Discover Cokethorpe
A co-educational through school on a single, stunning parkland estate,
offering a research-informed education with exceptional breadth and
a truly individual focus.
Exceptional Breadth | Individual Focus
Set in 150 acres of glorious West Oxfordshire parkland, just on the edge of the Cotswolds and within easy reach of Oxford, Cokethorpe brings the Prep and Senior Schools together on one site; an environment where tradition and innovation sit comfortably side by side.
When you visit, you’ll feel the School’s energy and warmth: the dynamism of our teachers, the grounded innovation of our academic approach, and the confidence and kindness of our pupils, each a testament to our ethos and intent.
We set ambitious expectations and provide support to meet them. Pupils enjoy exceptional breadth across subjects, enrichment, and our AOB (Any Other Business) clubs and societies programme, finding challenges, enjoyment, and room to grow.
Small class sizes and strong tutoring ensure a tailored experience every day, with academic and pastoral care working hand-in-hand, so every child is known, nurtured, and stretched.
We embrace diversity of talents, ideas, and experiences, and provide the right environment for each pupil to excel.
A welcome from our:
Head of Prep School
Mrs Sarah Orton
Head of Sixth Form
Mr Ed Tolputt
A research-informed approach
We foster a lifelong love of learning in every pupil. Teaching is personalised and responsive, focused not only on academic excellence but on building strong learning habits that endure.
As a research-informed school, we use latest educational insights to inform our practice, ensuring it is rigorous, engaging, and evidence-based, creating classrooms where all pupils can thrive.
Leadership
Leadership is more than a title, it’s a mindset that inspires others to collaborate toward common goals. At Cokethorpe, we develop these traits so pupils can succeed in all facets of life beyond school, leading with integrity, courage, empathy, judgement, ambition, and responsibility.
In the Prep School, the Cokethorpe Characters introduce our youngest pupils to morals, ethics, and approaches to learning – the foundations for the Senior School’s Leadership Programme. In the Senior School, merits are awarded through Recommendations aligned to this Programme; in the Sixth Form, the Leadership Grants recognise those who contribute meaningfully to School life.
Leadership Characteristics:
| Integrity | Doing what you know to be the right thing |
| Courage | Sometimes choosing the difficult option |
| Empathy | Understanding that others’ views might be different from your own |
| Judgement | Knowing when, and when not to act |
| Ambition | Challenging yourself to be better |
| Responsibility | Being relied upon to do the right thing |
Space to Grow. A Community to Belong.
As a well-established, coeducational, day through school – Prep and Senior – on one rural site, Cokethorpe offers something rare. The Prep opened in 1994,
with Reception added in 2007, and now welcomes around 100 pupils.
Reception and Year 1 enjoy a dedicated, carefully designed space to ease the pace of starting school life; Years 2–6 learn across the Lower Quad in our Queen Anne Mansion House.
Senior School classrooms are arranged around the purpose-built Middle and Upper Quads, with approximately 500 pupils from First Form to Upper Sixth.
The dedicated Sixth Form Centre, completed in 2009, gives students space to study, discuss, host events, and socialise, anchoring a purposeful and supportive community.
From Reception to Upper Sixth, all pupils benefit from our glorious setting and the exceptional breadth of opportunity it enables.
Welcome from the Head of Prep School
Children should enjoy their childhood. High academic standards flourish when learning is creative, memorable, and allows room to explore. Our small classes mean teachers know each child well and tailor learning accordingly. Strong relationships underpin pastoral care, ensuring challenges are appropriately pitched.
A Cokethorpe Prep School education is about so much more than the taught curriculum; it happens in Maths lessons, on the sports field, in the woods, and on the stage. Outdoor education is integral, and our setting provides wonderful opportunities to learn and play.
Parents choose Cokethorpe Prep for its balance of care and ambition. It is a welcoming place where kindness, respect, and high standards go hand-in-hand. I warmly invite you to visit and experience it for yourself.
Mrs Sarah Orton
Head of Prep
Sixth Form Life
The Sixth Form is the culmination of a pupil’s time at Cokethorpe.
It is the moment to apply knowledge and skills to the rigours of examination while embracing responsibility, opportunity, and challenge.
Making Sixth Form Count
Sixth Form at Cokethorpe is a springboard to life beyond School – university, college, or the workplace. We help students become independent-minded, purposeful, and, above all, happy young adults with the skills, intellect, and attitude to thrive.
We encourage students in the Sixth Form:
- Be curious – ask meaningful questions, read beyond specifications, and think widely.
- Be organised – use time well across study, commitments, and applications; make the to-do list a friend.
- Be ambitious – plan high and make goals achievable through proactive effort.
- Be creative – find time for passions; stay grounded and mindful.
- Work hard – enjoy progress and be motivated by positives.
- Be thoughtful – support one another, lead by example, and remember the world beyond Cokethorpe.
Academic Life
Sixth Form study is different: smaller groups, fewer subjects, and more independent learning, with every hour in class matched by an hour beyond it. Study centres around the Sixth Form Centre and is supported by Learning Character Education and a ‘Pre-A’ course in the first term of Lower Sixth.
Through AOBs, the Extended Project Qualification, the Enlightenment Lecture Series, the Lower Sixth Electives, and one-off super-curricular opportunities, students connect ideas, see the bigger picture, and develop lifelong passions, while embracing the full
co-curricular offer of sport, music, drama, and more. It’s a sociable, kind, and supportive community where students discover who they are and follow their own path, with ambition encouraged and support available every step of the way.
Mr Ed Tolputt
Head of Sixth Form
Where next?
Digital Learning
At Cokethorpe, we are proud of the way we embrace modern technology, utilising it to support and augment teaching and learning, both in the classroom and beyond.
Publications and Films
Discover Cokethorpe through the medium of film or read from among the colourful and varied array of publications produced throughout the School year, including those produced by our pupils.
Pastoral Life
The pastoral provision at Cokethorpe is one of the great strengths of the School and has directly evolved from its ethos of being community and family focused.
Book your tour today
Come and visit Cokethorpe, whether for an Open Morning, one of our monthly
Meet the Head events, or a personal Tour, and Discover Your Cokethorpe.