The Perse School

If your child is the kind who races ahead and wants to be surrounded by others who feel the same, the Perse is built for that pace. It is a large, academic, co-educational day school and the oldest surviving secondary school in Cambridge, founded back in 1615 by Dr Stephen Perse, a fellow of Gonville and Caius College, who left money to set up a free school for talented boys from any background. More than four centuries on, the school still runs on that founding idea of opportunity through education.

The Good Schools Guide describes a very big, very academic school that moves at a fast pace and suits bright, driven children with high aspirations, adding that London parents who assume no such school exists outside the M25 should think again. There is real breadth alongside the academic work. The Perse Exploration Society runs outdoor education from Year 3, with climbing, archery and paddle sports, there are more than 30 musical groups, and the sport runs deep enough that A to D teams in each year mean every child represents the school. A nice touch sits in the badges: the junior school's pelican mascot, and a motto, Qui facit per alium facit per se, that ends in a quiet pun on the founder's own name. Among its former pupils is David Gilmour of Pink Floyd.

The Perse suits a curious, self-motivated child who will relish the pace and the breadth rather than one who prefers time to stand and stare. Led since 2008 by headmaster Edward Elliott, it is a school that takes a bright child and gives them somewhere to run.