The Lower School

Years 3, 4 and 5

In the Lower School pupils between the ages of 7 and 10 continue to benefit from small class sizes and an excellent staff-pupil ratio, ensuring that the close attention and support they experienced at Abingdon House continues. We aim to make our pupils' stay with us enjoyable, but also have high expectations for them: our aim is to turn out independent learners who are confident, motivated, and have a healthy belief in their own abilities and potential.

The Lower School occupies its own purpose-built building with a dedicated playground, and pupils also have access to the other facilities on the St Edmund's campus, including the theatre, music school, chapel, swimming pool and sports hall, as well as extensive playing fields.

Our curriculum centres on the National Curriculum for Years 3 to 5, and whilst we place a particular emphasis on English, Maths and Science, we also make time for our pupils to focus on subjects such as French, History, Geography, Music and Art. We also introduce Latin as a subject in Year 5. Most of the teaching in the Lower School is carried out by the pupils' Form Teacher, allowing us to offer close support to your children in the core areas of literacy and numeracy. Alongside this, certain subjects are taught by specialist teachers, in particular French, Latin, Music, Games and PE. We believe this combination offers the best balance for our pupils' continued development. In Years 4 and 5 Maths is taught by ability group, as is English where appropriate; other subjects are taught in mixed ability groups, though work is differentiated according to our individual pupils' needs.

Pupils in the Lower School are encouraged to take part in an extensive range of extra-curricular activities, not only as an opportunity to explore their own interests and skills, but as part of their broader experience of learning about themselves and each other. Activities take place at lunchtimes, after school and in the holidays, and can be enormously varied. A typical sample includes: adventurous training, art and craft, the choir, construction toys, dance (both jazz and modern), drama, fencing, football, horse riding, ICT, kite making, Morris dancing, music, needlework, origami, peg-weaving, photography, squash, and trampolining.