School life
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The school day
Our busy day school day starts at 8.20am when the front doors open and we greet all the children, ready for a full day packed with learning and fun.
We encourage as many families as possible to walk, cycle or scoot to school and be part of our community. If you must travel to school by car there is space to drop-off and pick-up. We would suggest a journey of no more than 20 minutes by vehicle.
Term dates
Summer 2022
Term
Wednesday 20 April 2022 -
Thursday 14 July 2022 (half day)
Half-term
30 May - 3 June 2022
Autumn 2022
Term
Wednesday 7 September 2022 -
Thursday 15 December 2022 (half day)
Half-term
17 - 28 October 2022
Spring 2023
Term
Wednesday 4 January 2023 -
Thursday 23 March 2023 (half day)
Half-term
13 - 17 February 2023
Summer 2023
Term
Wednesday 19 April 2023 -
Thursday 6 July 2023 (half day)
Half-term
29 May - 2 June 2023
You can download the term dates below and save them to your phone, so you always have them close-by.
Half-term and holiday clubs
SuperCamps offers a wide range of fun and engaging activities for children age 4-12 throughout the school holidays.
Led by qualified and experienced staff and a part of the Cognita group, they ensure the highest standard of care in line with the Cognita family values.
SuperCamps are more than just kids holiday clubs aimed to tackle school holiday boredom; they complement term-time education by acting as a medium for child-led learning.
You can call us on 01235 467300 for more information.
Extra-curricular
Prince’s Gardens Preparatory School provides a rich and diverse range of extra-curricular clubs that provide character development and a global perspective to our pupils.
Children have the option of attending a range of clubs with a variety of commitment lengths, usually from a term or a year in length. Clubs are available to all ages from Pre-Reception through to Year 6, with registration at the beginning of each term.
Clubs include traditional sport and music clubs, as well as many external clubs such as LAMDA, Chelsea Ballet and Modern Dance, and Chelsea Young Writers to name a few. The school takes full advantage of the fantastic facilities on site, with Forest School using the back garden to explore nature, cookery club in our designated cookery room, and construction club in our makerspace. Clubs are regularly updated each term to provide every year group with a broad range of options.
House system
Our traditional House system is designed to bring together older and younger pupils.
Our Houses are named for notable botanists and conservationists: Attenborough, Carson, Darwin and Goodall, and each crest is decorated with flora and fauna local to school.
Every pupil is assigned one of these Houses and will have fun, compete with each other, and, through events, support fundraising for two charities: the ‘Hannan School Morocco’, supporting the running and development of a new school in the Atlas mountains, as well as a local charity voted for annually by the school community.
Pupils come together in their houses for friendly competitions in activities like sport, music, art and poetry recitals.
Pupil leadership
Pupils are actively involved in shaping our school community and are encouraged to share their views and opinions.
Children as young as Reception age have a voice on our school council, and other positions of responsibility include Form Captains, Heads of House, Head of School, Sports and Games Captains, Wellbeing Champions, Digital Ambassadors and Music Captain.
We also appoint eco-councillors and community action leaders, all relevant for today’s world.
School trips
Across the year groups, the school has developed a series of day and residential trips.
Both day and residential trips help promote the children's increasing independence, flexibility, collaboration and emotional intelligence.
They include overnight stays:
- Cuffley Woods, Hertfordshire
- Bushcraft camping, Hertfordshire
- Outward bound stay
- Optional ski trip from Year 3 upwards
Community
Pupils are encouraged to be socially outward looking and to develop a sense of responsibility for their community by helping others
The school has good links with local charities through our strong relationship with The Kensington and Chelsea Foundation. The charities we support visit the school, speaking regularly in assemblies.
Food and nutrition
Thomas Franks provide for all the catering requirements at Prince's Gardens Preparatory School and have introduced three fantastic new menus for the school.
Their passion for food is demonstrated by their use of fresh, locally sourced ingredients in each and every meal they serve.
Their provision includes a healthy hand-baked sweet or savoury snack at each breaktime and also offered to children attending after school clubs to keep them going, in addition to an excellent self-serve lunch where all dietary requirements are catered for whilst sharing food stories and nutritional guidance to our children.
Next: Admissions
Learn about our simple a smooth admissions process and take the next step with enrolling at Prince's Gardens Preparatory School.