindependently, to use more profitably thehours they might otherwise spend intravelling between home and school.

There is far more of a family atmospherethan one might remember or imagine. The Housemistress or Housemaster,together with their own family, ensure thatlife for the boarder retains all the benefits ofliving on a modern, fully-equipped site,without losing too many of those homecomforts on which we all rely.

For some, of course, full boarding is not theright choice, and their time at Aldenhamwill be spent principally as day-students.The key is flexibility, and the school is ableto provide the best combination of care for astudent at any particular stage of theirschool life.

In any event, be assured that whether a daypupil or a boarder each student is a keymember of the Aldenham family and is ableto succeed within it.

Boarding and Day

James Fowler is the 32nd Headmaster since the School wasfounded in 1597.

Hand Fives Tournament

The Challenge Shield Awarded to the winner of the 1,500m

Tennis House Doubles CompetitionColts Cricket Festival Trophy

Drama Cup –Awarded to the bestactor/actress in a senior play

House Football Cup Inter House Hockey Trophy

Some of Aldenham’s Cups and Trophies

The House Unison CupThis competition involves every student in every Senior House

The Chess Cup

Aldenham School House ShieldAwarded to the overall

Inter House Competition winners Inter House Football League Cup

Debating Cup

Beck Music Competition CupThe School Captain’s Cup

Aldenham SchoolElstreeHertfordshireWD6 3AJ

Telephone+44 (0)1923 858122

Facsimile+44 (0)1923 854410

Emailenquiries@aldenham.com

Websitewww.aldenham.com