News

Academic

Week five at Whitgift Summer School exemplified another masterclass in academic distinction as our international learners and an outstanding teaching faculty seamlessly sustained our exceptional momentum. Following rigorous morning sessions centred on advanced linguistic progression, our afternoon task-based initiatives ventured into intellectually stimulating and highly participatory territories. Our upper school students orchestrated sophisticated infomercials, precisely targeting advanced oral proficiency by adding complex characters, scripts, and dramatic elements to their presentations, while the lower school cohorts transformed into professional journalists to launch the Whitgift Newspaper. As Director of Studies, witnessing these global pupils transition so assuredly into captivating media presenters and methodical investigative reporters served as the definitive highlight of an exceptionally impactful week.
 

Activities

What a fantastic Week 5 across the activities team! We kicked off by welcoming a fresh group of excited new arrivals, who settled into campus life in no time with plenty of help from our returning "stayers." Seeing a mix of brand-new faces alongside students who've been with us for weeks brought great energy to campus right from day one.

Our specialist Academies had a brilliant week across Golf, Street Dance, Design & Technology, and Football. Our Street Dancers treated the whole school to a fantastic live performance at graduation, while our Golfers headed off-site to test their skills at Croham Hurst Golf Club, playing with real confidence and composure. With another week of blue skies, our Multi-Activity sessions were just as lively—covering badminton, gym fitness, and creative crafts. The highlight had to be our art group, who spent a sunny afternoon sketching the flamingos in the Water Gardens under the shade of the willow trees.

The evening events brought plenty of laughs and friendly rivalry. Students turned entrepreneurs in a space-themed challenge, designing futuristic space suits and pitching them to "investors" for house points. We also ran a high-energy dodgeball tournament and brought back the Whitgift Carnival for Round 2, complete with mini-games, sweet tokens, and the ever-popular Gladiator inflatable! Off campus, we braved a spooky trip to the London Dungeons before taking a weekend trip to Cambridge, where we toured King’s College and spent a peaceful afternoon punting down the River Cam.

For everyone tracking the Krispy Kreme Cup, Week 5 brought a huge milestone: House Orwell claimed their very first victory of the summer! Austen took a close second, with Dickens rounding out the podium in third.
We’ve had an absolute blast this week, and we’re ready to bring maximum energy into our sixth and final week of Whitgift Summer School 2026!
 

Welfare

Week 5 was another formidable one in Founder's House. It started off after a long day of departures and arrivals, leading to a community full of old faces, new faces, old new faces, new old faces and any variations thereupon.

Our students were extremely lucky to enjoy a especially fun week with no less than three trips that took them to such wonderful places as Cambridge and, most excitingly for them, shopping!!!

While on the House, the whole of this international community has engaged with activities, quality House time, forged new friendships and grown both as linguists and as people. We are happy to support them, and look forward to Week 6 delivering an even greater time for them!