Headmaster

Education for life

Caterham provides an education for life. We focus on developing the whole person, aiming to ensure that each pupil leaves here ready for the challenges of life at university and beyond.

We believe that truly excellent education is about more than academic achievement alone: it is also about developing a passion for learning, capacity for independent thinking, moral values, self-confidence without arrogance, and genuine interests that extend beyond the confines of the classroom. We believe that the virtues of tolerance, understanding, respect and courtesy really matter. We strive to ensure that Caterham pupils have an understanding of their place in society – locally and globally - and seek to make a positive impact upon it.

The School is served well by staff who share this vision. Their professional expertise helps to ensure high levels of academic achievement that consistently place us among the top independent co-educational schools in the South East and result in the vast majority of our leavers each year winning a place at their first-choice university. Their commitment also ensures that pupils have access to the highest possible standards of pastoral care and a wide-ranging selection of co-curricular activities.

Around the campus you will see evidence of our commitment to providing the best possible facilities for present and future generations of pupils. In the past few years we have built a modern Sports Centre and all-weather pitch, refurbished the boarding accommodation and built an assembly hall & theatre. We constantly update our ICT capability so that it is probably one of the finest in UK schools and we have over 620 networked computers. In 2006 the thirteen new science labs and new refectory were completed and we improved the facilities for our very successful Art & Design Department. In 2008 we built a new North Wing to provide improved facilities for our 6th Form students and a new location for the Health Centre.

Set in 80 acres in the beautiful wooded Harestone Valley, it is hard to believe that we are just 5 minutes from the M25, 20 minutes from Gatwick and on the edge of London.

The School provides accommodation for one hundred and sixty five boarders in two houses. Our day pupils benefit from the wide range of activities of a boarding school, whilst our boarders benefit from daily contact with the local community. This broad social and cultural mix ensures that the school has a national and global outlook that stretches well beyond the confines of local experience.

We had a standard inspection by the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) in 2010 and the results were most pleasing. I am naturally delighted that the school received such a positive report. Please follow this link if you would like to read the report in full.

Visitors to Caterham often remark upon the purposeful and friendly atmosphere here - we value that highly and hope that you will too. The only way to find out more is to visit us – you will be made welcome.

Julian Thomas - Headmaster