Riddlesworth Hall Preparatory School

Our impressive and welcoming Georgian style four-storey manor house sits proudly in 35 acres of beautiful grounds, woodlands and gardens. Located in the Norfolk countryside, only 1 ½ hours by direct train to London, Riddlesworth Hall welcomes boys and girls aged 3-13.

Our school has a committed staff and wonderful pupils but, please don’t take my word for it alone; We invite you to come and visit us – we would be delighted to welcome you.

Above all at Riddlesworth, we strive to ensure that our children develop a love of learning and make the very most of their abilities, encouraging and challenging them to give their best – and to be the best that they can be. Whether they arrive in our Pre Prep at 3 years old or enter the Prep School slightly later in life, we aim to sow the seeds that will allow our pupils to develop into thoughtful, adventurous and academically ambitious individuals who are enthusiastic about learning and, moreover, enjoy coming into school each day.

The best recommendation a school can have is for a parent, at the beginning of a new term, to say “They couldn’t wait to come back”. This is as true of day pupils as it is of boarders, and at Riddlesworth Hall there is always a buzz to the first day back as we all shake back down into school life. And school life is never boring – or indeed predictable. If it snows we all put our wellies on and get out into the grounds to make snowmen. Staff too. If something is happening in the wider world we will respond to it; if lessons take an interesting direction we will allow them to do so just to see where they may take us.

The more senior pupils are aware that the pace of their learning has begun to pick up but they are not phased by this. Specialist teachers take over from Year 5 onwards, with language, science and music teachers ensuring the best possible grounding from Pre-Reception upwards. We even teach Mandarin from reception.

From Year 4 upwards our school day starts at 8.30 and ends at 4:45pm. For the younger pupils, this means that homework has been done and their school day is really over. We prefer pupils to get home in the evening with nothing more than a reading book in their backpack. Evenings are family times and no-one is allowed to spoil this by fretting about maths. Older pupils will have a second prep as they need to establish a more intense work pattern in preparation for public examinations but even so we insist on a healthy balance between homework and home life.

Our Pre-Prep department takes pupils from the age of three upwards. Pre-Reception class offers our 3-4 year olds the best possible start to their school life – with small class sizes again maintained all the way to Year 2.