Meet Rob Hastings, Head of Sixth Form and Boarding at Ipswich High School.
Describe IHS in a few sentences.
Ipswich High School, a vibrant day and boarding school for boys and girls aged 5-18, set in an idyllic 87-acre campus in Woolverstone, Suffolk, UK, on the banks of the River Orwell. With approximately 450 pupils, everyone at Ipswich High School is well known and nobody is left out. We have small classes of hard-working pupils and inspirational teachers who help to instil a love of learning; the results of which are exceptional academic outcomes year-on-year.
We are just as ambitious outside of the classroom and pride ourselves on the huge breadth of our co-curricular programme as well as offering a home-from-home boarding environment in our stunning newly developed boarding house.
Why should international students consider studying at IHS?
Our 87-acre campus provides a stunning backdrop for our pupils’ education, in the heart of the English Suffolk countryside. The school’s rural setting is just a few miles from the vibrant waterfront town of Ipswich and just over an hour away from London and Cambridge by train. The school’s transport connections make it easy for our boarding pupils to enjoy their free time at weekends and during holidays.
Our Boarding House has been completely renovated and restored to the highest standards. A home away from home, there is a range of rooms including twins, singles and ensuites available with live-in Houseparents on hand to provide outstanding pastoral care to every individual who lives there and who organise exciting weekend activities, events and opportunities for boarding pupils.
Our spacious school campus has superb facilities, including a professional theatre, ICT suites, a 25m indoor swimming pool, Sixth Form suite, six specialist science laboratories, dedicated music rooms and floodlit AstroTurf pitches. Our facilities are being constantly upgraded and improved, with some exciting new additions to our campus planned in the coming years.
We are one of the UK’s leading independent schools and boast incredible examination results, alongside an unmatched Enrichment Programme and superb pastoral care. In 2020, our school achieved A Levels where almost half of all grades (48%) awarded were A or A*. Ipswich High School are also one of only a small number of further education providers who proactively encourage students to study an Extended Project Qualification (EPQ). Over 62% of the EPQ grades awarded were levels 9-7, with a 100% pass rate. In 2020, our GCSEs our results were equally impressive, nearly 40% of our pupils achieved grades of 9-8 and 68 grades awarded at our school were the converted top grade, level 9.
Our pupils continue to great things once they complete their education at Ipswich High School. In 2020, 96% of our pupils gained entry to their first choice
Past pupils have gone on to study at Oxford and Cambridge Universities, Imperial College London, UCL, Bristol, Durham and Warwick universities, to name but a few.
What role do education agents play in your international student recruitment strategy?
Education agents play an important role in Ipswich High School’s international recruitment strategy. Having agents covering a range of countries is very important to us, to ensure a diverse mix of international boarders alongside our UK based students.
We also want to build relationships with agents leading to long-term and productive outcomes. As we are relatively new to the International Boarding market, the experience and knowledge agents have in their local market is very important to us, to ensure we are having exactly the right students apply to us.
What do you look for in new education agent partners?
In our agent partners we are looking for an in-depth, detailed knowledge of their local market, coupled with a strong understanding of our school. We want to ensure the best information is being provided to potential students. We want to build strong relationships with our agents so excellent communication is a must and contact with the same person is desirable.
How do you work with your education agent partners?
Ideally our agents will visit the school, so they can fully understand our outstanding offering, provision and location and will then sign a standard 3-year contract.
The agents organise the completion of the entrance tests in both Maths and English. If the potential student reaches the required standard, the agent passes all relevant information to Ipswich High School, to then have a formal interview with the Head of Boarding.
We are working to ensure all our agents have a clear number of students we require for each entry point and forthcoming academic years to enable them to plan long-term, as well as find us exactly the right students.
Become an education agent for Ipswich High School
We are looking forward to meeting and working with new education agents.
Click the button below to submit your expression of interest today.
