Tower House School

Our annual residential trips for Years 4, 5 and 8 are in full swing!

These experiences away from school and home are always a highlight of the year, offering a wonderful opportunity for the boys to develop independence, confidence, and lasting friendships.

Year 4 are spending a few days at Flatford Mill in Suffolk, where they are immersing themselves in hands-on environmental field studies. Meanwhile, Year 5 have travelled to the historic city of York, exploring its rich heritage alongside its many cultural landmarks.

For our Year 8 pupils, this marks their final residential together, with an action-packed week at Skern Lodge in Devon. A wide range of outdoor challenges awaits them, from surfing and rafting to abseiling and tunnelling, promising plenty of adventure, teamwork and time to make memories.

We look forward to sharing more updates as the week unfolds!

Year 1 enjoyed a special maths lesson this morning, with enthusiastic helpers from Year 8! With support from Ms Grant, our Head of Maths, the older pupils devised a carousel of practical activities, all aimed at practising a range of key maths skills.

It was wonderful to hear the older pupils carefully explaining concepts, from working out change from a £5 note, to understanding why there are ten 100ml portions in a litre, and how to divide piles of beanbags equally. Beating the older boys at snakes and ladders was also a highlight!

We were incredibly excited to welcome the international bestselling author Anthony Horowitz today for a ThED Talk, joined by pupils from Sheen Mount and Old Vicarage School. The audience was treated to an inspiring and engaging session exploring Anthony’s remarkable career, creative process, and invaluable writing tips.

Anthony spoke passionately about the power of reading, the influence of his childhood authors, and the teachers who helped shape his love of writing as a teenager. Anthony also urged the budding writers in the audience to plan carefully, fully immerse themselves in their characters and settings and, most importantly, to persevere and believe in themselves.

A huge thanks to Anthony for speaking with such passion and energy about his experiences. His wonderful talk resulted in lots of great questions from the audience - it’s very safe to say that everyone, pupils and staff alike left ready to put pen to paper!

Well done to our Year 8 boys for finishing their Common Entrance exams today, after a week of assessments! We’re really proud with how they have conducted themselves, supporting each other throughout the week and keeping positive.

Thank you to Mr Gold for invigilating every day and guiding the boys through the process. Now it’s time for a quick lunch, change and an afternoon of go-karting with Mr Orme and Mrs Montague! The Post CE programme has officially begun, packed with fun activities and challenges as well as the much-anticipated week-long trip to Skern Lodge in Devon.

Yesterday was the turn of our Year 2 and 3 boys who enjoyed a fantastic trip to The Look Out Discovery Centre in Bracknell Forest.

The boys enthusiastically explored the interactive Science Zone, Construction and Water Area and Light Show Area, being curious throughout and demonstrating excellent teamwork as they investigated how things work, built impressive structures and experimented with a variety of scientific concepts through play.

A particular highlight of the day was a fascinating science workshop focusing on minibeasts, classification, food chains and of course, going on a bug hunt! We were very proud to see the boys ask lots of questions when learning about the different habitats, the role of living things within ecosystems and how animals depend on each other for survival.

Thank you to the staff at the Centre for a memorable trip that combined learning, curiosity and fun!

A brilliant day out at Bocketts Farm today for our Reception and Year 1 year groups!

The boys loved getting up close with the animals and discovering fascinating facts about farm life. Despite the rain Mr Lunnon couldn’t resist the opportunity to join the trip - from cuddly creatures to learning how animals are looked after, it was a very hands-on experience for everyone. No day is complete without a very competitive piglet race too!

To kick off the second half of the Summer Term, our Junior School boys have been learning about the Klaus Flugge Prize, an prestigious annual prize recognising the most promising newcomer to children’s picture book illustration.

Over the rest of term, the boys are going to read each book in assembly from the 2026 longlist, and at the end get to judge who they think should have won! They have been asked to think carefully about the story and how this has been creatively illustrated.

Will the boys agree with the Klaus Flugge judges? We’ll find out at the end of term!

We are absolutely delighted to announce that over half of our Year 8 cohort have been awarded scholarships in academics, music, art, drama and sport to Senior Schools in 2026.

Mr Lunnon, Head of Tower House, says: ‘Our staff identify boys who show exceptional promise and developing passion in these areas of school life and support them through a specific programme in preparation for scholarship assessments. The attitude and commitment of the boys is key to this process, and we are thrilled with their dedication and ambition. This year, over 70% of boys who applied for scholarships were successful – a wonderful achievement! We are proud of all those that committed to the scholarship programme this year. Well done boys!’

Year 5 have been thoroughly enjoying their latest science topic: separation. Over the past few weeks, the boys have been investigating how different materials can be separated from mixtures, using a range of practical techniques including magnetism, decanting, sieving, filtering and evaporating.

This has been a wonderfully hands-on unit, with plenty of opportunities for the boys to think and work like real scientists. They have explored how magnets can be used to remove magnetic materials from a mixture, how sieves separate solids of different sizes, and how filtering can be used to separate an insoluble solid from a liquid. They have also looked at decanting, carefully pouring liquids away from settled solids, and evaporation, where a dissolved solid can be recovered from a solution.

These practical sessions have encouraged careful observation, teamwork, prediction-making and scientific discussion. Well done boys!