Oswestry School to open co-educational Sixth Form boarding house

Oswestry School will open the doors this September to its very first co-educational Sixth Form boarding house which was designed with input from the boarders themselves.

The half a million-pound refurbishment of Holbache House will transform the building into a comfortable home from home for senior boarders at the school, with en suite bathrooms and communal living areas designed with input from the students who will benefit from it.

A record school roll of 515 pupils this academic year at Oswestry has been matched by significant investment in the school’s facilities and campus both at the senior school site on Upper Brook Street and in the Prep School at Bellan House. This has included recent transformational refurbishments of the Senior School Library which opened in January 2023, and the brand new Sigi Faith Sixth Form Centre which opened in September 2023.

Headmaster Peter Middleton said: “Oswestry School has a strong reputation for innovation and a commitment to providing the best possible facilities for our students. Our new co-educational boarding house will provide our Sixth Form students with a unique - and uniquely valuable- stepping stone experience as they prepare for life beyond school, providing a welcoming environment for community, camaraderie and collaboration.

“As our school motto puts it, ‘We Learn Not for School but for Life’; our new co-ed boarding house will provide our students with further life-ready experiences, and we are all greatly looking forward to the opening of the new facility.”

Oswestry School is a non-selective co-educational school for children aged between 4-18.  Approximately one third of its senior school are boarders, with a day pupil population coming from the local area and from further afield, with bus routes travelling as far afield as Shrewsbury, Chester and North Wales.

Peter added: “This new co-edventure is very much in keeping with the pioneering, enterprising spirit of our founder David Holbache whose vision for transformative education paved the way for seven centuries of innovation, educational evolution, and a courage to do things differently.”

The new Holbache House will be in the capable hands of house parents Steve and Nicola Schofield.