P R O S P E C T U S

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If you cast your mind back to your own school days, you may

well recall a moment when your curiosity was unexpectedly

awakened. That moment was almost certainly inseparable

from the inspiration of a particular teacher.

Once that spark of curiosity has been ignited, it becomes the

engine of achievement; a child will learn, because

children are natural learners.

Our cause, our responsibility, is to provide that spark

and a culture in which it can burn brightly.

It is that quality of relationship between child and teacher

which lies at the heart of Amesbury.

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WELCOME TO

A M E S B U R Y

FEEL EQUALLY VALUED

Although having a common parentage, siblings are seldom identikit pictures of each other. In fact, very often, in terms of abilities, aptitudes, and interests they are polar opposites.

We believe that a diversity of aptitudes and interests is something to celebrate, mirroring as it does wider humankind; which is why we offer places by date of registration rather than by a competitive entry test. Although demand for places would allow us to be a ‘selective’ school, we choose not to be because we want siblings to have the opportunity to study together in the same school and feel equally valued.

Our principal purpose then is quite straightforward. It is simply that we want every child to enjoy their time at school; to feel valued as an individual, in an environment where their talents can prosper to the benefit of the community.

So when the time comes to leave, each child will do so with their confidence high, skills sharpened and personality rounded, ready and able to engage successfully with the world around them.

Other first rate schools share a similar vision. What Amesbury offers is a unique and distinctive ethos; a rigorous learning environment, but one which is relaxed and good humoured, competitive yet civilised, self-confident but without arrogance.

If there is such a thing as a typical Amesburian, he or she is well rounded, interesting and very much their own person: an individual within a system, rather than a clone because of it.

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FEEL EQUALLY

VALUED

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EDUCATING THE WHOLE CHILD

The challenge from child to adulthood is essentially the same, to be creative. It is, after all, the common currency of humanity.

However, in order for Amesburians to be able to shape their world in the future, we have to give them a clear understanding of what it means to be a whole person. That is why we don’t pay lip service to providing ‘a broad and balanced curriculum’, whilst actually believing in our hearts that the curriculum is a set of ‘important’ examinable subjects and other ‘bolt on’ subjects.

For the reality is that Maths and Science, Music and Drama are all creative subjects.

Each one of them, in different ways, speaks to parts of a child that other subjects don’t. So when a child realises that the subject, the language, in which they are most articulate is really valued, it can have a transformative impact on their overall attitude towards school life.

A genuine commitment to a truly broad and balanced curriculum enables a child to develop a full understanding of the richness of life, of their potential, and a sense of their own purpose. Or to put it another way, a sense of their own spirit.

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EDUCATINGTHE WHOLE CHILD

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The children at Amesbury undoubtedly benefit from having access to first class facilities; modern classrooms, a huge sports hall, floodlit all-weather surface and acres of playing fields as well as a Performing Arts Centre and Visual Arts Building. Yet if all of these things were stripped away, down to the irreducible essence of what makes the school, Amesbury would remain exactly the same.

Of course, no school is better than its teachers and they are unashamedly the lifeblood of Amesbury. They are there not just to pass on information but to provoke and engage, challenge and mentor, and to enjoy the company of the boys and girls. They tend to be people who, by instinct, are more inclined to listen and hear what a child has to say than they are to talk ‘at’ a child. Far too often in schools we talk about the importance of

PERSONALISED LEARNING

At the centre of the Amesbury estate is the elegant Main School building designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens. Built in 1903, it is a ‘Grade 2* building of national significance’.

It is the earliest design completed by Lutyens in the Wren style and the only building he designed as a school.

It is, in fact, a very beautiful and oversized dolls house. The main doors are smaller than they would normally be in a building of such a size. The corridors and staircases wider, to take account of the ebb and flow of the school day as pupils enter and exit classrooms. The window sills are lower, to enable youngsters to see the world outside without having to stand on tip toe. Put bluntly, it is a building made for children, into which adults have to ‘fit in’, not the other way around. As such it serves as a metaphor and as a daily reminder to us of why we are here.

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‘building the confidence of the young’ and yet expect children to accept things that we as adults would never tolerate.

As long as the relationship between teacher and learner is right, children will want to learn, and as a result will become confident, natural learners. It is about creating the conditions in which the children will thrive and, in that respect, culture and ethos are what distinguishes Amesbury from other fine schools.

Our scholarship record over a sustained period of time provides evidence of the fact that pupils excel across the curriculum, but without always needing to be herded into ‘top’ and ‘bottom’ sets. By the same token we can be a school that believes in ‘sport for all’ and yet one which still fields steely and doggedly competitive representative teams.

The quiet, compliant and polite child need not be ‘missed’, just because children who excel and those who find some aspects of school life more challenging, take up all of a teacher’s time. We just need to see those children, and let them know we know they are there through our actions.

If we can develop a ‘culture of interest’ amongst all the boys and girls, irrespective of an individual’s innate ability in Ballet and Biology, French and Football or Maths and Music, the whole school benefits.

Average pupil teacher ratios of 15:1, ‘intervention’ group teaching, a dedicated scholarship programme, a Learning Support Department (provided for within the basic school fee) and an emphasis on specialist teaching from an early age; these are all important things.

The trick is to remember what we are here to do as teachers: to teach your child, as an individual, rather than to think that we are teaching a set, or a class, or a year group.

PERSONALISED

LEARNING

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PREPARATORYSCHOOL

IT’S IN THE NAME,

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IT’S IN THE NAME, PREPARATORY SCHOOL

Given the fact that we set out to have a diverse range of boys and girls joining us, it should come as no surprise to read that pupils leave Amesbury for a wide range of senior schools.

For how can one decide on the right choice of senior school for a child, when that child is only six or seven years of age?

Amesbury is a gateway to the best senior day and boarding schools in the country and our primary responsibility is to select the right senior school for each child, rather than to ‘feed’ a particular senior school.

There is a detailed process in place, led by the Headmaster, for advising parents on their choice of senior school for their child. On average 30-40 pupils aged 11+ or 13+ leave Amesbury every year for 20+ senior schools: 60% for day and 40% for boarding schools. 20% of pupils have won scholarships since 2010.

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THE EXTRA

DIMENSION

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THE EXTRA DIMENSION

On a Monday evening after school a child at Amesbury might decide to join Clubs, such as Chess, Mandarin or Judo, take part in our year round Tennis Programme, attend Speech & Drama or have Dance lessons or... Later that same week the same child might indulge their interests by joining Gardening Club, get his or her knees dirty by joining the Archaeology Club, or try the ‘Write On’ or Science clubs. If ‘World Cinema’ seems interesting, then it is also there for them.

There are Choirs, Ensembles, Big Band, opportunities for Instrumental and Voice Tuition, Dance groups, Drama Club, Amesbury Performance Ensemble (APE), pottery, photography and lots, lots more.

Nurturing the development of this extra dimension in a child’s life, the space between the formal curriculum and home, strengthens the bond between pupil and teacher, and gives Amesburians a greater insight into what it means to be educated. It also means that on their first day at senior school, when they walk down the main corridor, and they read the notice boards and see obscure clubs being advertised, or a poster for a forthcoming lecture on a topic that they know nothing about, they will be curious because the habit of ‘being curious’ has been engrained in them.

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• As a PSB School (Prep School Baccalaureate) we are now more able to provide our pupils with a flexible curriculum and to focus more precisely on developing those skills and aptitudes that will best prepare children for the challenges of adolescence and beyond.

• In the previous decade we have invested over £2.5m in facilities. Our new £1m Visual Arts Department and Dance Studio both represent further major investment. Excellent facilities extend the range of opportunities on offer to children, and in so doing help to raise expectations, and not unimportantly, they also help us to recruit and retain great teachers.

TRADITION AND INNOVATION

When Amesbury was founded in 1870, Queen Victoria was monarch and William Gladstone her Prime Minister. In the following ten years the typewriter, telephone, and phonograph were all invented. It was a decade of technological revolution, akin to today.

Since our foundation there have been just nine Headmasters of Amesbury. The Chapel Choir now robes in red by Royal consent. The names of 1st team players in the major sports continue to be listed on team boards in Montgomery Hall (named after Viscount Montgomery of Alamein), a tradition dating back to 1887. The Moore Prize, first awarded in 1904, continues to be awarded to the Head Boy and Head Girl, over a century later.

Amesburians feel confident and have a sense of pride in knowing that they share a common heritage; that they are a part of something with deep roots. This history, these traditions, really matter to the boys and girls. Another Amesbury tradition is that we have always been innovative.

Amesbury was one of the first schools in the country to ban corporal punishment, to open a Pre-Preparatory Department and to have an on-site Learning Support Department. We have been co-educational for nearly 30 years.

However, what about our plans for the future and how might your child benefit from what an Amesbury education will look like?

• We will continue to do what we know and do best, that is to remain a stand-alone preparatory school, preparing pupils for the best day and boarding schools in the UK at 11+ and 13+.

• With the aid of technology children are now able to learn with, without, and on some occasions even in spite of, a teacher. So for Amesbury to remain relevant in the eyes of our pupils, we know that the learning environment will change quite radically over the next decade. Our carefully planned and ambitious IT strategy will be a central component in the school’s evolution during this period.

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Amesbury has changed a great deal since its foundation and our priorities for future development are clear. However, traditions matter to us - the development of supposedly old fashioned virtues of courage and justice, honesty and compassion, self-discipline and modesty.

TRADITION AND INNOVATION

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HOME AND SCHOOL

If Amesbury parents share a particular characteristic, it may well be that although they want their children to be well educated, they do not want to define themselves by the fact that they send their children to an independent school.

Amesbury parents certainly seem to lead busy lives, with many commuting into London. As a consequence of which there are no school commitments at the weekend. That time is left as sacrosanct, a time for the family. This gives Amesburians the opportunity to make friends outside of school and most are highly networked into the local community by way of sports clubs, arts groups and other activities.

We do not advocate children having lots of homework during the school week. We want them to work hard but, at the end of a long school day, we prefer that they go home and have the opportunity to enjoy time with their parents and siblings, look after their pets, read and read some more and develop hobbies. Crucially we want them to go to bed happy to return to school the following morning, keen and eager to learn.

None of which is to say that we don’t want parents to be involved in their child’s learning: we do. Or, that at times in their school career a child won’t have to complete work at home: they will. We simply don’t want parents to have the pressure of being responsible for the conjugation of their child’s Latin verbs one night and to find themselves the very next evening, responsible for making a 3D model of an aardvark, due in tomorrow, and so on.

However, we know that a rapport between school and home, based on mutual trust and understanding, will be strong enough to handle even the frankest of discussions and we need to be able to speak openly to each other, because today is not a dress rehearsal for any child.

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HOME AND SCHOOL

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If after visiting Amesbury you decide it is the right school for your son or daughter, I make

but one promise: your child will need no persuading to come to school in the morning,

although he or she may need a lot of convincing that it is time to leave at the end of the day.

I look forward to meeting you.

Nigel Taylor Headmaster

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Amesbury was founded in 1870 and is the oldest preparatory school

in the Haslemere/Hindhead area. It is a day school, although children can experience boarding in their final years.

The school educates children between the ages of 2 to 13. Pupils leave at 11+ and 13+

for the best senior day and boarding schools in the UK.

Located on the Surrey, Hampshire, West Sussex borders, set in a 34 acre estate, the school is just minutes from the southern exit of the A3 Hindhead Tunnel. This means that Godalming, Haslemere, Liphook and

Petersfield are within easy reach, whilst Guildford and Farnham are only 20 minutes away.

www.amesburyschool.co.ukl.wright@amesburyschool.co.uk

01428 604322