Tudor Hall is Finalist & Winner of Special Mention in Education Choices Awards 2025

Chloe Abbot, Editor, said, "We are honoured that so many schools applied to the Education Choices Awards 2025. It is humbling and inspiring to see the extent of the work that is taking place. Our judges, including Dr Joseph Spence and Dr Sandie Okoro OBE, have worked tirelessly to select our winners.”

Tudor Hall proud of the numerous ways that student voice is developed and encouraged at the school, from the boarding experience to teaching and learning, through leadership oportunities, pastoral care and the word of mouth and alumnae community that echoes pupil voice across the generations.

Read on for an edited excerpt from our Special Mention-winning entry.

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How does Tudor Hall develop student voice? Let us count the ways...

Boarding

Our horizontal boarding model, in which every boarding house is home to an entire year group, creates a very special environment in which girls can truly ‘find their tribe’ and form strong friendships that last a lifetime. Girls get to know everyone in their year instead of finding themself in a House with just a small group of those the same age. It also means that younger years do not have to compete with older pupils in their house to be heard, and that their needs and challenges cannot be in any way overruled by pupils in year groups that may be viewed as ‘more important’ (the majority of Houses in other senior boarding schools are a mix of all year groups). Tolerance, diversity of opinion, compromise, understanding and inclusion thrive, creating a community where every pupil is truly known. As we put it, every girl has her own story and is empowered to tell it.

Teaching and Learning

Tudor Hall is working towards the prestigious World Class School accreditation based on cognitive and neuroscience research: the High Performance Learning (HPL) framework.

Parents and pupils can read T3: The Tudor Teacher, a termly publication written by the School’s teaching and learning community – the staff and the pupils – which shares the how, why and what learning and the HPL pathway looks like in their classrooms, houses, sports pitches, arts centres and beyond. We don’t just talk about pupils being encouraged to take risks, develop a growth mindset and to aim high - we show our working. The same approaches are evident in our boarding community, known at Tudor as High Performance Living!

Our Sixth Form timetable is not finalised until girls have chosen their desired subjects, meaning that individuals are able to study combinations of A Levels – from the 28 subjects on offer - that may be impossible elsewhere. Their individual choice and preferences matter; their voices are heard.

Leadership and influence

Such is the strength in depth among Tudor girls that it is a long-standing tradition to appoint a new Head Girl team each term (a Head girl and two deputies) to be ambassadors for the School and to lead the prefect team in initiatives and projects, such as peer mentoring. Tudor girls know they have a voice and will be heard, with plentiful opportunities including the Pupil Academic Committee and the School Council.

Pastoral care

As a boarding and day school community of 11-18 year old girls, we originally wanted to assess the wellbeing of our pupils while they were at home during the pandemic. The development of our own Wellbeing Tracker in 2020 - and the ability to respond – prompted a wholesale review of pastoral care and wellbeing across the school and the further development over recent years of specific programmes, training, tools and initiatives for pupils and staff. The Wellbeing Tracker is an excellent example of every individual pupil being given the opportunity to have a voice and, most importantly, to be listened to.

Word of mouth – pupil voice echoes through the generations

An astonishing 25% of our current pupil body have a previous OT link or family association with Tudor – the generational loyalty to the school is based on the exceptional experiences and outcomes of Tudor girls. It is also proof positive that personal recommendation is incredibly powerful for the school; an example of pupil voice that continues to impact the school community for years to come!

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