Bruern Abbey Prep School A GSG School
- Bruern Abbey Prep School
Chesterton House
Chesterton
Bicester
Oxfordshire
OX26 1UY - Head: Mr J Floyd
- T 01869 242448
- F 01869 243949
- E secretary@bruernabbey.org
- W www.bruernabbey.org
- A special independent school for boys aged from 8 to 13 with specific learning difficulties, including dyslexia, dyscalculia and dyspraxia
- Read about the best schools in Oxford and North Oxfordshire and South Oxfordshire
- Boarding: Yes
- Local authority: Oxfordshire
- Pupils: 152
- Religion: Christian Inter-denominational
- Fees: Day £31,000 Boarding £36,000 pa
- Open days: Visits by appointment only
- Review: View The Good Schools Guide Review
- Ofsted report: View the Ofsted report
- ISI report: View the ISI report
- Linked schools: Bruern Abbey Senior School
What The Good Schools Guide says..
All maths teachers are dyscalculia trained, and the school coaches all teachers in dyslexia-friendly teaching. Several staff (including head and deputy head) are neurodiverse themselves, which helps with their understanding and empathy. One boy told us, ‘Every single teacher breaks everything down and they don’t move on until they know you’ve got it.’ Lessons never exceed 40 mins (and are shorter at the end of the day), with five-minute ‘brain breaks’ in between. Even weekly chapel is kept under half an hour. ‘Any longer, and you’re wasting everyone’s time’. The no-homework policy goes down a treat...
What the school says...
Bruern's raison d'etre is to prepare boys with identified specific learning difficulties for Common Entrance and GCSEs to a range of reputable public schools in England and Scotland. Whilst the curriculum may be delivered in different ways and the use of a laptop is mandatory, Bruern has all the attributes and characteristics of a traditional, preparatory boarding school. ...Read more
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Sports
Unusual sports
Polo
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What The Good Schools Guide says
Headmaster
Since 2011, John Floyd MA PGCE, previously deputy head and head of SEND at Westminster Choir School and before that, on the coveted Teach First programme in Crown Woods, Eltham, London’s largest state secondary. Born in London, grew up in the Ivory Coast, Holland and New York. Attended Cothill House and Radley; studied geography at Edinburgh. Lives 300 metres from the school with wife, Hen, and their four boys (youngest due to come here) and five dogs.
Since he arrived, he has doubled the size of the school, set up a senior school, manages the Gateway School in Great Missenden, and has plans to open a sister school. But through it all, he knows every boy and their parents. Dyslexic himself, they told us he ‘just gets it’ – a revelation...
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Special Education Needs
Bruern Abbey is in so many ways a traditional preparatory school, with its raison d'etre being to prepare boys for Common Entrance to reputable Public Schools. Yet all the boys at Bruern experience some kind of specific learning difficulty, or range of difficulties, to a degree that for confidence to be restored and for academic potential to be fulfilled, they would benefit from small classes, an intensive focus on literacy and numeracy and a genuinely multi-sensory approach to delivering the curriculum, including the use of a personal laptop. Children are taught by trained and experienced 'specialists' in special needs education and by subject teachers who have an on-going, in-service training programme, monitored by the Helen Arkell Dyslexia Centre, that helps them understand the difficulties encountered by the dyslexic or dyspraxic child. Nov 09.
| Condition | Provision for in school |
|---|---|
| ASD - Autistic Spectrum Disorder | |
| Aspergers | Y |
| Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders | Y |
| CReSTeD registered for Dyslexia | Y |
| Dyscalculia | Y |
| Dysgraphia | Y |
| Dyslexia | Y |
| Dyspraxia | Y |
| English as an additional language (EAL) | |
| Genetic | |
| Has an entry in the Autism Services Directory | |
| Has SEN unit or class | Y |
| HI - Hearing Impairment | |
| Hospital School | |
| Mental health | |
| MLD - Moderate Learning Difficulty | Y |
| MSI - Multi-Sensory Impairment | |
| Natspec Specialist Colleges | |
| OTH - Other Difficulty/Disability | |
| Other SpLD - Specific Learning Difficulty | Y |
| PD - Physical Disability | |
| PMLD - Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulty | |
| SEMH - Social, Emotional and Mental Health | |
| SLCN - Speech, Language and Communication | |
| SLD - Severe Learning Difficulty | |
| Special facilities for Visually Impaired | |
| SpLD - Specific Learning Difficulty | Y |
| VI - Visual Impairment |
Who came from where
| School | Year | Places |
|---|---|---|
| Lockers Park School | 2023 | 1 |
| Merlin School | 2023 | 1 |
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