School information

Organisation of the School

Some of our children begin their Danes Hill education at 2½ in the self-contained Nursery on the Main School site. From the ages of four to six pupils are based in the pre-preparatory ‘Bevendean’ department on its own self-contained site at the heart of Oxshott village. This has just undergone a major rebuilding programme providing state-of-the-art classrooms and facilities. The emphasis at these early stages is on learning through play, laying down the key numeracy and literacy skills. All children enjoy specialist French teaching from age four, and Bevendean has its own swimming pool, library, ICT and art rooms.

In Year 2 pupils move to the Main School, where the emphasis is on developing pupils’ independence and self-motivation. All children now have specialist teaching in Art, Drama, Design Technology and Music, and as they progress through the school their academic subjects are increasingly delivered by specialist staff too. In addition subjects are setted to provide smaller teaching groups and an excellent pupil-teacher ratio. Languages are a strength of the school, and those studied include French, German, Spanish, Latin, Greek and Mandarin Chinese.

The Main School is divided into the Lower School (Years 2 and 3), Middle School (Years 4 and 5), and Upper School (Years 6 to 8). Each section has its own Head, its own assemblies and traditions, and very much its own ethos. Children are encouraged to feel allegiance to their own particular section of the school, and this sectional subdivision ensures that the school never feels overwhelmingly big, a strength remarked upon in successive school inspection reports.