About the Prep School    

Claremont Preparatory School is an independent day school for boys and girls aged 4 to 13. Many pupils join directly from our own Nursery School which is located on the same site, and caters for children from 12 months old.

History

The School was originally founded in Hove, East Sussex in 1925, but moved to its current site in St. Leonards-on-Sea in 1946. The building, a magnificent Norman Shaw designed mansion house was built in 1888 for the Ebden family and originally named Baldslow Place.

Claremont Today

Claremont now has extensive modern facilities including a purpose built theatre and assembly hall, a fully equipped IT suite, dedicated language, science, music and art facilities, an indoor sports hall, a swimming pool and a brand new floodlit all-weather sports pitch. The School also has its own study centre in St Omer, France (Maison Claremont). This represents a very useful extension to the French department and is used throughout the year by all children from age 7 upwards.

Whilst our curriculum is based on the Common Entrance syllabus, we choose the best from the National Curriculum and extend wherever possible. We recognize that we are a stepping stone in a child's education and therefore, smoothing the transition from Claremont to their next school is vitally important for us. We treat each child as an individual and will recommend appropriate future schools to our parents. All children sit the Common Entrance Examination before they leave us at the age of 13 years and if appropriate Scholarship Examinations. Many of our leavers gain entry to excellent Independent Senior Schools, often with very good Scholarships. In recent years, over 50% of our leavers have successfully gained Scholarship awards to their chosen senior school. In addition we are able to provide an excellent preparation for pupils wishing to transfer to a Kent Grammar School at the end of Year 8.

Family Values

We believe very strongly that the family plays a vital part in a child's upbringing and consequently there is neither boarding nor Saturday school at Claremont. With the exception of Speech Day, Sports Day and trips to our study centre in France there are no weekend commitments as we believe this time is precious for children and parents to spend together. We aim to make life as easy as possible for working parents, and children can be dropped off anytime between 8.00am and 8.30am and may stay at school until 6.00pm. Further details are provided on the School Day page. Parents have the opportunity of talking to members of staff should they wish to do so both at the beginning and end of the day.