Battle Abbey School

‘The school feels like we are in a family, everyone knows everyone,’ says one pupil at this unique East Sussex day and boarding school that looks across the very battlefield where the Battle of Hastings took place. Classes are held in a former monastery and a clutch of historic 13th-century buildings, and in the winter, the famous ruins of William the Conqueror’s abbey are used for teaching and singing by candlelight. It’s spine-tingling stuff to have 1066 woven into your day-to-day school life, but for all its history, this is an all-through school with an impress...