Since the formation of Sherborne Schools Group (SSG) last year, we have been developing a strategy for both the Group and each individual school. Our shared vision is to be recognised as the UK’s leading group of independent schools, known for a character-led approach that blends academic excellence, personal growth, wellbeing, and 21st-century skills.
To bring this vision to life, we have drafted a Strategic Framework built around five Key Pillars.
Strategic Framework 2025-2035
Our aim is to deliver a forward-thinking, Transformative Education that respects tradition while boldly embracing the future. Grounded in excellence, driven by character, and powered by innovation, we prepare every pupil to be not just successful, but significant - leaders, creators, and changemakers in a fast-evolving, globalised world.
Our strategic priorities deliver The Sherborne Difference on the ground, translating the Group vision into daily learning experiences, character development, and innovation, equipping pupils to solve complex challenges and make responsible, measurable contributions to society.
Key Pillars:
- Character & Leadership
- Academics & Futures
- Innovation & Entrepreneurship
- Partnership & Community
- Sustainability & Humanity
1. Character & Leadership
We will cultivate resilient, ethical, and socially aware leaders, embedding character and wellbeing across all aspects of school life.
- Leverage the full-boarding experience as a platform for pastoral care, resilience, empathy, leadership, and service.
- Ensure pastoral systems promote whole-pupil wellbeing, emotional literacy, and a strong sense of belonging.
- Expand tutor and mentoring programmes to support long-term personal development, self-awareness, and ethical decision-making, fully aligned with the SSG Transformative Education Framework.
- Embed character and wellbeing education across academic, co-curricular, enrichment, and pastoral provision, linking actions to ethical leadership and meaningful real-world contributions.
- Leverage our Separate Yet Together partnership to broaden pupils’ social, emotional, and interpersonal learning while retaining the strengths of single-sex education.
- Integrate leadership opportunities across academic, co-curricular, and boarding life, scaffolding initiative, accountability, and reflective practice from Junior to Senior years.
- Encourage pupil-led projects, mentoring roles, service initiatives, and philanthropy that foster real-world leadership and socially responsible outcomes.
2. Academics & Futures
We will deliver personalised, high-performance learning experiences that equip pupils with the knowledge, skills, and mindset to thrive in a complex, rapidly changing world.
- Provide individualised academic pathways with tutoring, mentoring, and coaching to enable every pupil to reach their potential.
- Maintain academic rigour while evolving an interdisciplinary, inclusive, and applied curriculum, integrating AI, digital fluency, and problem-solving for global challenges.
- Leverage innovative teaching technologies and purpose-designed learning environments to enhance engagement, collaboration, and independent study.
- Build strategic partnerships with universities, research institutions, and external experts to stretch pupils and enrich learning.
- Integrate career readiness through workshops, mentoring, placement pathways, and “Career Connect” fairs.
- Facilitate interdisciplinary innovation projects, internships, and employer-led challenges that connect learning to practical applications.
- Use digital platforms to track opportunities, progress, and reflective learning, preparing pupils to navigate the future of work and society.
3. Innovation & Entrepreneurship
We will embed creativity, entrepreneurship, and future-ready skills across all years as a core element of a SSG Transformative Education.
- Deliver the “Future-Ready Diploma” and “Start-Up Studio,” integrating entrepreneurship, AI, financial literacy, sustainability, and applied research throughout the school, with scaffolded learning from Junior to Senior years.
- Incubate student ventures within the curriculum and host innovation challenges, for practical entrepreneurship experience.
- Partner with leading entrepreneurs and industry experts to co-design a market-leading entrepreneurship programme that complements the curriculum, equipping all pupils with the skills, mindset, and confidence to innovate and lead in the 21st century.
- Embed technology and digital fluency across subjects, supported by staff training, student-led tech challenges, and interdisciplinary problem-solving.
- Deliver pre-graduate pathways, micro-apprenticeships, sector traineeships, certification courses, and workplace shadowing.
- Launch the Centre for Innovation & Future Learning as a hub for creativity, entrepreneurship, and global problem-solving.
4. Partnership & Community
We will cultivate dynamic local, national, and international networks that empower pupils to co-create transformative projects with tangible impact.
- Provide meaningful leadership and service roles within our local and global communities.
- Leverage the Sherborne Schools Worldwide network to foster shared learning, innovation, and professional development for pupils and staff.
- Facilitate virtual collaborations, cross-cultural exchanges, and international apprenticeships.
- Collaborate with universities, businesses, and alumni networks to offer mentorship, authentic experiences, and global learning opportunities.
- Track the outcomes of partnerships and service initiatives through measurable impact, ensuring every collaboration enriches learning, innovation, and community contribution.
- Strengthen Sherborne’s Separate Yet Together model as part of our shared identity, blending the individuality of each school with the advantages of collaboration.
- Engage wider networks through Friends of Sherborne, alumni, and SSG-wide events, strengthening belonging, identity, and influence.
- Promote a culture rooted in Christian values, service, and shared purpose, empowering pupils as co-creators of initiatives.
5. Sustainability & Humanity
We will equip pupils to become ethical, environmentally conscious, and globally responsible leaders.
- Integrate sustainability, ethics, and global citizenship into academic, co-curricular, and enrichment programmes, linking learning to real-world challenges.
- Support pupil-led projects such as rewilding, regenerative campus initiatives, and community service that produce measurable social and environmental outcomes.
- Promote research, social action, and environmental leadership across disciplines, connecting to innovation, entrepreneurship, and the Future-Ready Curriculum.
- Align school-level sustainability initiatives with Group environmental goals, creating tangible outcomes and scalable impact.
- Encourage interdisciplinary learning that connects environmental, social, and economic dimensions for ethical, evidence-based decision-making.
- Engage staff and governors as active partners in sustainability, ensuring initiatives are embedded across school culture and strategy.
Through The Sherborne Difference, we will cultivate ethical, innovative, and globally-minded leaders prepared to navigate and shape the challenges of the 21st century.