Main School News

The annual carol service in Wimborne Minster is always a very special event in the Christmas Term calendar, and this year was no exception, with pupils, staff, current parents and other friends of the school community joining together to celebrate the start of the festive season, and to remember Canford’s Christian foundation.

After a three year break due to the pandemic, Canfordians were delighted to host the annual Christmas party for the children from City Reach in Southampton once again.

Dr Mel Jenkins and Dr Robin Wotton (both Consultant Thoracic Surgeons at St George’s Hospital, London), along with Dr Kirstie Kirkley (a trainee in Cardiothoracic Surgery at Bristol University Hospitals) visited on Wednesday 30^th November to provide an insight into their careers in cardiothoracic surgery.

After a three year break due to the pandemic, we were thrilled to host over 80 members of the community for an afternoon of festive music and poetry on Monday 5^th December.

The Canford Community joined together to remember the fallen in whole school services, curriculum study and displays. 

As part of the ISC Schools Partnership Week we are delighted to highlight our involvement in supporting our sponsor school, The Bourne Academy, in launching their Bourne Scholars Programme this year.

Our Fourth and Fifth Form Geographers enjoyed an academic trip to Sicily during half term.

Canford’s Library is hosting a Classics Exhibition in the Rathbone Room of the Library. The exhibition, titled Black Classicists: Ostracism to Scholarship, is an international exhibition that began in the USA and is now travelling around the UK.

The October half term provided the Boys’ Rugby 1^st XV and Girls’ Hockey 1^st XI the chance to test their sporting skills further afield on tour.

Congratulations to Sixth Former Oscar on his essay rated in the top 10 among all entries in this year’s Dorian Fisher Memorial Prize organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA). 

Festival of Ideas 2022

Black History Month celebrated

Canford celebrates National Poetry Day

We are delighted to share the latest national recognition for our education in a number of well recognised industry publications.

With 32.9% of all Canford GCSEs awarded the highest grade 9, and 79% of all grades 9-7 (A*/A), we are delighted for our Fifth Form achieving such wonderful GCSE results.

We are absolutely delighted with the outstanding results achieved by Canfordians sitting A Level and Pre-U examinations this summer, with 40.4% of all grades awarded A*, 73.7% A*/A and 92.4% A*/B. 

Fantastic to welcome the Fijian Rugby Sevens squad for a training camp pre-Commonwealth Games

A modern twist on a classic in Canford's production of Peter Pan

Two days of celebrations marked the end of the Summer Term at Canford

Children from the inner city community of Northam, Southampton, came to Canford over the weekend of 18^th-19^th June for the annual, fun filled activity camp.

The Canford Boat Club celebrated a great year at its annual House Regatta and Dinner on Saturday 11^th June. 

Canford was delighted once again to take part in the 60^th edition of the Ten Tors challenge on Dartmoor.

The inaugural Canford House Drama Film Festival challenged each House to create a film of around 10 minutes, along with a trailer to promote it, on the theme of ‘Heroes and Villains’. This was a fantastic way to bring pupils across the year groups in Houses together and they spent many hours creating their concepts and producing their films.

On Sunday 8^th May over 400 pupils, OCs, parents and prospective pupils lined up to take part in the Rainbow Run 2022 in glorious sunshine.

As a Christian Foundation, this annual service is always a very special day for the School as current Canfordians confirm their faith in the presence of their families and friends.

Huge congratulations to Lower Sixth Canfordian Mimi who has been placed second in the Girton College, University of Cambridge Humanities Writing Competition 2022.

Tension and mystery on the Layard stage

Winner and Runner Up success for Shells in STEM challenge

From individual successes to inspirational concerts

Pupils from Bournemouth schools celebrate graduation from our Shine programme. 

It was wonderful to be able to once again invite Old Canfordians and parents back to Canford to meet and talk with our Lower Sixth pupils face to face at the 2022 Careers Convention event.

As part of its work supporting over 70 different local charities, Canford pupils and staff have been helping Dorset Dogs creating resources for use in their promotional materials.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all the donations that have come flooding in from the Canford Community for the Ukraine appeal.

We are delighted to be running our next Open Day as an in person event at Canford on Saturday 7th May 2022

This year’s Sir Stueart Pringle Trophy competition took place over the weekend of 5-6 March. This annual national competition at the Commando Training Centre, Lympstone is the premier inter-schools’ cadet event with Royal Marine cadets from schools across the UK.

Staff and pupils enjoyed honouring the beginning of the Lunar Year of the Tiger.

On the weekend of 5^th - 6^th March, Canford took seven pupils representing two delegations, Somalia and Laos, to the annual Magdalen College School Model United Nations Conference.

The History Department hosted the annual Keith Hay Dinner on the 16th of February, with over sixty pupils from the Sixth Form attending, as well as the eight History teaching staff and invited guests from other departments.

Canford’s Drama Scholars staged an adaptation of Roberto Innocenti’s picture book ‘Rose Blanche’ before half term.

It has been a very busy and varied first half of term in the Art department and we wanted to share an update of just some of the highlights of what the artists in the Canford Community have been exploring, plus the announcement of an exciting charity Fashion Show event coming up in March.

Boarding is 'the real deal' at Canford

We are very proud to support Lower Sixth pupil Leo in his campaign as a candidate in the current Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Youth Parliament elections.

The annual Shell Music and Poetry evening took place on Thursday 3^rd February in the Music School and was once again a memorable evening giving our Year 9s the chance to perform.

This year, Canford will once again be running its popular Easter and Summer sports courses.

The Canford Community remember those scarred by genocide on Holocaust Memorial Day. 

Audiences were treated to two incredible performances by our talented pupils in the School Musical, Into the Woods, and School Pantomime, Left Out of the Woods, in the final week of term.

This year’s House Art challenge was to design and create a Pantomime Dame costume, resulting in lots of fun and laughter bringing house communities together as artistic flair was given free rein!

Congratulations to Fourth Former Lucy Vrettos crowned winner of the Industrial Cadets STEM Bronze Award. 

Canfordians move through to the next round of the prestigious ESU-Churchill Schools' Mace 2021-22.

We are delighted to share the news that two of our Sixth Form pupils, Merlin Cork and Jessica West, have been awarded Arkwright Engineering scholarships.

Winners announced in inaugural Canford Earthshot Prize competition. 

The school community joined together to remember the fallen in a number of whole school services, curriculum study and displays.

The annual online fundraising auction in aid of the Martin Marriott Foundation for bursaries at Canford and the Friends of Canford School community projects and Friends of Canford Music is now LIVE!

The annual Trafalgar Night dinner took place on Tuesday 19^th October. As ever it was a superb and very memorable evening, traditionally commemorating The Battle of Trafalgar on 21^st October 1805.  

This year's Festival of Ideas explored the place of the individual in society

Outstanding achievement on the national academic stage - STEM, Spanish essay and Cambridge University summer school place

CCF training, community action projects and onsite challenges marked Whole Day Enterprises 

Black History Month was celebrated across the Canford Community 

With the new term seeing a welcome return to near-normality for pupils and staff, we were thrilled to be able to finally stage our postponed Drama production ‘Little Shop of Horrors’

Ten pupils were confirmed by the Bishop of Sherborne on Friday 1st October

Congratulations to Lower Sixth pupil Merlin Cork on his recent success in the UK Junior Delancey Chess Challenge.

Canford’s East Asian pupils celebrated the Moon Festival together on Tuesday evening in the Pavilion.

We are delighted to announce that Canford has been successful in its application for the Global Schools Award Level 1.

Due to high demand, regrettably booking for our next event is now closed.  Private visits are still available through our Admissions office.

Pupils and staff have returned to Canford for the new academic year to a brand new library and Assembly Hall complex.

It has been a fantastic week so far welcoming new and seeing returning pupils and staff once again.

Canford is delighted to announce that it has been selected as a Finalist in the Performing Arts category of the Independent School Parent magazine’s Independent School of the Year 2021.

Canfordians have received their GCSE results this morning and we are truly delighted for this talented and hard-working year group

Canfordians have received their A Level and Pre-U results this morning, and after an unprecedented and difficult year can now look forward to the exciting next stage of their lives.

New Farm Shop opens with Canford support

Tom Prest continues his cricketing success

Congratulations to Alice, Emma, Jake and Harry on their recent national essay competition success.

Central to the school’s mission is to support communities both at home and abroad ‘to make a difference to our own lives, and to the lives of others’.  Over 8,000 hours of community service are given by pupils at Canford each year. Here is just some of the recent projects benefiting from the school's community work.

We are extremely proud of their achievements and all are a credit to Canford Rugby and the school. We look forward to continuing to follow their rugby journeys and also inviting them back to Canford to keep inspiring the current and future generations.

Each June, as part of its ongoing commitment to work with and support pupils educationally from a range of backgrounds, Canford holds an educational partnership day, with Lower Sixth pupils from Canford joining those from academy and local secondary schools for a varied and challenging programme of activities aimed at sparking discussion and inspiring reflection on the ways we think and learn.

We hope you enjoy the array of work from our talented Upper Sixth artists photographed exhibited in the Coldstream Gallery in the final week of term.

Canford is delighted to announce that it has been shortlisted for an award in the Performing Arts category of the Independent School Parent magazine’s Independent School of the Year 2021 awards for the high quality of its Music provision.

In what has been a challenging year for sport we are delighted that a number of Canfordians have been excelling and have been selected to represent their sport at the highest levels. At the end of such a trying year it feels right to recognise just a few of those achievements.

As Pride Month comes to a close, our Marketing Pupil Leaders took the opportunity to record this latest 'This Canford Life' podcast episode with pupil representatives from our EDI Committee, Alice, Celia, George and Jess. You can listen to the latest episode on YouTube, Apple podcasts and Soundcloud. 

We want to ensure we enrich our pupils' wellbeing with the knowledge and understanding on the science and importance of sleep.

We are delighted to announce that one of our current Lower Sixth pupils, Alice Hazell, was recently Commended for her essay entry in the Newnham Archaeology Essay Prize.

Whole Day Enterprises takes place a number of times during the school year and involves pupils engaging in group challenges, outdoor activity and community action work over the course of a day, or in some cases a whole weekend. It is a fantastic opportunity to spend quality time getting involved in these activities, as well as fulfilling important aspects of Canford’s values. 

As part of Canford’s commitment to investing in and developing staff development, we are delighted to announce success for our catering staff in recent Food and Nutrition courses. 

Thank you to the entire Canford Community for their involvement in the Mental Health Foundation Mental Health Awareness Week, which took place from 10th – 16th May.

Following the recent announcement of the new Heads and Deputy Heads of School, along with Pupil Leaders for the coming year, we are delighted to launch this new podcast episode ‘Meet the new Heads of School’ which you can listen to on YouTube, Apple podcasts or Soundcloud. 

With 546 university and higher education offers received to date by 156 Canfordians, representing an average of four offers per pupil, it is proving to be another very successful year for our leavers.

79% of all offers are from Russell Group/Sunday Times Top 12 institutions and include 7 places at Oxbridge and 7 for the highly competitive Medicine and Veterinary Science courses at other institutions. 

Cadets gathered in the Long Gallery on the morning of Wednesday 5^th May to receive their promotions. It is important to recognise the fine achievements of our latest group of JNCOs after completion of their latest training course. 

The Lower Sixth take part in the Baynham and C P Snow Essay competitions, with the Baynham Prize for the best essay on a question related to an arts or humanities topic and the C P Snow Prize recognises the best essay on a scientific topic. Congratulations to Milind and Harry on their winning entries.

Watch the recordings of our 13+ and 16+ live events on Saturday 24th April. 

Canford selected for Strategic Educational Initiative final in the 2021 TES Awards

Headmaster Ben Vessey wanted to reflect on the past twelve months with the Heads and Deputy Heads of School in a special edition of a ‘This Canford Life’ video podcast which you can watch and listen to on YouTube, Apple podcasts or Soundcloud. 

This year’s Parade sadly could not take place as usual. Our senior cadets however have been terrific throughout this year and managed to run a programme covering 70% of the normal level of activities albeit without a field day thus far.

The theme of this year’s Careers Convention, held on Friday 19^th March, was ‘Start building your dream career today.’

Sunday 21st March marked World Poetry Day. Canford's Head of English, Richard Redwood, used the occasion to announce the winners of the school's first House Poetry competition. 

Congratulations to OC Arthur Cordwell on his Premiership Rugby debut for Bath Rugby.

The Canford campus has truly come to life again as we’ve welcomed pupils and staff back to school.

Happy World Book Day!

Virtual celebrations to mark the beginning of the Lunar Year of the Ox.

During lockdown pupils were encouraged to use their imagination and creativity in the Canford Collaborative Film Competition.

We start the second half of term with a new addition to the Canford Community and the Canford Wellbeing team, Lola, our new school dog!

Lockdown Community Action continues

SAT testing on 13 March cancelled

A half term message from Headmaster Ben Vessey

Canfordians have a strong record of entry into this prestigious competition.  This year the regional heats were held online due to the pandemic, and Sixth Former Imogen Fairweather represented Canford presenting on the Film Stills of Cindy Sherman. 

Friday 5^th February saw the annual House Debating Competition take place online. During the course of the evening over 200 pupils and staff tuned in to listen to several high quality debates.

Canford Sixth Formers Mimi and Rosie have produced the latest in the series of ‘This Canford Life’ podcasts with a special Life in Lockdown edition.

Poetry by Heart is a national competition in which young people choose poems they love, learn them by heart and perform them at their school. This year we have entered the competition with all Canford Shell pupils spending recent weeks at home committing a poem to their memory

Canford has appealed to its school community of parents and friends to support a ‘laptop lifelines’ campaign following the donation of 10 working used laptops by a Canford parent to The Bourne Academy in Bournemouth to help disadvantaged pupils learn from home during the lockdown.

The English department has been helping Fifth Formers develop their skills in speech writing in recent lessons.

As part of a Canford education, we want all our pupils to enrich their learning and broaden their horizons. 

Canfordians take part virtually in ESU Schools’ Mace Debating Competition

While not the beginning of the Easter Term today that we were all hoping for, we are still very excited to welcome back everyone associated with Canford and look forward to a happy, stimulating and inspiring term.

Throughout 2020-2021 Canford School and The Bourne Academy are celebrating ten years of success since the Academy’s foundation in 2010. 

Canfordians are celebrating excellent success in recent external ABRSM music examinations

Christmas Tree challenge for this year's competition

Huge congratulations to Fifth Form swimmer Robbie Hemmings who has been successful in securing a place in Swim England’s National Junior squad.

The English department was delighted to welcome William Hussey, author of the Shell class reader Jekyll’s Mirror, to English lessons on Tuesday 1^st December.

Awareness of our need to do all we can to protect the environment and the planet is a focus among pupils and staff at Canford. 

Canford among top schools in new review

The annual online fundraising auction in aid of the Martin Marriott Foundation for bursaries at Canford and the Friends of Canford School community projects is now LIVE!

The Canford community welcomed the reopening of the Gisborough Hall at the beginning of November. 

Canfordians both onsite and across the globe joined together on 11th November to remember all those who lost their lives in combat.

Fourth and Fifth pupils perform Chatroom by Enda Walsh

Congratulations to six of our pupils invited to attend England Hockey trials during half term.

Each year there is a different theme and in 2020 the theme was Vision.

Watch the Virtual Open Day recording

We are absoloutely delighted to finally be able to announce excellent outcomes from this very talented year group, and wish them all every success for the future!

Canford School’s CCF is celebrating an exciting start to the new academic year, welcoming pupils back to the school campus, national recognition for the department and a brand new, purpose-built facility.

Canford places literacy at the heart of learning, Head of English, Richard Redwood, recommends inspiring reads for 16 year olds and the Canford library launches new systems to keep Canford Covid-secure.

We cannot wait to welcome all our pupils back to Canford!

Canfordians have received their GCSE results this morning

Celebration for local community resident's 100th birthday

No SAT Testing at Canford in August and September

An unprecedented A Level results day

Fourth Form and Lower Sixth DT pupils created new lego products during remote learning

Two Canfordians planning Gap Year volunteering have received Bulkeley-Evans Awards

Catalina Taylor used the lockdown to create an award winning piece of poetry on the theme of conflict

Thank you to marketing agency Inca Loop for providing an innovative business project during lockdown

Over 1,500 members of our community viewed our virtual Speech Day 

Over 400 entries from Year 5-8 pupils in our junior competitions this term

The safety, health and wellbeing of our pupils and staff remains our top priority. By officially following the Charter, as a boarding school we will be maintaining the highest standards of welfare for the children in our care.

Our artists have been finding a variety of ways to embrace their creativity during lockdown.

Faced with an unprecedented situation, Canford wanted to offer its Upper Sixth pupils a meaningful end to their education. Thus the Canford 'College Programme' was born.

During the time of remote learning, it is vital that pupils and staff look after themselves both in terms of keeping fit and in their wellbeing and mental health.

'This House believes Coronavirus will create a brave new world' was the topic debated in the first John O'Gaunt society online event

Many congratulations to Upper Sixth Canfordian Callum Bruce who has been awarded a place with the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain.

Canford commemorates the 75th anniversary of VE Day

Canford’s English department have been celebrating Shakespeare in many innovative ways since the start of term.

ABRSM and diploma Music success

Despite the spectre of Covid-19, we were very pleased to still be able to hold the traditional CCF Biennial Inspection and Parade on Monday 16^th March. 

Our annual Lent Address programme took place during the first week of March.

World Book Day is officially today, Thursday 5^th March, but Canford’s celebrations are actually lasting for 14 days! 

Both physically and mentally demanding, pupils are pushed to their limits in tough and unfamiliar conditions while learning to cross-country ski in uncompromising mountain terrain.

Sixteen Canford pupils and staff spent last Sunday walking 16 miles for the City Reach project, a long standing Canford community action link which supports families in the inner city Southampton area of Northam.

Half term saw a group of A level Geographers escape Storm Dennis and head off to the Azores. 

The History Department hosted the fourth annual Keith Hay Dinner on the 25^th February, with over sixty pupils from the Lower Sixth and Upper Sixth cohort attending, as well as the twelve History staff and invited guests from other departments.

The Classics and Philosophy and Theology departments continued their harmonious collaboration over the February half term with the third annual joint trip in a row.

Sixth Form engineers at Canford are celebrating winning the Jaguar Land Rover South West Regional finals in the Professional Class at the Bristol and Bath Science Park on 25^th February and as a result move through to the National Finals of the competition at Jaguar Land Rover HQ in the Midlands on 23^rd March.

The final of the House Debating Competition took place on Friday 7th February. Selected representatives from all Houses took part in one of five debates.

We were delighted to welcome 115 Old Canfordians and their guests to Canford on Thursday 6^th February.

Pupils and staff at Canford embraced the Chinese Spring Festival with a number of different events, spread over the course of the 15 days marking the 2020 celebrations.

For the sixth consecutive year, Canford is delighted to welcome members of the Britten Sinfonia to the school for a two day residency on 11^th and 12^th February.

Over the weekend of 1^st and 2^nd February, nine Lower Sixth Canfordians joined over 150 pupils from schools in the UK and Europe at Gordon’s School, Woking for a Model United Nations conference.

Each year the European Commission runs a translation competition for senior students in schools and colleges across Europe.

The 2020 House Drama Festival once again demonstrated the breadth of talent across houses and year groups, from Shells to Upper Sixth.

Two Upper Sixth pupils create a fantastic video to raise awareness within the school of the new Canford Mountain Bike Club.

During the first week of the Easter Term, the principal of the Sagar School in Rajasthan, Dr Saha, spent three days at Canford talking to staff and pupils about the development of the partnership between the two schools.

In the 21^st century the world of work is ever changing, as are the pressures on our personal lives and it is vital that we equip our pupils with the skills and confidence to give them the best possible chance of making the right choices so they can find success and fulfilment in whatever fields they choose. 

As part our Community Action programme, on 19^th December eighteen children and staff from Linwood School enjoyed a Christmas party complete with a visit from Santa.

Jazz-age Chicago arrived on the Layard stage for this year's musical

The annual Christmas party for the children from City Reach in Southampton was once again a fun filled, festive day enjoyed by the community of Northam and Canford pupils alike.  

On Thursday 7 November, 14 Canford pupils with an interest in finding out more about career options in Engineering attended the Careers in Engineering evening held at Curtiss-Wright Aviation Engineering near Bournemouth Airport.

Tony Diprose appointed Director of Sport and Physical Wellbeing from January 2020

The annual online fundraising auction in aid of the Martin Marriott Foundation for transformational bursaries at Canford is now LIVE!

We are thrilled to announce that Canford has been shortlisted for Senior School of the Year in the forthcoming Times Educational Supplement (TES) Awards 2020.

Canford celebrated Bonfire Night with two events, both of which included some fantastic fireworks to  light up the night sky above Wimborne Minster.

The end of the first half term at Canford closed with the much anticipated Canford Festival of Ideas. The theme for this year’s festival was ‘Identity and Diversity’

During the October half term, the Canford 1st XI Girls’ Hockey Squad travelled to Barcelona for an eagerly anticipated five day mid-season tour.

Half term saw the 1^st XV squad head back to Dublin to re-trace the steps of 2016’s cohort. With two fixtures scheduled over 5 days and 26 boys travelling it was going to be a good chance to keep the excellent momentum going that had been built up this season.

As part of careers preparation for pupils applying for Medicine, Dentistry or Veterinary Medicine, the careers department and Head of Biology have been running a series of mock interview training sessions.

Fifteen Year 10 and Year 12 Canford artists have contributed to a wonderful exhibition of art at Wimborne Minster.

On the first Friday of October Half Term, 44 Shells and five teachers headed off to the sunnier climes of the Amalfi Coast.

This term’s Whole Day Enterprises once again involved a busy mix of visitors to Canford and pupils going offsite spending an entire day, or the whole weekend, engaged in group challenges, outdoor activity and community action work. 

46 Fifth Form pupils and six staff embarked on the annual Battlefields Trip, visiting the battlefields of Ypres in Belgium and the Somme in France from the 27^th to 30^th October.

During the October half term, twenty nine Canfordians visited Provence to immerse themselves in the French way of life and the country’s culture.

This year’s Sir Stueart Pringle Trophy competition took place over the weekend of 5-6 October.  This annual national competition at the Commando Training Centre, Lympstone is the premier inter-schools’ cadet event with marine cadets from schools across the UK.

Canford celebrated Libraries Week across the school.

Canford pupils and staff celebrated the day with ‘Pop Up Poetry’, with staff and pupils ‘popping up’ in parts of the school reading their favourite poems

Canford is celebrating winning the Rifles Cup 2019 in its first year of entering this prestigious Army competition held over two days, 20-22 September, at Longmoor Camp. 

Canford pupils reflect on their weekend spent on the Isle of Wight with children involved in the City Reach programme.

Canford celebrate Chinese Autumn Festival in style!

During the summer break, Fifth Form and Lower Sixth biologists, accompanied by Canford staff, enjoyed a fascinating trip to the Red Sea on a diving expedition.

There was great excitement in both London and Dorset on Monday evening, 9^th September, as Canford took home the prestigious ‘Public School of the Year’ trophy at the annual Tatler Schools Awards

Following their excellent A Level results, the class of 2019 leavers are now looking forward to the next stage of their education.

Upper Sixth pupils successfully complete their DofE Gold Expedition