Rugby’s House system is our most distinctive feature.
If you are going to be a boarder, you will live in one of our 13 girls’ and boys’ boarding Houses for as long as you are at Rugby School. You will sleep and eat there, do your prep there, meet with your tutor, join in the House activities, have down-time with your friends.
Your House will become your term-time home. It is where Rugby’s principles of kindness, tolerance, and intellectual curiosity converge. It is a place of security and relaxation where you will not just be included, you will belong.
About 50 students live in each House – a smaller number than most schools’ boarding houses – around 10 from each year group (13 to 18). We think this is the ideal number to ensure all the students get to know each other, and for the resident staff to care for every student individually.
Time in your House
Rugby is a ‘full’ boarding school which means you will be staying at your House for the whole term except for exeats and half-terms when you will go home or to your guardians. There are no arrangements for flexi or weekly boarding. The Houses are everyone’s term-time home, with no weekly or flexi arrangements to disrupt the community at weekends. We believe this is the best model for a boarding school. It offers you the opportunity to get the best out of Rugby and to enjoy the companionship of everyone in your House. It also fosters a spirit of mutual support – looking out for each other and instilling respect for and interest in people from a range of backgrounds and countries.
If you are a day student, you will join one of the day Houses where you will have your own study, eat your meals, stay for the evenings if you wish and visit friends who are boarders. The day Houses are open all day until 10 pm throughout the week.
In every term there are two exeats (a long weekend) either side of half-term (which is a full week).
Evening and weekend activities
Sports fixtures take place on Saturdays as well as during the week. There are also organised outings and outdoor activities, regular ‘socials’ with other Houses (all the Houses are near each other on the School campus and have big gardens), and meetings of our many student-led clubs and societies. Sundays are always relaxed.
Spaces to relax
The Houses have big rooms for watching films together, playing table tennis or for noisy events like rehearsing for the House singing competition; they also have smaller, quieter spaces and kitchens for students’ use.
Your weekend
The School’s facilities remain open at the weekend. This means you can spend time in the art and design studios, use the library, practise your music, play team games or use the fully equipped Sports Centre (which includes squash courts, gyms and a swimming pool).
Your space
If you come to Rugby School as a boarder when you are 13 (Year 9), you will share a bedroom with two or three other new students. In Year 10, you will share with one other student; in the Sixth Form you will have your own study bedroom.
Social programme
Our social programme includes house events, themed evenings, dinners, and whole-school activities, along with trips to concerts, performances, and cultural experiences. Activities are tailored to different year groups so all students can take part in age-appropriate experiences.
The social programme is a key part of life at Rugby School, helping students build confidence, develop independence, and form lasting friendships.
"The house system here at Rugby is what makes Rugby so special."
"We all eat together and it enables us to chat, find out how the day's going over the dining room table as you would do in your own family home."
In-House dining
You will come back to your House for every meal. Unlike most schools we do not have central dining because we think that eating together in your House is a better way of getting to know everyone.
Food is very important in a school, especially one with so many boarders. We take it very seriously. Student representatives from each House attend meetings with the caterers to discuss menu likes and dislikes and to propose new ideas. Each House has its own chef who tailors menus to account for tastes, allergies, nutritional needs and religious observance.
Your House team
There is a resident Housemaster or Housemistress (Hm) in each House, as well as a Deputy Hm; there are also two matrons. The number of experienced residential staff in each House means that they have the time and opportunity to get to know every student in their care and can answer parents’ questions with confidence.
Every student at Rugby has their own tutor (a member of the School’s teaching staff) with whom they meet privately at their House every week to discuss any aspect of School life the student wants to raise. This is immensely helpful to students and reassuring for parents.
There is a sensitive and discreet support network for students in each House. Hms, tutors and matrons meet weekly to discuss any concerns about individual students. And each House has trained ‘peer coaches’, members of the Sixth Form who have voluntarily trained to be able to listen to students’ problems and know how they should be dealt with or to whom they should be directed.
Our campus
Explore Rugby School through our interactive map. Click on different areas to discover our Houses, buildings and academic faculties, each offering a glimpse into life at the School.
With organised prep six nights a week and no need ‘to crowbar them out of bed,’ parents are grateful to have ‘removed the nag factor’
Join us at an Open Day
Join us at an Open Day, meet our students and teachers and get a sense of what makes Rugby School such a special place.
We look forward to welcoming you.