The Prep School
Throughout the main Prep School, the maximum class size is 20. This part of the school is divided into two sections, the Middle School, comprising Years 3, 4 & 5 (ages 7+ - 10+), and the Senior School, comprising Years 6, 7 & 8 (ages 10+ - 13+).
In Year 3 (age 7+) the children continue, as they did in the Pre-Prep, to enjoy the pastoral security of a Class Teacher (and assistant) who remains with them throughout the majority of each school day. However, they continue to benefit from specialist teaching in certain subjects, in French, for example, and also in games and performing arts. They have direct access to the specialist subject facilities and resources available in the main Prep School, such as the Art & Design Centre, the science laboratory ('Skylab'), the Performing Arts Studio and the two ICT suites.
In Year 4 the children spend less time, about half, with their Class Teacher and more being taught by specialist subject teachers. This is the year they begin to get used to the idea of moving around the school from room to room for some of their lessons, and to organising themselves (with lots of help and support!) to be in the right place, at the right time and with the right books! It takes a little practice, but by the end of the year and the start of Year 5 they are ready to go!
From the start of Year 5 and on through Years 6, 7 and 8 the children are taught exclusively by subject specialists in dedicated and specifically resourced subject rooms. A prime example is the custom-built science suite, comprising 'Skylab,' and 'Drylab‚' at the top of the 'Clock Block' classroom building. Other academic subject departments occupy the lower floors in spacious, well-lit classrooms. Our abiding aim is to prepare our pupils for life in the 21st century. From life and study skills, to science field trips, traffic surveys, PowerPoint presentations and website design, not to mention our Pennthorpe Challenge leadership development programme - all have this aim very much in mind.
Most pupils leave Pennthorpe at the age of 13+, at the end of Year 8, sitting 13+ Common Entrance or Scholarship entry exams to senior schools. Pennthorpe pupils have established an outstanding record of academic success over many years, routinely achieving a 100% Common Entrance pass rate into first choice schools. In addition, an astonishing number of scholarship awards have been won (75 in just the last five years) both for academic attainment and for achievement in other areas such as art, music, drama, ICT and sport.
The final two years of a child's life at Pennthorpe is a time of responsibility, excitement and discovery. Trips abroad, major school drama and music productions, opportunities for leadership, the Pennthorpe Challenge programme, playing in school teams and much, much more make these two years especially full and rewarding. By the time we say goodbye to our pupils at the end of Year 8, our aim is that they should not only have achieved their full academic potential, but that they should have developed real strengths and enthusiasms outside the academic classroom too. Pennthorpe is a school that strives to help its pupils to turn themselves into well balanced, confident all-rounders.