Description
St Margaret's Preparatory School is Independent Primary school in Essex for kids aged 2 to 11 (Gender - Mixed )
Choosing the right school for your child is one of the most important decisions you can make as a parent.St Margaret’s offers academic excellence for a wide range of children, coupled with outstanding pastoral care. It is a school where happy children are able to be children, where the core values of courtesy, honesty and hard work are encouraged and rewarded and where the pastoral and academic needs of each child are at the heart of everything we do.Alongside excellent academic teaching, they offer an extensive choice of extra-curricular activities to allow your child to develop their strengths and encourage them to advance their unique talents. Together, we ensure that every child reaches age 11 well prepared to join the senior school that is right for them. This requires a personalised approach for every child and an understanding that everyone develops at a different rate.
Facilities
Nursery
The early years teaching is about creating a firm foundation for your child’s development. The spacious nursery has two rooms, for our ‘Caterpillars’ (starters) and ‘Butterflies (transition). Small classes mean our specialist staff can focus on your child and work at a pace that suits their ability, recognising their strengths in a warm, attentive and approachable way.Your child’s health, wellbeing and safety is of prime importance to us, and we never lose sight of the fact that children learn through a combination of teaching, playing, sharing and caring.The nursery children have French, Music and PE with the same specialist staff as the rest of the school, making the most of the grounds, music and sporting facilities to extend their learning.
Reception
The Reception classrooms are beautiful, bright and spacious, equipped with everything a little learner needs to make every day special! A separate outdoor area, specifically for our EYFS children, allows for exploring and building new friendships within our seven acres of parkland. Class sizes are small, with dedicated, enthusiastic, well qualified class teachers and teaching assistants who care for the children as individuals, helping meet their needs to realise their full potential.
Pre-Preparatory School (Years 1 & 2)
When children move on from Reception into their purpose built Pre-Prep classrooms, great emphasis is given to mastering basic number, reading and writing skills, using a wide range of teaching styles and resources. Children discover History, Geography and Science, largely through topic work. These are further enhanced with the use of ICT and school trips.They continue to place great importance on social interaction and creative pursuits. Art, Design and Technology and Drama are taught by the class teacher, while Music, French and PE are taught by specialist teachers. Computers and interactive whiteboards in classrooms support all lessons and Computer Science is taught in our fully-equipped suite. Work in class is supported with daily reading at home and weekly spellings. On occasions, topic homework is given.
Prep School (Years 3 – 6)
In the Prep School children continue their journey of learning in a rich and exciting way in line with the National Curriculum as a baseline, the greater expectations of the independent curriculum and to prepare them for senior schools and life beyond the classroom.They constantly strive to deliver exciting, engaging and stimulating schemes of work and individual lessons in every subject area. Our subject coordinators are specialists and they bring their knowledge and passion to their department throughout the school.
Features
Things to note
Learning Support
The Special Educational Needs (SEN) Co-ordinator, Mrs Emma Blackburne, has been working at St Margaret’s for more than 10 years and has been ‘SEN Practitioner of the Year’ in the Cognita Awards for Excellence. Within the school and special educational needs department, our aim is for all children to achieve their personal best; for most children this can be achieved with our excellent class teaching. A small group of children, however, may need additional intervention. This may involve small group work or 1:1 lessons for a few terms to address an acute difficulty.
Sports
PE in the Early Years concentrates on developing ball skills building to small-sided games; athletics-type activities and gymnastics, in conjunction with work on apparatus. Football, netball, rugby, swimming, golf, cricket, badminton, hockey, athletics and cross country are all introduced as pupils move through the school. From Year 3, we offer traditional sports during Games lessons, which are not gender specific – we openly encourage our children to choose the sport that they are passionate about, whether it be netball or football, hockey or rugby.
Art
They believe a rounded education should include a good Arts education, introducing children to great literature, drama, the visual arts and music. Pupils are encouraged to take part in all areas of the Arts. Music is central to the culture of the school with class music lessons with specialist teachers from Nursery, and individual lessons for children from Year 1 with one of our 13 visiting peripatetic teachers. Currently 90% of Year 3 – 6 pupils learn at least one instrument.Children also take part in regular class assemblies where they perform to the whole school and parents, nativity plays as well as the school production, which features every child in school on Speech Day. Pupils produce a variety of works of art using a wide range of medium in our dedicated Art Room.
Extra Curricular Activities
Across the academic year, pupils take part in a number of school trips to enhance their classroom learning. In addition, children are offered the opportunity to participate in a variety of extra-curricular clubs, before and after the school day. Our clubs take place both on site and across the local Gosfield community.Extra-curricular lessons in subjects such as Music, Art and Sport help extend our children’s confidence beyond the classroom. Each individual has the opportunity to develop their strengths and to discover new talents and interests. Activities vary each term but during the year may include Lego Club, fencing, golf, dance, tennis, yoga, art, chess, choirs, cross-country, cookery, football and many more.
Extra Curricular
Please check the school website link for details.
1.64 miles
