WHAT, WHERE?

An independent, day and boarding prep and nursery for boys and girls aged from 3 months to 11 years, Leweston Prep & Nursery is part of Leweston School and set within 46 glorious acres just outside historic Sherborne – think Abbey, two castles, independent shops and restaurants – about half an hour from Dorset’s iconic Jurassic Coast.

Leweston School’s history dates back to 1891 when Belgian nuns founded a girls’ boarding school in Sherborne. While the senior school moved to the Leweston Manor Estate in 1948, the prep remained in Sherborne until the whole school was reunited on its present site in 1993.

The Prep has always been co-ed in the lower years, it went completely co-ed in 2016, and the senior school followed suit in 2018.

There are now around 173 pupils on the roll in the Prep and Pre-prep, and 90 in the Nursery. An impressive 90% of pupils move onto the senior school.

While it’s a Catholic school, most pupils are not, with all faiths and none represented.

FACILITIES

The Nursery and Prep are on the same campus as the senior school and share many of the same facilities. You can read our review of the senior school here.

The neo-classical Manor House lies at the heart of the school campus. Built in the late 18th century, the Georgian interiors were re-modelled in the 1930s by Maxwell Ayrton (architect of the original Wembley Stadium), making it gloriously Art Deco inside, with later extensions going off to one side.

The Prep school – Pre-prep (Reception, Prep 1 and Prep 2, aged 4 to 7 years) and Prep (Prep 3 to Prep 6, 8 to 11 years) – are self-contained in a former coach house in the grounds, with classroom, jolly library with beanbags on one side of a playground and a modern block with large hall and airy classrooms – with whopping 48″ interactive screens – on the other.

Pupils use the senior school’s well-equipped science block, excellent art and design centre, sports facilities, heated indoor swimming pool and school theatre.

The Prep has its own dedicated sports and tennis courts, a trim trail and a Victorian walled garden complete with poly tunnel for gardening projects.

Pupils love going to The Enchanted Woods, a woodland clearing with log seats, fire pit and all-weather parachute canopy, for weekly forest school outdoor learning sessions, where they can build dens – and team-building skills and resilience – toast marshmallows and have masses of fun.

Everyone, even the youngest pupils, eat together – in staggered sittings – in the senior school’s big, modern dining hall. Always on the menu: meat and veggie mains, salad, soup and on local meat Monday, meat from a local butcher or one of the school’s farming families.

Note to parents dropping off their offspring: don’t forget to stop off for a coffee in the rather lovely Cedars Café.

NURSERY

The 50-weeks-a-year nursery takes babies from three months upwards and is a happy, self-contained, free-flow space – inside and out – filled with lovely wooden furniture plus a play house and kitchen, all decked out with fairy lights. Babies have their own sleep room with a starry night ceiling zzzzzz.

With 15 staff, children get a lot of care and attention. The curriculum is designed around the children’s own interests, with an emphasis on core personal, social, emotional and physical development and communication language skills as well as maths, literacy (phonics), understanding the world and arts & design. From the age of 3 1/2, there are specialist teachers for music, PE, French, Spanish and swimming every week. They even do ballet.

Whatever the weather (just pull on those splash suits!) children spend as much time as possible outside: in the nursery’s own spacious garden with toys, mud kitchen, water table, guinea pigs, play frames and yurt; they go for walks in the main grounds – maybe stopping off the school cafe for hot chocolate – or play in The Enchanted Woods forest school. Children connect with nature and experience a real sense of freedom but of course, it’s all carefully supervised.

ACADEMICS

Entrance is non-selective academically; pupils are invited to taster days and assessed in literacy and numeracy. There are no more than 20 pupils per class in both the Prep and Pre-prep. Pupils have a class teacher for approximately 50% of the time and specialist for the rest. From Reception, children have lessons in French, Spanish, art, music, religious education, performing arts and forest school plus two hours of PE and an hour of swimming each week. In the Prep, Pupils aren’t set as teachers offer differentiated work within each class. The project-focused curriculum is based on, but not limited to, the National Curriculum, pupils exceed national averages and many win scholarships up to the senior school.

HEAD TEACHER

Richard Thompson joined the Prep as Head in September 2023. Previously deputy head of Old Hall School in Shropshire, he holds a BA in Geography, French Language & Literature and a PGCE from Oxford Brookes University, and was educated at Salisbury Cathedral School and Canford.

Warm and enthusiastic (he sounds like he’s been here years), he talks about the school’s strong family ethos, breadth of opportunity and the ‘Leweston Learner’, an approach to learning based on five characteristics – confident, inquisitive, adventurous, resilient, creative – which runs throughout the curriculum and help to creates engaged, eager learners. Education here is focused around independent critical thinking rather than passively absorbing information. Parents are ‘fantastic’, and very involved with the school through their open door policy, programme of classroom events and active PALS (Parents Association of Leweston School) group.

No ivory tower Head, he keeps his hand in teaching languages and sports, and anywhere else help is needed.

REPORTS

The Early Years Foundation Stage was declared ‘outstanding’ in all areas by the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI), equivalent to Ofsted in the state sector. You can see the latest reports from ISI, here.

SPORTS

Sport is a Leweston strength, both in individual activities like tennis, athletics, fencing and shooting as well as traditional team games like girls’ and boys’ hockey, rugby, football, cricket and netball. The school excels in the modern pentathlon and related sports. One pupil who started competing in the pentathlon when she started in the Prep, was the U11 National Triathlete Champion by the time was was in Prep 4 and continues to compete at that level.

It’s only 45 mins down to Weymouth (where the Olympic sailing took place in 2012), no wonder Prep 5 & 6 enjoy a weekly sailing club.

Coming soon: a fabulous new equestrian centre for the whole school, including the Prep.

PASTORAL

Peer support is important. There’s an atmosphere of everyone looking out for each other, with an emphasis on kindness and friendship, and being aware of how one’s own actions can affect others (the school’s underlying Catholic ethos comes into play here).

Prep 6 Prep ‘Buddies’ are paired up with Pre-prep pupils to help with reading and forge friendships across the age range. Peer mediators (identified by their high viz vests in the playground) are trained in peer reconciliation, reflection and friendship issues.

Rather than having just one head boy and a head girl, lots of pupils are given positions of responsibility when they’re chosen as house captains (there are four houses which tie in colour-wise with the Senior houses), librarians, sports, charities and eco monitors.

ELSA emotional literacy support assistants are trained to offer emotional and social skills to children. Lego-based tool Thera-Build® helps young children build confidence and resilience, increase self-esteem and promote good mental health.

WHAT ELSE?

Prep 5 to Year 8 undertake the unique Leweston Learner Diploma, a pupil-led, project-based programme – a prep version of the senior school EPQ (extended project qualification) – which encourages the development of ‘soft’ skills like complex problem solving and critical thinking, and is awarded at either Bronze, Silver or Gold level.

No unnecessary exams here: pupils don’t sit SATS but are continually and carefully assessed by teachers, which frees up time which might have been spent on revision, for all sorts of exciting projects, activities and trips.

This is a musical school; unlike some schools where younger children learn instruments in a whole class setting, at Leweston individual music lessons are available from Prep 2 (5 years old). Children also learn basic music composition, take ABRSM (music) and LAMDA (drama) exams.

From the nursery upwards, parents are kept abreast of everything that goes on via an online learning journal with info on activities, development and assessments, plus images and video clips showing what their little darlings have been up to.

It’s not ‘special’ needs here but ‘individual’ needs with differentiated teaching in the classroom, separate ‘Post Teach’ lessons and tailor-made support for extension work or additional support with specialist teachers.

A Prep 5 activity day mixing new and existing pupils helps make the transition up to the senior school a smooth process.

Sixth formers volunteer in the nursery as part of their Duke of Edinburgh Awards scheme.

BOARDING

Pupils can board from Year 4 but mostly it’s Years 5 & 6 who bunk up in bright and cheerful four and five bed dorms in Martha House (girls) and Antony House (boys), both of which are on the first floor of the Palladian main house.

Each boarding house has a house parent, assistant housemistress and a gap year assistant; each boarder has a ‘florin’, a tutor who meets with them every week. There are full, weekly and very flexible flexi options, with one, two or three nights a week as well as ad hoc B&B nights.

Day and boarders are well-integrated; all weekend trips are open to day pupils.

CO-CURRICULAR & WRAPAROUND

There are around 45 after school, lunch time and weekend clubs and activities, including debating, art academy, gardening, cookery, comic making; ballet, fencing, tennis and running club.

All bases are covered for busy parents: early morning care at breakfast club from 7.30am; after-school care from 4.30pm until 5.45pm (which includes a daily prep club for Prep 3 to 6, so no ‘home’ work); supper club until 6.30pm.

During term time, parents can bring babies and toddlers from 3 months to 4 years to Aquatot sessions in the swimming pool on Wednesday mornings.

During the hols, Forest School is open for parents and children, from newborns up to 5 years old.

QUIRKS/BOASTY BITS

Just like the senior school, the Prep’s racked up a fair number of sporting triumphs, including U9 British Schools National Hill Climbing Champion 2023; U11 Gold and U15 Gold at National Triathle Championships, U11 Gold team Triathle and U11 Triathle Individual Gold in 2022. A pupil is the U12 Epee Fencing Regional Champion.

You’re never too young to be thinking about careers at Leweston; a dedicated careers person helps pupils start to think about different skills and even organise work experience from Prep 5.

There are currently 28 – very friendly and well-behaved – dogs around the school and the Head’s dog, Arthur, has his own Instagram account. Woof!

MOBILE PHONE POLICY

Not allowed in the school.

TRANSPORT

The school’s own fleet of mini buses cover ten routes out to Beaminster, Blandford, Dorchester, Shafesbury, Sherborne, South Petherton, Weymouth, Wincanton and Yeovil.

FEES

2024/25: Nursery morning session £35; afternoon £29.50; full day £56.50. Reception & Year 1, £2,998/term; Year 2 £3,060/term; Year 3 £3,672/term; Year 4 £3,796/term; Year 5 £4,175/term; Year 6 £4,980/term; weekly boarding from Year 4 £7,064/term; full boarding £8,544/term.

WORD ON THE GROUND

Parents describe the school as friendly, happy, engaging, creative and fun yet still focused on academia, which, they say, is presented in so many different forms that the children don’t realise they’re learning.

Teachers are ‘completely wonderful’ with ‘heaps of energy and dynamism’. Their enthusiasm rubs off on the children who are eager to talk about what they’ve learned each day and feel confident completing homework with very little help from parents.

Class size comes in for praise: small enough to allow children to receive the attention they need from the teacher but large enough for them to choose friendship groups, and work with a wider range of children on various projects.

Parents say that everything is extremely well organised, with ‘excellent’ clubs and after school care and, of course, the new equestrian centre is a source of great excitement.

The school is seen as ‘fantastic value for money’, with brilliant facilities, the happiest, friendliest staff and a creative approach to all subjects; one parent called it a ‘hidden gem’.

MUDDY VERDICT

Good for: Families looking for a happy school with good academics, excellent sport and a great range of extra- and co-curricular activities. Children can enjoy a small-school experience with along with all the benefits – and facilities – of being part of the whole school, without being overwhelmed; the transition from the Prep to the senior school is smooth. The option to flexi board from Year 4 is a bonus. Oh and the fees are definitely competitively priced.

Not for: Parents who want a selective, hot-housey approach to their children’s education.

Go see for yourself Book a tailor-made tour around the school and meet the Head, arrange a virtual one-to-one meeting, or email admissions@leweston.dorset.sch.uk to find out more.

Leweston School, Sherborne, Dorset DT9 6EN. 01963 210691.

Leweston Prep & Nursery, near Sherborne

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