Day pupil centre for day children plus B & B available if needed. Pay phones on almost every corner, mobiles dodgy here, and no camera phones allowed. Leased for a peppercorn from a charitable foundation (originally the brain child of Brian Martin) QE has benefited from squillions of quids' worth of investment. Good, if not lavishly stocked, library, banks of computers, teletext business info displayed in series of fours around the school, free availability to the internet including sixth form boarding houses. Regular formal dinner parties with silver service and speaker for sixth form. Immaculate parking facilities, just like the army. Now over 40 per cent boys, with boarding numbers up 25 per cent this year alone. Mr Jandrell would like to see the school with three or four parallel classes throughout. Given the dramatic increase both in pupils and boarders over the past nine or ten years, this may not be so far off the mark. Very popular with local parents.

Pastoral Care and Discipline:
Tutorial system, tutors change yearly, no more than a dozen tutees to each. Pupils are not streetwise and the house system seems to pick up any real problems. Bullies are confronted head on and the bully box where notes, either signed or not, can be deposited for scrutiny by the head or his deputy, is rarely used. Good PSHCE dialogue, Home Office course, and 'no weed' in the school. Regular socials, the sixth formers have a bar twice a week (non-alcoholic since new laws) and lots of inter-school beanos like karaoke and the like. Twice a week the head hosts a discreetly separated lunch table where pupils can let their hair down; if the matter raised is contentious then the pupil concerned is 'invited to see me in my office later'. Charming 'leavers' letter' inviting any former pupil (until they 'leave university, or their 21st birthday, whichever is the later') to contact the college or Mr Martin - reverse charge - at any time - if they have got into a scrape and need help or (free) legal advice. (A Good Schools Guide first). This letter alone perhaps embodies why the ethos of this school is unique. The level of care, attention to detail and passion shown in ensuring pupils get the best chance to do well is positively amazing and leaves many other schools in the shade. No Saturday school, but full range of activities on offer during weekends, trips to Whitby, the latest cinema preview. Sixth formers can toot in York or Leeds on a Saturday night but must meet the pick up by 10pm at the local station (or be in by 10.30 if they miss the train). Alcohol testing if need be.

Pupils and Parents:
No longer so fiercely middle class, lots of first time buyers, pupils come to board from all over - Scotland, Wales as well as East Anglia and locally on daily basis; horses come too. Expect a mass of regional accents, some 20+ per cent 'real foreigners' from abroad - Chinese, Germans, Russians, Scandinavians et al, most of whom come via the internet, with quite a lot just coming for the sixth form, which has something like 48 per cent chaps from China - all boarding. Eight buses collect day pupils from all over Yorkshire (subsidised), buses collect from local station. Local parents fiercely proud of all that this school has achieved

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Entrance:
Either via Chapter House but generally aged 11, As and Bs at GCSE for potential A level candidates at sixth form. External candidates tend to come from the local state schools. Pupils accepted at any time during the school year 'if places available'. This is a school which is not "selective" and accepts pupils across a very wide range of ability. This philosophy is for real. To achieve the high level of academic success across all its pupils is truly inspirational. This shows what can be done with; excellent management, professional hard working staff, superb facilities and solid financial investment. Above all the passion and commitment that runs throughout the school from the Provost down to all levels of staff and pupils is something you do not often see these days.