St Edmund's
Pre-Prep
“Learning at St Edmund’s is interactive, creative and fun. We are focused on the needs of the individual children, and ensure they are given the time and space to develop their creative and academic capabilities”.
Sarah Bartholomew, Head of Nursery & Pre-Prep
Curriculum
In Pre-Prep, teaching follows, but is not limited to, the Early Years Foundation Stage and the National Curriculum. English and Mathematics are timetabled daily to ensure continuity of progress. Reading is of prime importance, and we work to both develop fluent reading skills and inspire a love of reading.
We take a topic-based approach to covering many areas of the curriculum – for example, Science, Geography, History, Art, Design & Technology and ICT; and children from Reception Class age also receive specialist teaching in French, Music, PE, swimming and Dance. We also want our children to develop the confidence to show their skills in front of others, which they do through ‘show and tell’ before progressing to drama workshops, poetry recital, music festivals, Nativity plays and end of term Chapel services.
Beyond the formal curriculum, children enjoy activities from clubs and trips, to school visitors and working with teachers from the Senior and Junior Schools.
Teacher Profile
Teacher Profile
Elisabeth Sherwin
Pre-Prep Teacher
Elisabeth joined St Edmund’s Pre-Prep in 2008 when she relocated to Kent from London. Previously, she was Year One teacher and coordinator of the five Year One classes at London’s prestigious Thomas’s Preparatory School which was recently chosen by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge for their children’s education. Currently, Elisabeth teaches Year Two, she is Key Stage One Coordinator and Deputy Head of the St Edmund’s Pre-Prep.
Elisabeth is a passionate believer in providing a creative curriculum for young children. This carefully-planned programme of teaching produces excellent academic results and motivated, enthusiastic students. Elisabeth says that the creative curriculum “provides exploration and discovery as a way of learning, enabling children to develop confidence, creativity, and lifelong critical thinking skills”. Elisabeth creates an exciting learning environment and ensures that children are exposed to ideas that are presented and reinforced in a variety of modes: kinaesthetically, aurally, orally and visually.
Elisabeth enjoys providing creative and fun learning opportunities inside and outside the classroom and runs a variety of extra-curricular clubs – from chess to country dancing – as well as introducing new initiatives e.g. Lego Therapy, Pre-Prep Poetry Recitals and the hugely popular Dragonfly Outside Learning Week.
Teacher profile
Teacher profile
Anna
At university, I was lucky to be tutored by Sir Phillip Pullman. My degree was English Literature and Education, so courses with him included short stories, traditional tales and teaching reading. We read hundreds of children’s books, and I learnt how important the reading environment is in inspiring readers and promoting a lifelong love of literature. Sir Phillip would read us extracts of his writing that he was ‘trying out’, and we would discuss these. Little did I know then, that his ideas would become famous and be adapted for film and TV.
