Plymouth College is an independent school founded some 120 years ago. For a long male preserve, it admitted girls to the Sixth Form in 1976. Three years ago the first girls entered Year 7, so that by 1999 the College will be fully coeducational.
Whilst the pursuit of academic excellence is its principal aim, the College seeks to find and develop talents of every kind - in academic work, in sport, in the arts - and to encourage thoughtful, courteous and kind behaviour in its pupils, fostering a sense of commitment to the community and an awareness of responsibility.
Hence activities which are regarded by many as extra curricular are seen as vitally important at the College. Many clubs and societies function at lunch times and after school. There is a wide range of sport from the conventional rugby, cricket, tennis, netball and athletics to climbing, canoeing, caving and outward bound activities. Drama is popular, with productions of all kinds from original revues to Shakespeare's plays, every pupil having the opportunity to perform on stage in the first two years at the College, and thereafter in middle school plays and senior dramatic productions. Music too, has a high profile with an orchestra, a wind band and an array of performing ensembles as well as individual lessons available on every instrument. In addition to in-house recitals there are major concerts in public venues such as Westminster Abbey and Plymouth Guildhall.
The College has a clear code of discipline through which pupils learn to accept responsibility for their own behaviour and to see themselves as important individuals within a close knit and supportive organisation, so that the young people of today may become the leading citizens of tomorrow.
