Oakridge Prep ages 4 to 13
The shape of the day
Mornings
English, maths and science, taught in the hours when children think best.
Afternoons
Sport twice a week, and art, music, drama, French and Latin across the rest.
After school
Supervised prep until 5.30pm, and thirty clubs a term to choose from.
Reading, writing and talking
Every child reads aloud to an adult at least twice a week in Pre-Prep, and writes something that is not an exercise every week after that.
Daily reading
Twenty minutes of reading with an adult, recorded in a book that goes home on a Friday.
Writing that goes somewhere
Letters, reports, poems and one long story a term, marked for what the child meant as well as how it is spelt.
Number and reasoning
Maths is set in three groups from Year 4, so that nobody spends a year being bored or a year being lost.
Mental arithmetic first
Ten minutes at the start of every lesson, out loud, before anything is written down.
Scholarship maths
A separate set in Years 7 and 8 for children sitting scholarship papers, taught by the head of maths.
Beyond the classroom
Two afternoons of sport, an orchestra, a choir, a play every year, and a week away from Year 4 upwards.
Music for everyone
The whole of Year 3 learns an orchestral instrument for a year, with the instrument lent by the school.
Residentials
Four nights in Year 4, a week in the Brecon Beacons in Year 6, and France in Year 8.
Clubs and societies
Thirty a term, from chess and fencing to beekeeping. Most run at lunchtime, none costs extra.
Art, music and drama
An orchestra, two choirs, a play every summer, and an art room open at break.
Trips and residentials
A day out every term from Reception up, and a residential every year from Year 4.
Oakridge Prep ages 4 to 13
What parents say
98%
of families would recommend the school
22
senior school awards in the last three years
Our daughter went from dreading Monday to asking whether she could stay late for orchestra. Her teacher knew her properly inside a fortnight.
We were told plainly which senior schools would suit our son and which would not. That honesty saved us a year of guessing.
He came in with almost no English in Year 3. By Year 5 he was reading to the younger ones. Nobody made a fuss about it, they just did the work.
The open morning was the thing that decided it. No presentation, no brochure, we simply spent an hour in the classrooms.
98%
of families would recommend the school
22
senior school awards in the last three years
