Prep School at Wells Cathedral School: Inspiring children from Years 3 - 6

Prep School

Inspiring children from Years 3-6

Our Philosophy

Wells is a unique school that blends tradition and innovation to ensure a vibrant, thriving and successful atmosphere. We are a happy, caring and stimulating community where an ambitious academic and creative curriculum, combined with excellent pastoral care and a rich breadth of opportunities, provides a first-class education for every individual.

We know that every child starts school with a sparkling imagination and a willingness to take risks with how they think. We embrace this through our creative teaching and stimulating programme of study, which inspires, excites and enables a ‘can do’ attitude. By doing this, we are able to nurture their minds and celebrate each child’s ‘bright spark’ that makes them a unique individual.

Our vibrant and busy school provides flexibility for families by offering additional activities before and after our ‘normal’ school day. Pupils start arriving from 7.45am when Breakfast Club opens through to 8.20am when children meet with their class teachers. The school day ends at 3.55pm although most pupils choose to stay on to either take advantage of the many clubs or attend the supervised prep activity running from 4.15pm to 5.15pm. Supper Club runs from 5.15pm to 6.00pm for those who need to stay later. Many families make use of our school buses to help with the school run; the buses travel all over the county and beyond, arriving at school at 8.30am and departing school at 5.15pm.

The school day is divided into six lessons with breaks in the morning and afternoon and 50 minutes for lunch. Lunch operates on a cafeteria style system, with a careful balance of freedom and supervision to ensure everyone is eating well.

Life at Wells

Academic Excellence

We enable all pupils to find their particular pathway to academic success by providing support and resources to enhance academic achievement for all.

Success is not simply measured by end results but is defined by how well your children have grown in their intellectual, emotional, social and ethical development during their time in the Prep School.

We strive to foster in our pupils the ethos of being lifelong learners and critical thinkers through accessing a rich curriculum that provides challenges, arouses curiosity and develops resilience.

Pastoral Care

Our pupils’ happiness and wellbeing are at the heart of all we do, and our parents feel secure knowing their children are valued, motivated, successful and fulfilled. Our form teacher system creates a small group identity that strengthens a sense of security, belonging and wellbeing. Our buddy system and peer mentoring programme provide support for those who need it and

opportunities to develop personal responsibility. We value everyone’s contributions and encourage mutual trust and respect.

Boarders (from Year 4) live in our ‘prep’ boarding house, Claver Morris, and benefit from being part of a supportive and nurturing community, enabling them to flourish in all aspects of school life.

Creative Arts

We have a strong emphasis on creativity within our regular curriculum, which helps pupils to achieve a brilliant foundation for life. Each arts area is taught by specialist teachers who nurture talents and develop passions. We also work alongside visiting artists each term, arrange trips to art exhibitions and provide additional enrichment opportunities. Timetabled drama and dance lessons as well as whole school and year group performances - including our Christmas Celebration, Shakespeare Workshops, summer musical and our Exhibition Afternoon - ensure that all pupils are given opportunities to develop their confidence to shine and build crucial character strengths and learning powers. Our performances and exhibitions generally take place within our lovely 11th century Ritchie Hall or 21st century Cedars Hall.

Our school is a place for making things - this may be making ideas, making art or making their mark!

Music

We offer music lessons for any instrument your child might wish to try, whether they are just beginning their musical journey or already playing at an advanced level. Our wide range of ensembles, including Orchestra, Brass Ensemble and String Ensemble, provide opportunities for our young musicians to develop their skills. Pupils in Years 5 and 6 can join our Choir, which gives them another opportunity to shine with performances throughout the academic year. All pupils can perform in our termly performance platform concerts, which offer everyone (from beginners to our music specialists) the chance to show off their developing talents.

Sport

By giving each child a clear pathway through a range of enjoyable physical activities, we hope to foster self-sufficiency, leadership, resilience and a perseverance to aim high in all that they do. Our imaginative coaching focuses on fundamental movement skills, which are the ‘building blocks’ for the skills required to be successful in sports.

Our aim is to involve every pupil in our competitive matches with other schools, emphasising enjoyment and providing opportunities to learn by playing with continuous positive encouragement from coaches. We have teams in each age group; this allows all children to experience competitive games at an appropriate level for them.

Outdoor Learning

Our pupils have outdoor education as part of their PE programme. Our children enjoy orienteering and our climbing wall. Our pupils regularly use our swimming pool; our Rookie Lifeguard Club, which helps the pupils to develop their aquatic skills further, is very popular with our Years 5 and 6.

Our pupils benefit from camping trips, and our Year 5 and 6 pupils have opportunities to challenge themselves as individuals and as part of a team during our annual outdoor educational trip to Skern Lodge in North Devon. The children enjoy their many activities, from high ropes to water rafting and tunnelling.

Clubs and Activities

We recognise that every child has strengths and hidden talents, and our challenge as their teachers and educators is to discover what these are and then nurture them, which helps our children to become self-motivated individuals with increased confidence and self-esteem. We find our extensive activity programme is a key component in enabling this process to happen and so our staff provide activities ranging from street dance to Rookie Lifeguard, engineering to gardening and everything else in between. Some activities have been in response to requests from the School Council, which provides an active pupil voice for all pupils in the Prep School.

Next Steps

Most pupils in our Prep School choose to move on to our Senior School at the end of Year 6. Many have the skills required for a place on the Specialist Music or Specialist Mathematics programmes, with others being awarded academic, sporting or creative arts scholarships.

Our current families have found that one of the many advantages to our through-school approach is the amount of time spent throughout

Year 6 to ensure the transition to Senior School is as smooth as possible. You can feel reassured in the knowledge that our Prep and Senior School teachers meet regularly to ensure a joined up approach, and that we conduct a proper handover for each individual child moving up to our Senior School where our school-wide commitment to enable pupils to ‘be what they are’ continues to be at the heart of everything that we do.

If you would like to find out more about Wells Cathedral School, please contact our admissions team on 01749 834441 / admissions@wells.cathedral.school or visit our website https://wells.cathedral.school