Barfield Life

 

lawnBarfield is a co–educational Preparatory School for children aged 2 to 13. We aim to give our children a complete educational experience, with quality academic teaching in an excellent pastoral setting, and to prepare them fully for the senior school of their choice. Set in 12 acres of beautiful grounds, one mile east of Farnham, the school was founded in 1933 and became an educational trust in 1963. It is a co-educational preparatory day school, providing the best possible education for the 21st century.

Our central belief is that our children should be happy
and positively challenged in what they do,
and they will achieve to very high levels.
 
In the Pre-Prep the majority of the lessons are taught by the Form Teacher, with specialist tuition for music, sports and ‘Forest Schools’. In the Prep School, the children have a Form Tutor who oversees their personal, social and academic development and are increasingly taught by subject-specific teachers as they move up the School. Our pupils progress to their senior schools via either school-specific entrance exams or Common Entrance. In the past fifteen years, boys and girls have been awarded scholarships to 17 different schools, comprising academic, art, dance, drama, music, performing arts and sport.
Barfield children benefit from access to a wide range of facilities including the ‘MRC’ Art and Technology Centre with stage and auditorium, music practice and teaching rooms, art studio, design and technology suite and ICT rooms, a purpose-built library and science laboratory, as well as a heated indoor swimming pool and floodlit hard play area, all set in lovely grounds.
Barfield School’s very own ‘Three Peaks Outdoor Pursuits’ is an on-site outdoor adventure centre, to which the children have access through the sports and outdoor education curriculum and the ever-popular adventure clubs.
 

Nursery

The Nursery caters for children aged 2-4 years old and they work within the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Framework.  Purposeful Play and Outdoor Learning are central to our Early Years Education at Barfield.  Much emphasis at this stage is on Personal, Social and Emotional Development, which underpins positive progress and achievement in Physical, Creative and Academic Development.

Our nursery children benefit from a 'head-start' to their learning, as they experience a very broad range of activities, including swimming, music, cookery, gardening, chicken-feeding, forest adventures, as well as practising early Literacy, ICT and Numeracy skills, through fun and experiential ways.

 

Pre–Prep PrePrep visitors

The Pre-Prep consists of Reception, Year 1 and Year 2:

  • Reception - the final year of the Early Years Foundation Stage, where children turn 5 during this year.
  • Year 1 - the start of Key Stage 1.
  • Year 2 - the final year of Key Stage 1, during which children are ‘prepared’ for the Prep School, with more lessons, such as, French and Art being taught in addition to Music and Sports by Prep School staff.

Whilst the children are still taught in very practical ways with teachers employing a range of strategies and resources to suit all types of learners, as the children enter Year 1, they move towards more formal lessons, with traditional Subjects being taught.  All Pre-Prep children are able to stay on to participate in after-school, extra-curricular activities and twice weekly, Year 2 children are also given the opportunity to attend 'pre' Junior Prep, when they can work quietly on their homework.  This is supervised by their own class teacher.

Throughout the Pre-Prep, Outdoor Learning continues to play a crucial part in their education at Barfield.

Read more...

Prep Schoolprep boys

The Prep School consists of Years 3 to 8. Subjects are taught with the ultimate goal of entry into the suitable senior school for the children. The ‘ABC’s and ‘123’s are central to our children’s learning, within an innovative curriculum that stimulates and inspires their curious minds.
 
We value and encourage independence amongst the children, as they move up the school, and they can develop this academically in after-school Prep sessions.
 
Year 3 and 4 children may attend Junior Prep, where they work quietly for 20 minutes and have 20 minutes split between reading and work on their Art sketchbook.
For Years 5 and 6 this increases to 40 minutes prep a night (2 x 20 minute preps).
In Years 7 and 8 the children do 40 minutes prep a night (2 x 20 minute preps) from Monday to Thursday and 60 minutes on Friday/over the weekend (3 x 20 minute preps).
 
Children may arrive at school from 8.00am and we offer a number of pick-up times to suit your commitments (4.15pm, 4.50pm, 5.10pm, 6.15pm).
 

The children can also develop a wide range of responsibilities, from School Council ‘Reps’ to House Captains, Librarians to Head Boy and Head Girl.

Read more...