The elegant regency town of Cheltenham is conveniently close to Rendcomb College. Our five Cheltenham heritage highlights show why families will love exploring the town, on visits to this leading independent school in the Cotswolds.

Are you already familiar with Cheltenham, nestled on the edge of the beautiful Cotswolds in England? If you have already heard of it, there’s a good chance it’s due to the town’s connection to the noble sport of horse racing. Especially the Gold Cup National Hunt Festival held annually in March, which attracts competitors and fans from around the Globe.

Did you also know that the town – often referred to as the ‘Western Gateway to the Cotswolds' - has a superb antecedence as a seat of learning? Something that sits nicely alongside the fact that it’s the nearest big town to Rendcomb College.

Being so close to Cheltenham provides our students with abundant cultural, sporting and leisure opportunities. However, it also gives visiting families an inviting place to stay, particularly if they enjoy quintessentially English locations and heritage experiences.

To tempt you to linger, here are just five fascinating historical facts about Cheltenham.

Ancient and important

For such a peaceful and pretty market town, Cheltenham has a remarkably long and illustrious history.

The fact it’s surrounded by rich agricultural land made it the ideal place to hold a market. By the 18th century, it was also a fashionable place to stay for health purposes. The town’s official crest features three pigeons, the species of bird believed to have peaked away at local fields exposing salt crystals at a local spring. This discovery led to Cheltenham being classified as an English Spa town and attracted a visit from King George III to treat his ailments.

By 1850, Cheltenham had become the most prominent town in the county of Gloucestershire. Since then, its development has been closely nurtured and protected, to retain its heritage and beauty while adding modern features of interest and value.

The spy centre of the UK

One of the most recent developments in Cheltenham’s history is its connection to the world of espionage.

Post-world war I, it became the location for a secret surveillance centre called the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) Now it’s widely known, and renamed GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters). Due to the shape of this vitally important intelligence building, you will also hear it referred to as ‘The Doughnut’.

 The most complete regency town in England

The golden era of development in Cheltenham was undoubtedly the Regency Era. This has left a wonderful architectural legacy for today’s visitors to our popular boarding school. Admire noble sweeping terraces, the lovely Neptune Fountain and the superb parks for parading in.

Why not follow in the footsteps of the town’s devoted early 19th century visitors by sampling medicinal waters at various Cheltenham sites. Especially the blue-domed Pittville Pump Room by the lakes of Pittville Park; the only source of natural alkaline water in England!

British Polar Explorer, and the Wilson Art Gallery and Museum

As Cheltenham has such a colourful heritage, it also offers a well-curated museum. In fact, ‘The Wilson’ is Gloucestershire’s best art collection and museum.

It’s named after Antarctic explorer Edward A. Wilson and houses a fascinating archive of material on this local man’s contributions to natural history and discovery geography. As well as his artistic endeavours.

The Magic of Alice in Wonderland

Cheltenham is home to famous British people, including Zara Phillips (the Queen's eldest granddaughter) and her husband Mike Tindall.

However, it’s a fictional character that adds family appeal to visiting this lovely town. The stories of Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass are believed to be based on Alice Liddell. She often visited her grandparents at Charlton Kings, which is a suburb of Cheltenham. She became acquainted with Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (author Lewis Carroll) in Oxford, but he visited her family in Cheltenham.

Cheltenham’s appeal for family breaks and visits

Cheltenham is clearly a lovely place to visit. If you time your stay right in 2021, you can join in with a myriad of festivals and events in the spa town, including ones dedicated to literacy, food and drink, jazz and music in general; as well as world-famous horse racing challenges of course.

Rendcomb College maximises on its glorious location to the benefit of its students. We also love hearing about family adventures when visiting the locality. If you need places to stay near Rendcomb College, we are happy to help with recommendations.

Strengthening our commitment

Rendcomb College’s sporting activities are designed to capture the interest and enthusiasm of as many students as possible. They are also an ideal platform to take part in competitions at  boarding school boarding school, for all ages and ability levels.

Involvement in competitive sports can be highly beneficial to children and young people. Especially age-appropriate games and races that match their own particular level of ability and preferred sport.

A young person’s self-worth and confidence grow with each personal or group success. They learn the value of perseverance, good discipline and investing time in training.

Competitive sports at a top boarding school also provides them with a chance to appreciate teamwork and team spirit. With their Rendcomb College peers, they enjoy a friendly rivalry with other independent schools in the south of England.

This, in turn, can lead to acceptance of defeat, or the thrill of competitive achievement. As well as an appreciation of ‘playing by the rules’.

Not that every student at Rendcomb College takes part in competitive sports. Some prefer to aim for personal bests in various physical pursuits while others channel their leisure time into more cerebral pastimes or one of the arts for example.

However, competitive sports at boarding school are a long-standing tradition and can provide wonderful memories for our alumni.

Sports at top boarding schools

As you might expect, the most popular sports in the UK feature in PE lessons and out of classroom activities at Rendcomb College. Our students love slotting into ability appropriate teams and benefiting from the superb coaching we offer.

However, one of the advantages of boarding school is access to coaching in sports that state schools often don’t cover. For example, basketball, clay pigeon shooting, rugby league variant ‘Touch’ and Lacrosse.

A sports genre with a larger number of teams at Rendcomb College is hockey. We have 17 age and gender groupings for general hockey and 10 teams for hockey sevens. All enjoying a packed programme of fixtures throughout the English summer and winter hockey seasons.

Below are some other competitive sports opportunities delivered by our leading UK independent school.

Sports teams and fixtures

Cricket – As you would expect from a boarding school at the heart of the Cotswolds in rural England, cricket figures high on our sports choices.

We currently have 10 cricket teams, to create age and ability appropriate competitions. for both boys and girls of course.

Teams are helped to prepare for and attend fixtures throughout the cricket season, at our home ground and cricket pitches at other regional independent schools.

Rugby – Rendcomb College teams cover the whole spectrum including Rugby Sevens (two teams), Rugby Union (seven teams) and Touch (one team).

Competition between Rendcomb College and rival independent schools in the region is fierce. However, it is also the source of wonderful camaraderie between all players in all teams; as well as colourful anecdotes from former students!

The standard of rugby coaching and officiating at cross-school competitions is high.

Football – There are eight ‘soccer’ teams at Rendcomb College, providing a chance for both boys and girls to compete throughout the football season in the UK.

Football tends to be one of the many sports that often occurs ‘naturally’ in our extensive grounds too, as groups of friends gather for a ‘kick around’ during relaxation time.

Netball – Our four netball team are all provided with chances to take part in competitions with other independent schools. In common with other team sports, the older students enjoy a busy programme of challenging tournaments.

Clay Pigeon Shooting – This is one of the sporting activities only found at boarding school, generally. It's an activity anyone can try during their time with us, just for fun. However, our team take their training and competitions seriously, in pursuit of more items for our trophy cabinets.

Athletics – track and field events, including ever-popular cross-country competitions, are held throughout the year at Rendcomb College. We have a rich tradition for achievement in various athletic endeavours. It’s the perfect way for students to set goals for both competitions and personal bests (PBs).

The value of competitive sports at boarding school

Not all competitive sports opportunities at boarding school take place in our own well-designed sports hall and playing fields. For example, Rendcomb College supports the equestrian pursuits at external venues, enabling students to attend competitions of various kinds.

What is not so obvious in our promotion of competitive sports at boarding school, is the ‘spin-off’ benefits. We often find that students who are challenged within team sports become more readily accepting and open to vibrant learning environments and peer study support.

In other words, everyone is a winner, no matter what level or type of sports they get involved with!
 

We are looking forward to welcoming the first students back to school on Tuesday, 2 June. In making the decision to re-open we have undertaken the following steps: