Our House system is at the heart of our pastoral care at Stowe. A happy, settled and secure pupil is more likely to succeed academically and have a positive social and personal life. Our supportive family atmosphere and Christian ethos encourage pupils to develop a lasting sense of moral, social and spiritual responsibility.
Home for Stoics is one of the eight boys' or four girls' Houses or co-educational Sixth Form House, either in the Mansion House itself or in more recently built buildings adjacent close by. Each House has around sixty pupils and becomes the Stoic's 'family.' Houses share common values, whilst also reflecting the characters of the Houseparents. The Houseparents are supported in their role as mentors both by their families and close-knit staff teams of visiting Tutors and the residential Matrons and Under Houseparents. The Matrons, as well as looking after the domestic issues, care for the health and well-being of their charges, supported by the Medical Centre staff and School Doctor. There is always someone a Stoic can turn to for advice or encouragement.
As Stoics move through School, the Houseparents and Tutors provide sensitive academic and pastoral advice on subject choices and eventually university considerations. In fact, the friendship of many Houseparents extends far beyond the time when a pupil leaves Stowe.
In addition, Stowe has a carefully and sensitively planned programme of Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) which forms the basis of a weekly lesson. There is also a very strong and popular network of Christian meetings and societies. The ideal is to turn out self-confident, caring people, who have the information and the ethical framework required to make good calls on difficult decisions.
All main meals are taken together in the Mansion, giving an opportunity for social interaction across all year groups. Kitchens are also provided in Houses, providing another focal point for relaxed interaction, in addition to the central House rooms, and for occasional in-house leisurely breakfasts on a Sunday morning!
We care very much about the health of your daughter or son while they are with us at Stowe and we are supported in this care by our own team of qualified Nurses and our School Doctors, who hold a surgery every weekday morning. Our permanently staffed Medical Centre provides all the details about our health care provision and emergency contact procedures.
There is a wide range of activities: dramatic, sporting, artistic, musical and cultural, detailed elsewhere - activities which pupils are expected to select from and participate in each day after lessons and on Wednesdays afternoons when there is a longer period for sports fixtures, games and activities. Evenings and weekends see many activities within the House and as Inter House events. We actively encourage parents to come to the School to support their children in the sports fixtures, drama or musical performances. Keeping in touch with home is important, each pupil has a personal email and there are Exeat weekends, generally in the middle of each Half Term and parents may take pupils out at weekends by prior arrangement.
In essence, our aim is that Stoics are well-equipped to succeed in an increasingly pluralist, complex competitive adult world. The Twenty First Century makes ever greater demands for the qualities and values instilled by an education at Stowe.