Taunton Prep and Pre-Prep School A GSG School

Curricula

International Baccalaureate: diploma - the diploma is the familiar A-level equivalent.

Other features

Music and dance scheme - government funding and grants available to help with fees at selected independent music and dance schools.

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.

International Study Centre - school has a linked, international study centre for overseas students wishing to improve their English.

Sports

Equestrian centre or equestrian team - school has own equestrian centre or an equestrian team.

Rowing

Shooting

What The Good Schools Guide says

Headmaster

Since January 2024, Ed Burnett BSc PGCE MBA, previously senior deputy head of the senior school. He studied economics and politics at the University of Southampton and after a PGCE in London began his teaching career at Cranleigh. He moved to an international school in Hong Kong, then came back to Cranleigh as head of rugby, head of department and housemaster. In between, he did an MBA in educational management and leadership at the University of Leicester (his dissertation was on inclusion within mainstream education). Joined Taunton School as deputy head (pastoral) and was soon elevated to senior deputy head. He was also the school’s safeguarding lead and led a number of pastoral initiatives to support pupils as they moved through the school. A keen sportsman, he coached rugby and netball and as an experienced open water swimmer supported and helped to coach six prep school relay swims across the English Channel.

Married to Valerie, head of PRE at the prep, with a son who attends the senior school.

Since September 2023, head of pre-prep and nursery is Rebecca Lewis, previously head of Oak Cottage Primary in Solihull and before that a teacher, curriculum and key stage 1 lead at a neighbouring school in Solihull. She has also worked in two different nursery settings and served as an external moderator at KS1 for the local authority.

Entrance

Non-selective. Children are invited in for a taster day and to meet the head. The prep also seeks a report and reference from their current school. Some start in the nursery and go all the way through but others join in years 3 and 7 – and at other points along the way.

Exit

Virtually everyone heads to the senior school, often with scholarships and awards (a total of 45 in 2022). Year 7 and 8 pupils have some lessons at the senior school so by the time they get there in year 9 they are ‘definitely ready’.

Our view

Founded in 1994 following the merger of the girls’ and boys’ junior schools, the prep sits on its own self-contained campus next to the senior school on the northern outskirts of town. Its buildings are a mix of Victorian and more modern, all ultra spick and span. As we walked into the main playground we were greeted by the newly appointed wellbeing mentor, a former teacher who’s out and about at break and lunchtime, keeping an eye on everybody, chatting to children, recommending books and handing out wellbeing cards and messages. She has regular meetings with the heads of pastoral care to discuss what she’s picked up from pupils. ‘I’ve never seen her without a smile on her face,’ said one girl.

Pastoral care here is exemplary. There are posters everywhere detailing who children can go to for help (their tutors, pastoral heads of year, independent person, wellbeing mentor and health centre staff, including mental health nurses, counsellors and a physiotherapist), walks and talks with the chaplain, weekly PSHE lessons and the TPS mission. The latter is a 12-spoke wheel of key values which involves pupils self-assessing with their tutors how strong they feel in areas of personal development, such as confidence, positivity, resilience and respect. ‘They use the word “nurturing” a lot,’ a parent told us. ‘I’m not a fluffy, cotton-wool type of mum but the school feels like coming home. It’s inclusive, welcoming and very unpretentious.’

Academically, the prep is a very safe pair of hands across the board – staff want children to be challenged but not feel pressurised. Average class sizes of 18 and setting in English, maths, science and languages for older pupils. French taught from year 3, plus Spanish or German from year 7. Everyone does Latin or classical civilisation from year 7 too. The lessons we saw were exciting and engaging, with children focused and happy. Year 5s were developing their coding skills on mini-computers, year 6s were learning about gamelan, an Indonesian ensemble of percussion instruments, and year 7s were examining the structure of flowers under microscopes in science.

The focus throughout is on handwritten work but from spring 2023 the school is introducing a designated device scheme (laptops and tablets) to enhance teaching and learning. Sensible amounts of homework – from reading and times tables in year 3 to an hour’s prep a night for year 8s. The school does standardised tests to track the children’s progress and the average pupil is in the top 20 in the country for English and maths. ‘It speaks volumes for the value-added we bring,’ says the school.

Around 10 per cent of pupils have learning support (known as educational progress here), mostly for dyslexia, dyscalculia and working memory and processing speed issues. ‘For anything more serious we may not be the right school,’ say staff. A four-strong learning support team (a SENCo and three specialist teachers) offer one-to-one support. They include a reading success coordinator who supports children in years 3 to 6 with phonics and reading. EAL is provided one-to-one or in small groups.

The nursery (babies from six months) and pre-prep are housed in a separate building, with classrooms opening on to a vast playground. ‘We’re a self-contained pre-prep but we have all the benefits of the huge campus,’ said the head of the pre-prep. Lots of outdoor play – wellies are part of children’s kit, there are two forest school areas and more than 40 bikes to play on. The pre-prep buzzes with activity. When we visited, the year 2 topic was London so children were busy comparing buildings in Taunton to London landmarks, learning about the Great Fire of London and making facsimiles of Pudding Lane houses out of cardboard. We loved the fact that a group of year 8 dance scholars visit the nursery and pre-prep once a week to lead a wake up and shake up session in the playground first thing in the morning. ‘It used to be run by a year 1 teacher and when she retired the dance scholars stepped in,’ a parent told us. ‘They have responsibility for it and come up with age-appropriate dance moves for the children. Parents can join in too.’

Like its senior counterpart, the prep is incredibly sporty, with a string of accolades to its name. In 2022 the under-13 boys won the IAPS national prep schools championships in hockey and cricket and scooped the English Schools Swimming Association title in the freestyle relay. Meanwhile the under-13 girls won the independent schools West of England hockey championship and two boys were declared official world champions in the biathle and triathle. The pupils are impressively modest about their achievements – we chatted with one of the winning boys a couple of days later and he didn’t even mention his success. As well as other triumphs in rugby, cross-country running, athletics, shooting, golf and riding, 12 prep pupils were part of a Taunton School team that swam the English Channel, braving freezing water and jellyfish to help save a local community pool from closure.

The prep has the advantages of being able to use the senior school’s facilities but it also has its own sports hall, 25-metre swimming pool, tennis and netball courts and sports pitches. Even though there’s so much sporting excellence the emphasis is very much on inclusion and every child gets the chance to represent the school. ‘It’s really important that everybody feels included,’ say staff. Cricket is the girls’ main summer sport and they can play football and rugby if they choose. Some top-notch coaches here – former England batsman Marcus Trescothick coaches cricket, as does former Somerset assistant coach Pete Sanderson, director of cricket for the whole school. Every pupil belongs to a house and there are lots of inter-house competitions. ‘It means they all have mates in different year groups,’ said a parent.

Like sport, music is for everyone. Years 3 and 4 get a music taster programme to try different instruments they’d like to play and the junior choir is open to all. Nearly half the pupils have instrumental lessons and keen musicians showcase their talents in year group concerts, house music week, performing arts evenings and much more. The performing arts are all about ‘having a go’, whatever your year group. The prep has its own performing arts theatre and stages a plethora of productions – everything from drama to dance and from Hansel and Gretel to the fun-sounding Pirates of the Curry Bean. Art is engaging and fun, led by an inspiring teacher who gets children to create lino cuts of bugs in rainbow colours, design optical illusions and paint their own self portraits.

The prep offers wraparound care. Children can arrive at 7.45am (they are supervised by teachers) and registration is at 8.15am. The school day ends at 3.50pm but the vast majority do clubs (a choice of 50 activities, ranging from eco club and model making to climbing and long-distance swimming) or supervised homework till 5.15pm. Some stay on till 5.45pm and a few have supper with the boarders and go home at 6.45pm. Saturday school for years 7 and 8 on 22 Saturdays a year but years 3 to 6 have optional Saturday enrichment activities (more than half choose take up the offer). Day pupils come from a 360-degree radius, some using the extensive school bus network from places like Exeter, Minehead, Sidmouth and Weston-super-Mare.

Pupils, from a range of professional, business, military and farming families, are delightful. We lunched with a group of year 7 and 8 children and amidst the chatter they spotted that we didn’t have the right cutlery. Without being asked, they jumped up, dashed across the dining room and found some. They’re proactive in every sense – year 6s act as playground champions and year 8 playground ambassadors wear rainbow lanyards so if a younger pupil wants to chat about how they are feeling they know who to go to. ‘The prep is pretty awesome,’ one told us. Parents are equally happy. ‘We looked round a lot of schools and this was the only one where we were shown round by the children – two year 8 boys. We came away thinking that if our boys turned out like them then yes please, job done.’ Smart navy uniform – with pupils sporting lots of badges, denoting that they’re head of house, performing arts leaders, science leaders or members of the school council.

Boarders

Boarders live in the newly refurbished Thone House, one of the main buildings in the heart of the school, with 32 girls on the first floor and 24 boys on the second (56 full boarders in all). Six international boarders from all over the world, including Thailand, Ireland, Ghana, Switzerland, Spain and Mexico, as well as a number of children from Forces families, some based at home, others abroad. Boarding from the age of 7 (when we visited there were two year 3 boarders). The 12-strong boarding team is led by an experienced husband-and-wife team who have two children at the senior school and one at the prep. ‘We want boarding to be an extension of their own families,’ says the head of boarding, who boarded from the age of 9 herself. One parent described the school’s boarding provision as its ‘X factor’. ‘My children are so unbelievably settled there,’ she said. ‘If they ever have a problem, nothing is ever left to fester. The boarding staff are on it straight away.’

We were shown round by three smiley boarders who proudly showed us wholesome, cosy dorms of between two and six, the hub where they play games and socialise, an IT suite and girls’ and boys’ lounges. A prize for the tidiest dorm is fiercely contested – whoever wins gets pizza delivered to the house at the end of term. Sensible rules on mobile phones – older ones are allowed them for a maximum of 50 minutes a day, younger ones get up to 30 minutes.

Money matters

A variety of 11+ scholarships for children entering year 7, including academic, sports, art, music, dance, drama and design.

The last word

Down-to-earth, caring and quietly ambitious, this is a terrific all-rounder school that offers excellence in everything from academics to sport. Pupils are happy and cared for and clearly love their time here.

Special Education Needs

We are fortunate in having a Learning Success department at Taunton Preparatory School, to give additional support to a variety of learning needs. This is staffed by a team of highly qualified specialist teachers, able to give extra support in literacy and/or numeracy, to the child’s specific level of learning, where the child is failing to respond sufficiently to the small classes offered at Taunton Preparatory School. We do, however, anticipate that the child will be able to cope with the mainstream curriculum. Our provision allows for specialist support rather than for extensive individual teaching. This type of specialist support is partly financed from the school budget. The remaining costs are met by the additional payments from those receiving the individual/small group specialist tuition. Details of the cost of extra fees per term are given in the fee schedule. Please note that the initial internal assessment is free of charge. Discussion of charges may be needed if a child requires considerable extra support. Should further assessment by an outside specialist be required, this can be arranged, and parents are billed directly by the outside specialist.