The Lower School (Years 7 & 8)

The Lower School at Badminton is made up of Year 7 and Year 8. Here, we give girls the chance to gain confidence and individuality while preparing them for the rigours of GCSE.

The girls’ wellbeing is of utmost importance and each Year Group is split into several Forms. The Form Tutor is the main point of contact for the girls day-to-day and oversees both her academic and co-curricular engagement and progress, ensuring that every girl reaches her full potential.

We like the sound of the Science Club’s ice-cream experiment with liquid nitrogen – chocolate and bacon flavour, anyone?

Tatler Good Schools Guide 2017

Year 7

Year 7 is a key transition period and we make integration an important theme for all those coming to the Senior School, whether or not they have already been at Badminton.

We spend a full day in September at the Mill on the Brue Outdoor Activity Centre, building friendships and confidence through team activities. In the curriculum, there are opportunities to take up new subjects such as Chinese and Computing.

Co-curricular activities multiply as the girls try anything from engineering gliders as part of the Flying Start Challenge, to playing football and Drama Club. All of these activities contribute to the Badminton Baccalaureate, a tailored award that recognises the diversity and individuality of each girls’ achievements, academic and beyond, throughout the year.

Year 7 also sees our summer trip to Jersey, where we enjoy studying primates and holding East African land snails at the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust (where we live for the week and enjoy being woken up by the howler monkeys) before we go on to learn about the history of the island (making sure to enjoy plenty of ice cream along the way!).

Year 8

Year 8 sees the girls starting to think about their GCSE subject choices.

We encourage them to be curious learners willing to take intellectual risks within a fun learning environment that is free from public examination pressures. Girls now take a little more responsibility for their studies and there are, for the first time, asked to make choices in some subjects as they head into Year 9. They will be asked to choose two languages for study (out of French, Spanish, German, Latin and Chinese) and will also be asked to choose two from Geography, History and Religious Studies. 

A more varied choice of co-curricular activities includes Science Club and the optional popular end of year Water Sports Trip to Dartmoor.

The Badminton Baccalaureate is continued throughout Years 8, 9 and 10 and the Level 1 Silver Badminton Baccalaureate awarded in Year 8 recognises all of the time, commitment and effort the girls put into their academic studies and other enrichment activities.

Download our GCSE Results for the past three years