Basic Information & Location
St Andrew’s Prep was established in 1877 and located at Eastbourne, the sunniest place in Great Britain with extensive safe beaches. Set in the beautiful Sussex countryside with wonderful climate, St Andrew’s Prep is a safe and delightful place for children to grow. The four main theatres, cinemas and the Towner art gallery are all within a mile from the school, which helps nurture children’s diversity of interests. Like many prep schools in early years, St Andrew’s was a small boarding school for no more than 99 boys aged between 7 and 13. Now the school accommodates over 360 children, boys and girls, boarding and day, between the ages of 9 months and 13 years. Since it is a stand-alone prep school, pupils could enjoy more resources.
Academic Development
The school supports the Common Entrance examination. With the rigorous syllabuses and breadth of subjects, the school is able to create a strong blend of academic, artistic, dramatic, musical and sporting experiences for all children. In Years 3 and 4, children are taught in their classes by a class teacher for Maths, English, Science, History, Geography, PSHE and RS with specialist teachers taking them for Art, Computing, Design Technology, French, Music, PE, Swimming and Games. An impressive number of scholarships and awards are won by St Andrew’s Prep pupils each year to a wide variety of senior schools, such as Tonbridge School, Eton College and Sevenoaks School.
In Year 5, the children move around the school more since the majority of lessons are now taught by subject specialist teachers; they also begin Latin and Drama. Pupils have a Tutor who will see them at the start of each day and at several other times during the week. From Year 6 upwards, children are set by ability in English, Maths, French, Latin and Science.
Pastoral Care & Boarding
The boarding house is run by Mark Tomsett and his wife Trudy. They live in the house with their two young sons and along with a resident house tutor and matron have created a very caring and homely atmosphere. Volunteer students also live in the boarding house and complement the family atmosphere.
Boarding at St Andrew’s Prep is an excellent preparation for the next stage in child’s educational journey due to the diversity of activities and the caring and homely atmosphere. The refurbished boarding house has spacious bright rooms that allow each child to have their own personal space. Three sessions of activities are offered on each Saturday morning and children can select which activities they wish to take part in, including fencing, hockey, Saturday strolls, drama, patchwork, squash, golf, drama and water polo. Some matches take place in the Saturday afternoon as well as some static activities for children who are not involved in sport.
Extracurricular & personal development
St Andrew’s offers breadth of opportunity through its extra curricular programme that runs during weekday evenings and on Saturday mornings. The diversified extra curricular activities range from archery, art, ballet, carpentry and so on. There is an on-going programme of embellishments for the benefit of the children and staff. Renowned facilities included a purpose-built gym, a four lane 20m indoor pool, a music school, an art and DT block, so that students can have most of their sports training and other extracurricular activities done inside the campus.
