Holy Cross Prep offers a holistic education in a happy, nurturing environment, where pupils develop a love for learning inspired by their teachers, peers and the facilities surrounding them. Our girls engage and participate fully in school life, regularly performing academically above the national average. This was acknowledged in the ISI inspection May 2019; “pupils make excellent academic progress”; “pupils of all ages and abilities achieve exceptionally high levels of knowledge, skills and understanding.”
In 2021, the school was renewed their exemption from the learning and development requirements of the EYFS Framework for children aged 3-5, with the Department for Education. This exemption allows us freedom to exercise our professional judgement in implementing a curriculum with teaching strategies that are best suited to the needs of our bright, eager young learners; the girls are taught and challenged by our specialist teachers and have early access to the year 1 curriculum, as appropriate.
Our highly motivated girls are capable risk-takers and independent thinkers. At some point during their school career, pupils may be identified as requiring extra support, which is actioned via short or long-term strategies. Access to highly selective senior schools is enabled, as well as preparation for scholarships in a number of areas including academia, music, sport, drama and art.
We believe in a holistic education which incorporates a broad, dynamic curriculum that is exciting, relevant and highly motivating. We have experienced and enthusiastic specialist teachers that work alongside the classroom teachers, to nurture and develop each girl’s gifts and talents. Girls sit CAT4s – Cognitive Ability Tests, which provide a standardised measure of cognitive ability without reference to curriculum-based material and regardless of previous achievements and first language. These give a valuable insight into pupils’ abilities to reason across four distinct areas: verbal, non-verbal, mathematical and spatial.
