WHAT? WHERE?

A co-ed day and boarding school for pupils from 4-18 years old founded by Henry VIII in 1541 (you can still see his ‘H’ on the school crest) you’ll find Christ College Brecon across 40 verdant acres in the heart of Brecon – a town famous both for its eponymous jazz festival and the stunning Brecon Beacons National Park that serves as the backdrop to the school.

chapel and buildings at Christ Church Brecon

With just 380 pupils across all year groups at a 55/45 split between boys and girls, Christ College is a relatively small school, with all the attention on the children that bestows – class sizes here are an average of 15 pupils. The buildings veer between medieval (the beautiful chapel dates to the 13^th century) and areas of Tudor grandness such as the dining room with its enormous fireplace to more areas of modern architecture – the shiny, gleaming Performing Arts centre is a highlight.

FACILITIES

/SPORT

With this location it’s no surprise that there’s a big emphasis on sport and getting outdoors. Christ College is one of the top Welsh schools for rugby and there are sport scholarships available to help keep up standards. Cricket and hockey is played by all, and the main girls’ sports are currently netball and hockey. Other options here include mountain biking, squash, badminton, cross country, climbing, swimming, basketball, and tennis – seriously, your children will be well exercised! On-site facilities include an astroturf, rugby pitches, tennis courts, netball courts, a cricket pitch with a pavilion that celebrated its centenary in 2024, squash courts, large multi-use sports hall with indoor cricket nets and a heated swimming pool. The school offers an Elite Player Pathway programme to help talented youngsters balance school and sport, with extra coaching, nutritional advice and sports psychology.

Cricket is growing (the school was highly commended by ‘The Cricketer’ for its cricket programme), with success in girls’ cricket particularly on the rise – two pupils have been selected for Glamorgan Academy’s 2025 Women’s Emerging Player Pathway Programme, a pathway programme for the most promising young cricketers in Wales.

The school also has partnerships with Cardiff Rugby and Welsh Hockey and the results are heartening, with pupils over the last few years being selected for the Welsh U19s and U20s as well as various professional contracts with Bristol Bears and Dragons RFC. The boys rugby team plays in the national schools and colleges league, and the school hosts a Rugby Sevens tournament each February. Both the school’s girl’s hockey team and netball teams were national finalists while the boys’ basketball team were county winners and regional finalists. Successful sporting alumni include James Roberts MBE – 2-time Paralympian (2016/2021) and Gold Medallist at Tokyo 2021.

/CREATIVE ARTS

pupil playing the violin at Christ Church Brecon school

Musically, Christ College’s choral offering packs a punch, with a huge 25% of pupils in the Senior Choir, with the emphasis firmly on enjoyment, although I can *clang* namedrop tours that have included singing at Barcelona’s La Sagrada Familia and St Peter’s in Rome. Not bad! There’s also a Prep School choir – a surprisingly recent addition – and an audition-only mixed Chapel Choir of 43 pupils that sings at the three chapel services each week.

choir in chapel at Christ Church Brecon school

As you’d expect, there are the usual peri music teachers here with 40% of pupils taking lessons, a little lower than I see elsewhere, but enough to fuel the various ensembles for wind, guitar, percussion, brass, and strings. The music and drama departments club together for the school musicals output – last Christmas the Senior school performed Shrek The Musical and the Prep School brought out The Little Mermaid. Interestingly there’s no Drama A level at Christ College; instead there’s a BTEC in Performing Arts, a more vocational offering that may suit those wanting a practical springboard into the industry. A 250-seat modern theatre for drama and musical performances, plus a separate drama studio and exhibition gallery provide ample facilities.

pupil playing the harp at Christ Church Brecon

In terms of Art, there’s a dedicated art block at the school with various teaching and workshop areas across ceramics, textiles and sculpture. The DT course has been swapped out for the more popular Photography, which is part of the curriculum from Year 7-9 and available at both GSCE and A level.

PREP

The Prep School has incorporated Years 7-8 since 2023, with a view to giving the children the chance to take leadership positions as prefects and house captains before moving up to Senior School. The modern building of St Nicholas House is the home for Reception – Year 6; Years 7-8 have their own common room space in Alway House, also the boarding house for children age 10-12.

ACADEMICS

Tidy. Although Christ College sees itself as an all-rounder school, the 2024 academic exam results showed nearly a quarter of GSCES and A Level pupils hitting the top grades. GSCE results were: 9-8 (23%), 9-7 (34%) and 9-5 (74%). A Levels fared even better, with A* (26%), A*-A (60%) and A*-B (77%) and 85% of pupils securing spots at their first-choice university courses, including one for Oxbridge. For those more interested in vocational studies, there are three to choose from at Christ College – BTECS in Performing Arts, Sport and IT. The school offers mostly mainstream study subjects, with French and Spanish the main languages along with Welsh as an option.

PASTORAL CARE

The benefit of a school with a bijou 380 pupils means there’s a sharper focus on those who are struggling, with a buddy system, house tutors, a chaplain, a part time counsellor and house parents all providing support. The Welfare Centre sits at the centre of the school, which includes a newish Wellbeing Room for those who need time out. More proactively, Christ College also runs various programmes to create a positive mindset – the one-week outdoor Beacon Course for Year 9 pupils focuses on growing self-confidence and positive thinking before starting GCSEs, whilst in the Sixth Form the Curriculum for Life teaches the pupils the skills they need for the next stage of their life – how to be financially literate, and look after themselves mentally and physically as well as visits from inspirational alumni and career advice from various sectors. Kind of wondering how I can take that course myself, but that’s a different review.

There’s also something called The Gratitude Programme in the summer term for Year 8 and Upper 6^th pupils that teaches the pupils to reflect on their school experience (whether that’s the end of Prep School or the end of their school career) and acknowledge those who have helped them during that time – a life skill in anyone’s book.

THE HEAD

Head master of Christ Church Brecon Gareth Pearson

Gareth Pearson is Christ College’s talisman. After 8 years in the Royal Marines, followed by a career change to teaching that took in being house master at Wellington and senior deputy at Lord Wandsworth College, he’s been in the hot seat here since 2017. Friendly and unpretentious, he’s disarmingly open about the occasional town v gown distrust, and ways he wants improve the school’s academics further, such as empowering the kids’ thinking by getting the teachers to ‘let go’ of the teaching-from-the-front mentality.

Christ College’s super-positive ‘Believe to Achieve’ mantra is straight out of Pearson’s ‘give it a go’ rule book – 12 pupils out of 60 had a crack at Oxbridge in 2024, four were serious candidates and one made it through. You can’t fault his ambition either, with plans afoot for a Sixth Form boarding house to better forge the transition between school and university, and he’s also eyeing Christ College as a cricketing Centre of Excellence.

QUIRKS

All children attend Saturday school but they’re learning from Christ College’s so-called ‘second curriculum’ which is basically about enrichment – sport, adventure, creative arts and pushing boundaries. There’s a sweet tradition where only Year 13’s are allowed to walk through a certain gate by Chapel – that gate is where they file out for the final time when they leave school. There are also some fabulous carved seats at Chapel dating back to medieval times.

BOARDING

Around half of the kids board here, either flexi, weekly or full time, with flexi available from Year 7, and weekly from Year 5 onwards. Most of the full-time boarders are overseas pupils, who make up around 17% of the school cohort. There are four boarding houses, two for boys and two for girls, with between 4-5 to a dorm, with most Sixth Formers graduating to having their own bedrooms.

Your children will be in neither ridiculous luxury nor horrific squalor at Christ College. Like most boarding houses I see, those here are a mix of lived-in common rooms, wood laminate furniture, positive mantras (“Just because I can’t sing doesn’t mean I won’t sing!”) homely touches and jolly house parents. There is, though, a gentle accountability here that I like, such as the Amnesty Room in School House where stuff left around the common room gets confiscated, and can only be released by handing over 50p, all of which adds up nicely for a charity donation by the end of the term. Everyone is expected to make their own beds and put dirties in washing baskets. Hilariously the Year 13s rooms are inspected by the Year 9s (with the house parents there for moral support) and even better there are lockable safes, not for wallets and phones, but for personal food items, otherwise apparently it’s locust territory. No chocolate bar is safe.

ADDITIONAL LEARNING (ALN)

sixth form pupils in class at Christ Church Brecon

No surprise in a non-selective school that there’s a strong Additional Learning Centre here (ALN being the Welsh version of SEND), that was established back in 1995. The head of the ALN department is a fully accredited member of the British Dyslexia Association, with dyslexia the main learning issue at the school and roughly 15% of the school having some kind of ALN. Additional support takes place as much as possible in the classroom but is also offered in small groups through timetable modifications depending on the need.

ESTYN REPORT

Estyn, the education and training inspectorate for Wales rated Christ College a meeting all its regulatory standard in its Nov 2024 report, claiming that “ “Pupils demonstrate exemplary manners and celebrate each other’s achievements with sincerity and enthusiasm” along with praise for the Head who “promotes strong moral and professional values. These contribute very effectively to an ethos that unites all members of the school community.” Read the report here

MOBILE PHONE POLICY

For Years 7-11 , there are no phones allowed during the day (8.30-4pm). For pupil wellbeing, no phones are allowed overnight and boarders must hand them in at night to the houseparent. Those in Years 12-13 are allowed phones during the day, but only to be used in Houses during breaktime/lunchtime and after school. Misuse will result in confiscation.

TRANSPORT

There’s a school minibus service picking up from Aberdare, Merthyr Tydfil, Abergavenny, Hay-on-Wye, Llandrindod Wells and Llandeilo from Mondays to Fridays and Saturday mornings. To give you bearings, Brecon is around an hour from Cardiff, an hour and a half from Bristol and three hours from London.

FEES

With independent schools now liable for VAT, Christ College has made a clear decision to phase in price rises to help its parents cope with the increase. Fees will rise 5% each academic year to a maximum of 15% at year three, versus the 20% VAT being charged to the school. Compared to its English equivalents, Christ College is not expensive, with annual fees including VAT for day pupils rising from £10,758.80 in Years 1&2 to £23,878 in Sixth Form, or for weekly boarding it’s £21,000 for Year 5 up to £40,122 for Sixth Form. Full boarding costs range from £25,064 for Year 5 up to £44,391 in Sixth Form, again including VAT.

WORD ON THE GROUND

prep school pupils at Christ Church Brecon

The pupils are settled here. ‘Kind’ and ‘lovely’ were words being bandied around to describe the school by the kids I nobbled. The Head is popular with pupils and parents, seen as proactive and modernising. The one moan is that the food could be better – plus ca change. Teachers Ms Hopkins (Welsh) and Mrs McLean (French) – you have been singled out for praise by my tour guides!

THE MUDDY VERDICT

Good for: The all-rounder offering and have-a-go ethos gives Christ College broad appeal. Those needing more emotional scaffolding and small class support should find it here.

Not for: Brecon is a small town so if you’re looking for big-hitting museums and theatres right on the doorstep, a more city-based school might be a better fit.

Want to check it out for yourself? Christ College’s next Open Mornings are Sat 15 March and Mon 5 May, in the meantime you can take a whistle stop tour here.

Review: Christ College, Brecon

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