Stimulating teaching across a broad curriculum encourages curiosity, questioning and investigation and a zest for intellectual exploration and discovery. Girls value the opportunity for discussion and research, in and outside lessons, and at all stages they are helped to be actively engaged in their learning and able to move easily between learning with others and learning independently.

Throughout the senior school years to the completion of GCSE studies, the core subjects of English, mathematics and the sciences are included within each girl’s individual programme. French, Spanish and Latin are offered to everyone and are popular choices at GCSE, AS and A-Level, as are art and design, drama and music, subjects which are components of the main curriculum and also prominent in the extra-curricular programme.

Religious education, sport, ICT, history, geography and home economics are further components of the main curriculum and available also within the GCSE, AS and A-Level programme. Thus girls study 16 or so subjects in the first years of senior school before coming to focus on 10 or so GCSE subjects and then four or five AS/ A-Level subjects, these choices drawn from 20+ GCSE options and 20+ AS/A-Level options.

Beyond the main curriculum, at lunchtimes, in the evenings, at weekends and during the holidays, girls are able to develop talents and enthusiasms in individual and team sports, music, drama, art, design and ceramics, film-making, school journalism, debating and public speaking, various subject-based societies and the diverse activities of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.

Some clubs, for example the juggling club are of recent origin, others are well established, and there is always scope not just to support a club or society but to found a new one.

Of particular value is the scope to participate across the performance spectrum, from modest beginnings to excellence, so that as one girl takes her first lesson in Japanese another is addressing in French a Strasbourg conference of international students, as one begins to learn the harp another is playing violin in her first concert with the National Youth Orchestra, as one tentatively sails for the first time with the sailing club at Farmoor, another is competing in the 420 Optimist world sailing championships.

Without personal and emotional stability, talent and achievement are unrooted and fragile.

Stability and balance come from self knowledge and an understanding of self in relation to the surrounding world.

Strong pastoral care thus plays a central part in personal development. Rye’s community life enables the school to provide an education concerned with the development of the whole person.

Pupils are helped to understand their strengths and weaknesses and the reasons for their successes and failures: they are encouraged to accept challenges and learn initiative and independence; they have many opportunities to contribute to decisions that affect the school, thereby learning how to play an active part in the school community and in future communities to which they will belong.