St Peter’s Pre-Prep department offers full or part time education of the highest quality for children from rising 3 up to 7 years old (Year 2).

We are a coeducational school with a good balance between girls and boys.

Boarding is available to younger children, although Pre-Prep children would normally only board with an older sibling, after discussions between boarding staff, parents and teaching staff; this would usually be offered as a flexi option.

We are a preparatory school with a Christian ethos, although all religious denominations are welcomed.  Small classes ensure that each child's individual needs are met and each year group is supported by Teaching Assistants.

St Peter’s offers a full and wide curriculum; see other sections for more details.

Each individual child is monitored to ensure progress through each stage of their educated life.  All children are regularly discussed in meetings and individual support programmes are planned for those find some areas of the curriculum more of a challenge.  Our curriculum offers children an excellent basis for common entrance, scholarship and state education exams procedures.

The staff work closely together to ensure that all children and their families are well known to us and we pride ourselves on our welcoming atmosphere. We hold an open door policy and encourage daily parent and teacher communication through a variety of sources. The small classes help us to have a thorough knowledge of each child and their individual needs.

Our aim is for the children to learn in an environment that is safe, stimulating and fun. Our ethos is based on the ‘‘Good to be Green’ Golden Rules’, which we believe teach our children to have respect for others, a willingness to help and an awareness of the responsibility they have for their own actions. All of this is developed in a fun, but supportive atmosphere where children can develop self-confidence and a love of learning. Our pastoral care is one of our biggest priorities; we have 24 hour medical care from our dedicated Matron team and many staff are first aid trained.

At St Peter’s we have an excellent track record showing that all of our children reach age appropriate levels in the Foundation Stage and in exams at the end of Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2. We also have a growing number of children who go beyond national averages and reach impressive educational standards. The St Peter’s ‘Believe it. Achieve it’ motto is encouraged and the children are set regular high achieving targets, so they know what they are working towards and how to achieve these goals.  Individual strengths are developed to the full and any weaknesses supported.

We have an excellent academic record with children achieving scholarships to their preferred schools.  Many of our school leavers head to Blundell’s, Trinity, Sherborne, Exeter, The Maynard and King’s College.

The Pre-Prep children are very fortunate in benefiting from the expertise of subject specialist teaching such as French, Music, PE, Forest School and Games. Each class teacher has expert skills in teaching phonics, spellings, English and Maths. The long-standing staff team all hold their own subjects strengths which add together to make an exciting and balanced curriculum.

We regard the three C's as paramount in a child's behavioural development. They simply fall into 3 sections: Consideration, Courtesy and Common Sense. These are broken down into the schools Golden Rules which are adhered to by every child. Behaviour was recognised by our inspection as being 'excellent'. 

Please click here to view our Golden Rules.

ISI Inspectors highlighted the following during our 2008 Inspection:

“The educational experience at St Peter’s is outstanding”

“Pupils’ experiences are significantly enhanced by the high quality extended day programme”

“Throughout the school pupils are extremely well prepared for their next stage of education”

“The pupils’ personal development is outstanding, nurtured and supported by the caring Christian ethos that permeates school life.”

“The school is highly successful in achieving its aims of instilling confidence and self-belief and encouraging courtesy, consideration for others and common sense.”

If you would like to read more then please click here

The Pre-Prep children can join clubs such as Street Dance, Sailing, Horse Riding, Drama and Football. They are also able to swim in our outdoor pool during the warmer summer months and have access to peripatetic teaching in a huge range of different musical instruments, squash and Speech and Drama. All PE sessions are held in the Wessex Hall and the Pre-Prep department put on an annual Nativity Show for all families to enjoy, as well as a Grandparents’ Afternoon.  The children also have full access to our IT Suite, Library and new Drama Studio.

In addition to the above St Peter’s is situated in 28 glorious acres of Devon countryside, overlooking the Exe Estuary with magnificent views to the beautiful village of Lympstone and beyond. The forest situated on our school site is fully utilised with our Scandinavian Forest School Programme. This approach to teaching allows time for our learning to be taken outdoors; it has a huge impact on both communication skills and confidence building.

Supervised early arrivals (from 8:00am) and late stayers options (4:00 – 6:00pm) are available every day.

Come and visit us, we would be delighted to show you around and introduce you to our children.

We hope to see you soon.

Lucy Ball

Head of Pre-Prep