Prep School

‘Pupils demonstrate good study skills for their age and are keen to learn’

– Park Hill School ISI Inspection Report, 2020


For the children entering Park Hill Prep School in years 3-6, we have designed a challenging curriculum that extends our pupils well beyond the National Curriculum objectives, and uses the Common Entrance Curriculum Syllabus (ISEB).

We consider English and Maths to be the most important subjects in every child’s learning. Building on the fundamental maths skills developed during the Pre-Prep curriculum, we support our pupils to develop real-world understanding of mathematical concepts and to use these skills to solve other problems across the curriculum.

In English, we explore narrative writing, poetry, non-fiction and learn to write in different styles. Learning experiences are facilitated by our experienced Teachers to support the children to become fascinated by the English language and to use their knowledge to become creators and innovators. Park Hill children have had their creative writing recorded as audiobook and their work published on Spotify and other global audiobook and Podcasting platforms.

Our new science curriculum is split into the traditional subjects of Biology, Chemistry and Physics. At Park Hill, science is a hands-on subject and the children have the most fantastic experiences both at the Park Hill site but also in the Senior School Science Labs at Canbury School. The quality of Science provision at Park Hill was recognised in 2020 when the school was awarded the PSQM (Primary Science Quality Mark).

In Humanities, we focus on studying the geological aspects of our planet and how they have evolved over time and the scientific reasons behind the activity. We delve deep into History to learn about the key civilisations and historical events that bought us to where we are today. The Humanities curriculum we offer at Park Hill lends itself to many field trips and excursions. To support the classroom side of learning we attend residential camps to the Jurassic Coast and a range of day trips to places such as HMS Belfast and The Natural History Museum.

All our pupils enjoy the excellent Kingston Grammar School facilities at Ditton Fields for Sport.  We have a structured competitive fixture list against other local prep and state schools. The children continue their swimming lessons at the Kingfisher Centre in Kingston, where they focus on life saving, water skills and competitive swimming.

To give children the all-round education they then need in order to become well-rounded citizens of the modern world, all Prep school receive weekly lessons in Sports Science, Latin, Performing Arts, Music and all pupils have an hour of French weekly, where they learn to develop conversation through role play.

We prepare our children for the 11+ examination so that they will be able to move on to the very best independent and state schools, when they leave Park Hill.  They have weekly lessons in verbal and non-verbal reasoning, philosophy and critical thinking.

We expect Prep school pupils to be good role models for the rest of the school and we love to see them become more and more independent as they move up the school.

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