Our Vision
Our core aim is to keep Horris Hill a small, selective, academically rigorous and nurturing family school coupled with a holistic learning environment. We will continue to prepare children for the next stage in their education and to deliver children into the most academically ambitious schools in the world. Horris Hill’s unrivalled culture, which creates a truly rounded education, will remain and the fundamentals of good British values and manners will be reinforced.
We will add to the extra-curricular, creative and sporting programmes; we will enhance the school’s facilities and its tech/STEM provision. We are committed to providing better communication and are focussed on being a solution for busy parents and families. We will also build up a diverse and fun social events calendar for both pupils and parents alike.
Our staffing team are critical to the school’s continued success and we are delighted to have made some excellent recent appointments. We have hired an experienced bursar who will join the school in September and we are delighted to share news of the recent acceptance of our new Headmaster, Rob Stewart. He has an outstanding track record including being an Eton Housemaster as well as the Head of a leading Prep School. In addition to the new Bursar and Headmaster, we have also hired a new marketing manager, a new operations manager, a new events manager and a new accountant amongst others.
In terms of expansion, we aim to open a new 50-week nursery this year. This will provide our parents who have younger children the ability to access our education and care for 2 year olds and upwards. The Lower School will welcome girls from September. These girls will gradually and naturally move through the school years over time. This approach ensures that the Upper School will not have girls for several years and therefore the Upper School provision will remain largely unchanged. The previous Board and Forfar have, over several years, carefully and deliberately given consideration to the question of girls entering the Lower School and we expect there to be a slow and steady transition with smaller numbers likely in nursery and reception over the coming years. We will introduce an assessment between the Lower School and the Upper School to ensure that there is a clear transition point.
Last year, we developed the Sports Hall in to a first-class facility, with a specialist floor (to enable professional cricket practice) imported from Germany, along with new nets, a viewing space, cricket and tennis ball machines. The science laboratories have been stripped back and refurbished with the latest equipment and superfast Wifi has been installed across the site. Chrome books are available to every child, staff have laptops and there are the latest touch screens in classrooms and iPads in Lower School.
Forfar is very proud to be the first and only all outstanding/excellent rated schools group in the UK. This has stemmed from hard work, a focus on the detail and making sure that we have a clear vision and roadmap for each of our schools. We are also the first schools group in the world to commit to being net carbon zero in five years – and detailed work is already underway at Horris Hill to start this important journey.