Cotham School

Now I’m showing my age. When I went here it was still a proper GRAMMAR school and you had to pass your 11+ exam in order to be even allowed on the hallowed grounds of of one of the best schools in Bristol. Not to mention the poor old parents having to buy expensive uniforms.
Within 1 week of arrival, I had been introduced to Mr McKay the head, Mr Elsbury the form tutor, subjected to a dead language (Latin), excruciating maths, complicated chemistry equipment, incomprehensible physics formulae and more. We also learned of our supposed deadly rivalry with Fairfield school in Ashley Down! And don’t get me started on the playing fields two miles away in Horfield which you had to get to somehow after lunch. Anyway, you get the idea.
Ah… those were the days!
Kids these days… They don’t know when they’ve got it made! Bah humbug (and other old fogey type mutterings)
But seriously. I’m sure they do the best they can these days, I see new buildings going up almost every year, and it all looks nice and shiny. Even so they have to try hard now that Redland Green School has opened.

I came here a few years ago for 6^th form, and had a pretty good time. My grades didn’t turn out to be the best, but that wasn’t the fault of the school in any way — Cotham is an excellent secondary school near the centre of town, but just enough away from it to not be a distraction.
The school is quite large, with over 1000 students. They’re currently in the process of a big £20million regeneration, which involves a massive building project at the back of the school site. Indeed, ever since I first went there — about 6 years ago — they’ve been constantly redeveloping since.
Their strong subjects are wide ranging — they have performing arts status, which is what I was involved with when I studied here. The tuition in music was fairly good, and the facilities included 2 full ICT suites with keyboards on each computer, which was very helpful. They had a studio which wasn’t quite up to scratch — when I went for a visit the other day, though, there had been significant improvements.
Apart from this, they also recently received high performing specialist status, due to their consistently high grades. They’ve also become a specialist maths school for the same reason.
All in all this is a good school, and highly recommended for any parents deciding the options between centrally based schools.