One of the UK’s leading (and last remaining) all-boys boarding schools, Radley College offers a well-rounded, very British education to a community of bright, sporty and creative boys.

Radley College is a Church of England, boys-only, all-boarding independent school in Oxfordshire, for around 760 students aged 13 to 18 years. This prestigious school has a vast campus covering 800 acres with playing fields, a golf course, a lake and farmland. The school is currently full in every year group until 2025.

There are very few boys-only, independent boarding schools left in the UK. Currently, Radley has no plans to follow the trend and admit girls. It continues to offer a full boarding environment with a seven-day week and a different timetable for the Summer and Winter months (to fit in as many activities as possible).

Radley has a strong Christian ethos (boys attend chapel five days every week) and around 120 boys are members of the school choir. The school welcomes students of different faiths and holds a popular weekly Social Prayers evening when the boys can talk about subjects that are important to them.

The headteacher (known as Warden) John Moule joined Radley in 2014. He was educated at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford where he was a scholar and gained a first class degree in history. He was Head of History at Stowe School from 1998 to 2000 and then a housemaster. He then became Vice Master of Bedford School, then Headmaster, before becoming Warden of Radley.

Radley College was rated Excellent in all areas in its most recent full ISI inspection, which was held in 2019. Inspectors reported on the “strongly competitive culture” here, and how boys take advantage of their boarding experience and study well beyond the end of the school day. They found the boys to be “extremely confident without being arrogant”.

The curriculum

Pupils are setted separately for English, maths, modern languages and science, according to their performance in Common Entrance. All boys study two languages chosen from French, Spanish and German. Radley also teaches critical thinking in the younger years to develop independent research skills, which gives the boys excellent preparation for the years ahead. Each boy is given an iPad, to access technology and to limit the use of their personal mobile phones.

Both GCSEs and IGCSEs are offered in many subjects at Radley for boys in the top sets. There is a core of compulsory subjects – mathematics, English, science and a modern foreign language – and many boys take GCSE maths early. Art, classical civilisation, computer science, drama, design engineering, design electronics, geography, German, Greek, history, Latin, music, Spanish, and theology are offered as options, in blocks.

Every year, 20-plus boys enter the Sixth Form from other school, having taken GCSE-level academic tests in their prospective A Level subjects. Each boy takes three A Levels, but four is permitted if it is in further mathematics. The A Levels on offer are: art, biology, chemistry, classics, design, drama, economics, English, French, geography, geology, German, Greek, history, history of art, mathematics, music, physics, politics, Spanish and theology.

Sixth formers have the opportunity to develop skills beyond the curriculum through the school’s Curriculum Extension Programme (subjects include engineering, international relations, robotics, and music technology), which can be taken alongside the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ). Students are also encouraged to take part in wider academic activities such as science Olympiads, debating competitions, and Greek and Latin reading contests.

Sports and the arts

Radley is extremely sporty offering rugby, hockey, rowing, cricket, football, tennis, golf, racquet sports, swimming, water polo, cross country, sailing and fencing. It also has a Countryside Centre where boys can play polo off-site in the summer and go beagling in the winter.

The Radley College Sports Centre has some excellent facilities including a 25 metre swimming pool with adjoining 3.5 metre diving pit, fitness suite, weights room, sports hall, five squash courts, five racquet courts, a real tennis court and gymnasium. These are complemented by excellent external facilities including three full-size AstroTurf pitches, nine-hole golf course, an eight lane athletics track and a state of the art rowing tank. There are also exercise stations around the campus.

This is also the school for boys who like to perform. The theatre is extremely well equipped with technical equipment and backstage facilities, and there is a black box studio. There are several performances each year including student-led and inter-social productions.

Music is widely celebrated, and there are daily chapel services as well as a wide range of public concerts, informal workshops, competitions and more. Over half the boys take musical instrument lessons and Radley has a music technology facility and a recording studio.

A number of boys go on to study music at university, often as choral or organ scholars. It has several choirs and orchestras, bands and an electric guitar orchestra as well as specialist ensembles, rock bands and more. There are varied performance opportunities for boys of all abilities and ages, not just the best, ranging from small scale informal concerts to performing in the Piano Extravaganza or conducting or playing with a guest orchestra. Recently school ensembles and choirs have toured to six different countries in Europe, they sing Evensong regularly in various cathedrals and it has a professional Ensemble in Residence who give concerts within the College and work with pupils on composition and performance projects.

To support its broad art programme, there are four specialist art teachers with five purpose-built and fully equipped studios, which have facilities for painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, computer graphics and digital photography together with other ICT equipment.

Beyond the classroom

Radley has an extensive list of clubs and societies, and the Combined Cadet Force is extremely strong here. There are plenty of opportunities for boys to get active and step outside of their comfort zone. Radley offers several climbing excursions a year, a relay running along 86 miles of the Ridgeway from Ivinghoe Beacon to Avebury, a 50 kilometre relay, a 24-hour track challenge, wakeboarding, a 100 -mile cycle relay along the Thames Valley, go-karting, the Three-Peaks challenges in Wales, Yorkshire and the National Challenge, and the Duke of Edinburgh award.

Radley’s Countryside Centre, opened in 2006, provides practical experience of animal husbandry. Radley has had a beagle pack since 1940, and has more recently introduced cattle, sheep, pigs, ducks, pheasants and chickens, with rare breeds such as Oxford sandy & black pigs, and Jacob sheep. The boys can also become involved in ferreting, pest control and clay pigeon shooting.

Academic results

A Level results 2022: 49% of grades were A* and 92% were A*-B.

GCSE results 2022: 70% of grades were 8-9.

Boarding

There are 11 boarding houses, known as Socials A-L, at Radley with around 70 boys in each. New boys sleep in cubicles arranged in small dormitories and, after the first year, all boys have their own study bedroom. Each Social has a number of communal spaces for relaxing, playing table tennis and so on – and all boys comes together daily for meals in the great hall.

Campus and facilities

Radley was founded in 1847 and was originally housed in Radley Hall, which is now known as the Mansion. Later in the 18th Century, the estate passed to a family who commissioned Capability Brown to redesign the grounds. Today, the huge campus is home to state-of-the-art academic, boarding, sporting, and co-curricular facilities; with its combination of modern and historical buildings set within landscaped grounds it is a beautiful environment to live and study in.

In any one day, boys dine together in the grand Hall, perform in a modern concert hall seating 240, socialise in the grassed quadrangle, sing Evensong in the Chapel, and practice rowing in a fantastic rowing tank.

Admission and fees

The main entry process begins in Year 5 with the ISEB Common Pre-Test (CPT) and a report from the boy’s current Headteacher. They are then shortlisted on an A or B list and then have to sit the Common Entrance in their last year of prep school, for setting purposes.

Fees are £44,550 per year with a host of extras such as boat club charges and music lessons.

The school offers around 25 fully or partly funded places to talented boys every year.

Good For

Single sex environment
Extremely sporty, outdoorsy school
Music

Not For

Those not wanting a very traditional boys-only school
No IB
Day students

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