Caterham Preparatory School A GSG School
- Caterham Preparatory School
Harestone Valley Road
Caterham
Surrey
CR3 6YB - Head: Mr Ben Purkiss
- T 01883 342097
- F 01883 341230
- E admissions@caterhamschool.co.uk
- W www.caterhamprep.co.uk/
- A mainstream independent school for pupils aged from 3 to 11 with a linked senior school
- Boarding: No
- Local authority: Surrey
- Pupils: 300
- Religion: Christian
- Fees: £12,660 - £18,780 pa
- Review: View The Good Schools Guide Review
- Ofsted report: View the Ofsted report
- ISI report: View the ISI report
- Linked schools: Caterham School
What The Good Schools Guide says..
Classroom walls heave with pupil work, often hanging from the ceiling too; teaching spaces are busy, inviting, joyful. Hogwarts-style reading nooks, quotes from the Mad Hatter and novels organised by the colour of their bindings create Insta-worthy spaces. Digital innovation huge – suffice to say, we’ve never seen a prep with a more open-minded approach to tech. Everyone has an iPad (‘used sparingly in reception’). They’d even been using ChatGPT to programme robots to produce AI artwork (gulp). Any suspicions we had about it being...
What the school says...
Set in extensive grounds, Caterham Prep School is an integral part of Caterham School and most pupils progress to the Senior School at age 11, when boarding is also available if neeeded.
The School's website will give you more information, but a visit is recommended when the school is in session to see the wide range of educational experiences that are offered. ...Read more
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What The Good Schools Guide says
Headmaster
Since 2019, Ben Purkiss. Previously deputy at Bede's Prep; before that taught science at Cottesmore, King’s Hall and the New Beacon. Having originally embarked on a military career, Mr Purkiss bumped into his old housemaster from his schooldays, ‘and that was it’. Discovered, in prep schools, the pleasure of ‘teaching science to children who were still young enough to be interested’. A natural, unassuming head who comes at everything from a ‘What’s the relevance?’ angle: curriculum is justifiable to even the most cynical of ten-year-olds. ‘Applied learning makes sense to me.’ His physics degree was meant to be applied to firing heavy artillery, after all.
Prep was quite traditional and had become ‘a waiting house' for the senior school, ‘It was an unbelievable opportunity to create something exciting,’ he tells us...
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Special Education Needs
Caterham Preparatory School is a high achieving, academic school from which most pupils go on to Caterham School, our senior school. The SEN provision we provide depends on a pupil's difficulty. Having been formally diagnosed; it ranges from 1:1 support, through to group withdrawal, through to support within the classroom. SEN support is undertaken by the SENCO and our qualified teachers under the guidance of the SENCO. Nov 09.
| Condition | Provision for in school |
|---|---|
| ASD - Autistic Spectrum Disorder | |
| Aspergers | |
| Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders | Y |
| CReSTeD registered for Dyslexia | |
| Dyscalculia | |
| Dysgraphia | |
| Dyslexia | |
| Dyspraxia | |
| English as an additional language (EAL) | |
| Genetic | |
| Has an entry in the Autism Services Directory | |
| Has SEN unit or class | |
| HI - Hearing Impairment | |
| Hospital School | |
| Mental health | |
| MLD - Moderate Learning Difficulty | |
| MSI - Multi-Sensory Impairment | |
| Natspec Specialist Colleges | |
| OTH - Other Difficulty/Disability | |
| Other SpLD - Specific Learning Difficulty | |
| 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 | |
| VI - Visual Impairment |
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