School Development

As an OFSTED Outstanding School, The Crypt has a strong reputation for academic excellence.  Outstanding results are achieved not only through our young people gaining top grades, but through the progress that every student makes during their time at the school. 

The personal development of our students is an integral part of our educational philosophy: a rich personal development programme helps students strengthen their talents and potential; it helps build human cultural capital, enables employability and enhances quality of life; it strengthens their identity as a young person and sense of belonging to the school; its enables the building of friendships and of many different personal skills, and contributes to the realisation of dreams and aspirations that enable students to flourish. As a high-performing school, we are expected to offer facilities and activities far beyond the academic curriculum.

The reality, however, is that despite its continuing success, The Crypt is not, and never has been, a wealthy school, and we are frequently vulnerable to fluctuations in government funding. Despite being an outstanding school and offering an education that outperforms many neighbouring schools, both state and independent, we operate under significant budgetary restrictions. 

The school has been extremely fortunate in the past decade to have received significant capital investment that has improved the school estate immensely.  These improvements include:

• £1m redevelopment of the old school gym into a fitness room and a dedicated drama studio
• £1.8m teaching block - housing physics, engineering and modern foreign languages (The Anthony Iles Centre)
• £1m redevelopment of the Sports hall and construction of three adjacent classrooms for the teaching of mathematics 
• £1m project to build a sports pavilion and a netball and tennis court area
• £250,000 redevelopment of the School Reception and creation of a secure entry into all school buildings
• £300,000 upgrade of the sixth form centre 

We appreciate the significant contributions of everyone involved in these improvements. However, there is still much work ahead. We are committed to our ambitious plans for further estate developments to establish an environment that sets the standard for 21st-century teaching, learning and student personal development and wellbeing.

Priorities 2025-2028: The Creative and Performing Arts Centre (CPAC)

Throughout time, the human capacity for creativity has been extraordinary. Humans have composed symphonies, painted masterpieces, written timeless literature, convincingly portrayed characters, and engineered innovative technology that has changed the world and enriched lives.  

Indeed, there is overwhelming evidence of the vital role that creativity plays in a child’s education, in fostering wellbeing and social cohesion. Creativity supports children’s mental health and emotional wellbeing, promotes a strong sense of belonging, and improves life skills, confidence and future outcomes. 

In recent years, the arts have been undervalued: funding has been cut, creative subjects have been reluctantly relegated in schools, with students often guided towards academic subjects at the expense of artistic expression. Fortunately, things are changing - in fact, there’s a growing cultural shift towards valuing creativity in education, driven by its importance in both personal growth and to the wider economy. As technology and AI advance, creativity is now seen as a vital skill for innovation and problem-solving, with industries like tech and design emphasising creative thinking, alongside technical skills. 

Employers are already seeking people who can combine technical fluency with creative problem-solving, digital literacy with emotional intelligence, and artistic vision with commercial awareness. Creativity is a superpower that drives innovation across every industry sector. 

At The Crypt, we promote participation across all disciplines and truly recognise the importance of creativity in education. This commitment is reflected in our team of professional and experienced artistic and creative teaching staff, as well as in our comprehensive curriculum and extensive extracurricular activities. The staff and the students make great things happen, despite some tired infrastructure and resources - (did you catch the recent school production of the musical Oliver!?). To meet the needs of our students and society’s future requirements for them, we urgently need to invest in our creative and performing arts facilities, related enrichment activities, and even basic equipment. This investment is not a luxury – it is an essential provision that we owe our students.

Our vision is to build the Crypt’s reputation as the go-to place for creativity, with performance opportunities at the heart of the school experience. At the centrepiece of this vision is a new creative and performing arts space and programme, for both school and community use, where students, staff and the community can imagine and create together. A space to enable rich creative stories to unfold through concerts, rehearsals, lectures, exhibitions, performances, debates and everything in between - which will nurture creativity and enrich lives. This campaign will enable the flourishing of the traditions of creativity and performance in one of the finest grammar schools in the country, for the benefit of all our students (now and to come), as well as the local and wider community. 

How can I support the Creative and Performing Arts Centre?

Our new centre, at the heart of the school and shared with our Podsmead and City communities, will cost £6m to complete and equip. We are now actively and ambitiously fundraising to get the project underway and seek support in this endeavour, both internally and externally. Over the coming months, we will share more details of the project and the fundraising events and activities that we will be organising. We welcome and rely on your support to help us achieve this initiative. 

There are ample and diverse opportunities to expedite our progress, including naming and recognition, gifts-in-kind, sponsorship, corporate giving, personal donations, and donations of vital equipment. If you would like to discuss supporting any aspect of the project, we would be delighted to talk to you.

Please see our Ways of Giving page (insert link when the page is set up) 

Please get in touch to find out more:  

Sarah Veal, Development Manager 

sveal@crypt.gloucs.sch.uk

01452 530291.