Our Purpose and Values
Our purpose and values are at the heart of everything.
Purpose: We make the future better
The Perse is a community of ambition, reflection, and kindness, where pupils and staff work together with purpose, care and humility. Through an excellent, integrated education, we prepare young people for higher education, meaningful careers and fulfilling lives – equipping them with the knowledge, skills, character and confidence to make the future better.
We do this by being:
- An inspiring and aspirational school that promotes intellectual curiosity, nurtures scholarship, and fosters a lifelong love of learning through outstanding teaching, a stimulating curriculum and by making the most of our Cambridge location.
- A caring school that supports pupils, staff, volunteers, the wider community, and the environment by maintaining high professional standards, being kind and considerate, valuing diversity and acting sustainably.
- A balanced school that harmonises the academic, pastoral, and extra-curricular to enable the growth and flourishing of young people equipped with the agency, life skills, character, responsibility, resilience and perspective needed to lead happy and successful lives.
- A philanthropic school that through fees assistance, partnerships, community projects and charitable giving, creates opportunities and provides support to those in need.
- An ambitious, innovative and reflective school that is committed to high standards and continuous improvement.
Qualities and Characteristics
The Perse is Cambridge’s oldest 3-18 school with a long track record of academic, pastoral and extra-curricular success.
Our success is rooted in our commitment to:
- Deliver an inspiring education through a stimulating curriculum, outstanding teaching and learning, independent research, our Cambridge connections, and an international outlook which promote intellectual curiosity and scholarship. These facilitate excellent public exam and university application outcomes.
- Provide high quality pastoral care to meet individual needs and support the development of happy, balanced and considerate pupils.
- Offer a rounded education, rich in rewarding extra-curricular activities which provide enjoyable opportunities for pupils to develop agency, character, life skills, responsibility, resilience and perspective.
- Maintain a safe, caring and flourishing community in which pupils develop a positive moral framework, recognise the importance of wellbeing, develop an understanding of the law and an appreciation of the spiritual dimension to life.
- Value one another through a commitment to high professional standards, integrity, kindness, care, consideration, inclusion, equality and diversity.
- Value the environment by caring for our sites, the wider environment, and by acting sustainably.
- Provide high quality training, support and encouragement for all staff to ensure ongoing personal and institutional development.
- Provide means-tested fees assistance to ensure The Perse is accessible, and support those outside the School through community, partnership and charitable works.
- Maintain strong and sustainable finances to fund all of the above.
A Perse education is three-dimensional, and all pupils and teaching staff are expected to contribute to the School’s academic, pastoral and extra-curricular programmes.
To be at The Perse is to care. We care for our pupils, we care for each other, we care for our School, we care for the wider community and the environment, and we care about all that we do.
The Perse is an ambitious school. We encourage pupils and staff to aim high, challenge themselves and try their best.
Perse Values
You can read our four core values in full here.
Learning Philosophy
Our learning philosophy, with its roots in our values, drives the way we teach and learn.
Sustainability at The Perse
We believe that every student should understand the importance of looking after the world around them.
- About us
- Our Purpose and Values
- Supporting our Community
- International Schools
- Our History
- Inclusion, Equality and Diversity
- Our Facilities
- Our Staff
- Our Governors
- Contact Us
