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The School Day

Chestnuts (Years 1 – 2)

The school day for Years 1 – 2 (Chestnuts) is similar to that of older years but the boys go home between 3.30 pm and 5.30 pm. Boys in Chestnuts have break and lunch earlier than the older boys, but have the same opportunities to take advantage of the school facilities. Boys in Chestnuts do not have homework or prep to take home and Saturday morning school is an optional activity morning. Fuller details of the Chestnuts timetable and arrangements will be sent to parents as required.

Years 3 – 8

The day starts with Chapel or Assembly at 8.30am each morning. Three lessons are followed by a 40 minute break; years 3, 4 and 5 then have two more lessons and lunch whilst the remainder of the school have a sixth lesson, then lunch. Two sittings for meals enable a sociable and pleasant atmosphere!

In the afternoon the youngest boys have an hour of activities and sport. Activities include pottery, technology, model railway, music and drama. In addition to the main sport of the term (football, rugby, cricket) there is also the opportunity to play squash, badminton, hockey and golf as well as extra-curricular activities chosen by parents such as Ju-Jitsu. Apart from on Wednesdays, there are afternoon lessons. These are over by 4.10 pm. Prep is at 4.30 pm and may be completed at home. Each evening, there is a special boarders’ timetable.

Higher up the school (year 6 and above) the programme is slightly different with afternoon lessons followed by sport or activities. Prep is at 5.30 pm. Day boys are most welcome to stay for prep and supper (6.10pm) at no extra charge. After supper the senior boarders have some welcome free time in which they can use all the facilities: table tennis, snooker, computer room etc.

Saturday Morning School

There are considerable advantages to Saturday morning school. The teaching timetable is less compressed, there are more opportunities for other educational activities, the whole week is less intensive than it would otherwise be so boys achieve much more. To offset any potential weekend problems for parents we have fixed long weekends (called exeats) every three weeks and we are as flexible as possible with special weekend requests.For boys in Chestnuts there is an optional activities morning each Saturday.