Wellington Prep School A GSG School

Other features

All-through school (for example 3-18 years). - An all-through school covers junior and senior education. It may start at 3 or 4, or later, and continue through to 16 or 18. Some all-through schools set exams at 11 or 13 that pupils must pass to move on.

What The Good Schools Guide says

Head of Prep

Since 2020, Mrs Vics Richardson (40s) BSc PGCE. Originally from Scotland, with a degree in statistics from St Andrews, Mrs Richardson came straight to Wellington fresh from her PGCE at Homerton and never left. Trained as a secondary maths teacher, she has also been a pastoral housemistress and head of lower school (years 7 and 8); what with that and having been a prep school parent herself, she was ideally placed to head up that same prep school. ‘The reason I love it love it love it is that I did not step into a school I did not know,’ she told us, and that zest for life and learning bubbles up into everything she does. ‘My priority is a happy school,’ she declared, ‘and prioritising children’s happiness and mental health alongside academic endeavour.’ Her staff are encouraged to inspire a love of learning in the children by whatever means, eg kidnapping her and taping the school off as a mock-up crime scene (her husband is a policeman). The children evidently adore her, the littler ones flocking around her in the playground and determined to show her their mastery of the infamous monkey bars; she covers lessons on occasion and teaches year 5 geography. ‘She’s amazing!’ our young interviewees exclaimed – and we cannot demur. ‘She wraps all the children in her arms literally and figuratively,’ one new parent observed – and it was wonderful to see such a warm tactile head not suppressing her natural maternal instincts. Mum to two sporty boys in the senior school, her weekends are often spent on the touchline, cooking, enjoying the great outdoors or socialising: ‘My husband is from the Caribbean and we love that relaxed vibe at home.’ Holidays might be spent on the beach or skiing. And on her bedside table? Let the Children Play (Sahlberg and Doyle), Love in a Cold Climate (Mitford) and this month’s Tatler.

Entrance

Sixteen nursery places available from the age of 3, following a ‘stay and play’ session. Many will move seamlessly into the pre-prep and on to the prep from the nursery, but the school states that the pre-prep onwards is academically selective and requires all hopefuls to spend a taster day to assess, in their quaint phrasing, ‘ability and disposition’.

Exit

The majority go straight to the senior school; a handful go elsewhere for family or financial reasons. Only potential scholars will do exams. Any doubtful runners (rare) are identified early, and supported in their search for suitable secondary options. In 2023, 26 scholarships.

Our view

Sited in a light, bright brick building whose upper floor looks down on a central hall used for lunch (food cooked in-house and highly rated ‘apart from the Tuesday fricassee’) and indoor activities across the road from the senior school, the purpose-built prep school has enjoyed a deliberately porous relationship with it since its inception in 1999, sharing facilities and staff. Years 5 and 6 are consequently taught in ‘the block’, part of the senior school across the road, to ready them for the much bigger senior school campus. Crossing that road unaccompanied is a year 6 privilege – there is a light-controlled crossing.

The EYFS curriculum is followed until year 2, though guided play is the watchword in the nursery and the school prides itself on its individual approach to each child’s learning preferences, for example each child in the nursery can choose between indoor and outdoor play. Their area has artificial turf and wooden play equipment. Much emphasis on establishing the mindset, necessary emotional regulation and habits of effective learning, which run right through both prep and senior. Read, Write, Inc. is the chosen programme in the prep school and the foundations for this are laid early on, with a specific Letters and Sounds programme. English, maths (mostly!) and history were given top marks by our enthusiastic interviewees: ‘I like doing sums!’ one boy proclaimed. Wellington is the only independent school in the country to be accredited in the Maths – No Problem! scheme from Singapore. Own library and science labs, but even reception pupils spend a day in the senior school labs – ‘And now they all want to be chemists!’ laughed the head. Older children were happily absorbed in a comprehension on St Patrick’s Day when we visited. The number of subject teachers increases as pupils progress through the school; weekly music lessons from nursery, computing and wellbeing from reception and French from year 1. Spanish comes in year 5, there’s a German club in year 6 and Italian is being introduced also. Learning is embellished by visitors with special guests like new lambs and portable animals from Exmoor Zoo or a shoe designer from nearby Clarks offering older children the chance to design their own shoe. Prep diaries from year 5 prepare them for the rigours and organisation required for senior school prep. Learning support is titled the learning success programme and delivers small group work only; all children are screened for dyslexia.

Considerable resources and time are devoted to life beyond the classroom: these children really do spend a lot of time running about outside and benefit enormously from the sports facilities and staff in the senior school. Parents and, we’re guessing, most of the children love the daily sport, especially the football, hockey and girls’ tag rugby. Sport on Saturday mornings is offered from year 3 onwards, but is not compulsory; forest school for the younger children is a 10-minute minibus ride away in the gorgeous Blackdown Hills. ‘Sport and being active is totally ingrained,’ one mother told us approvingly, with its useful messages about health and the dangers of obesity. Beyond the school grounds, pupils enjoy expeditions to the local glories of Somerset, such as the now legendary year 6 residential on Exmoor and annual outdoor education week.

But it’s not all about sport: music and drama get places on the podium too. All kinds of music are encouraged, from the traditional – we were completely beguiled by the piping but tuneful strains of All Things Bright and Beautiful floating through an open window in the music block – to the more modern, such as the annual 3-18 contemporary faculty event. From year 3, pupils have a weekly lesson from the charismatic director of music and learn an instrument in class; year 4 all learn the recorder. Three choirs too, one of which is open to year 8, presumably the point at which boys’ voices are likely to break. Plenty of opportunities to conquer those performance nerves at teatime concerts before moving on to larger scale faculty events. But ‘a bigger music room with a sound system and drum kit’ is on the wish list of at least one young lady we met… Drama highlights start with Christmas nativity plays in the early years; years 3 and 4 stage their major production in the senior school Great Hall theatre in the spring term, but the pinnacle of prep school drama is the year 6 production in the summer: Ye-Ha! – a ‘rootin’ tootin’ tale of crazy cowboys’ – was in rehearsal at the time of writing. Stage School is offered as a club and paid for separately. Other events in the community provide the chance to perform, as well as less formal school functions, such as poetry evenings. ‘We enjoyed our improvs on Harry Potter we showed our parents,’ enthused our young interviewees. ‘It all improves confidence and social skills’ in the view of one mother, who also praised the way that year groups mingle in music, sport and drama.

Wellington Prep struck us as an overwhelmingly kind school where staff and pupils genuinely look after and out for each other: everyone we spoke to commented positively on this. ‘Nurturing’ was the word we heard over and over from parents we spoke to. The pastoral care is highly rated and this kind of support, in one parent’s opinion, gives the children the skills to deal with any adversity they may meet. We also heard praise for the sense of community and family: ‘The children get on, are nice to each other and have a good time,’ we were told. Good behaviour is promoted through a few easy-to-understand golden rules and it seems that generally a word from the teacher is enough to put children back on the right path. Not a rich school, but not a poor one either, Wellington Prep attracts mostly local families wanting an individualised, active, all-round, wrap-around (till 6pm by arrangement) education for their children, without giving them a sense of entitlement or privilege: the children are well-mannered and grounded, according to the head – we’d agree. The extensive network of buses serving the senior school is available to children from year 3 onwards.

Money matters

Fees at the more reasonable end of the scale, lunches and after-school care from 5-6pm on top. No scholarships or bursaries on offer until the senior school.

The last word

A jolly little prep school which manages the transition to senior school very well, giving its lucky youngsters a broad, kind, joyful education en route. All the parents we spoke to reported that their children had loved it from the start: ‘My son cannot wait to get out of the car in the morning and comes home tired and still smiling at the end of the day.’ Says it all really.

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