Swanbourne House School

The school’s aim is to identify where children are in their understanding, knowledge and skills, then to help them progress as effectively as possible in order to realise their fullest potential. Each child’s performance is regularly reviewed and their best efforts celebrated through progress reports and discussion with their form tutor. The form tutor tracks progress and any concerns are the remit of the subject teacher, Head of Department or deputy Academic.

Maths, English, French and Science are our core subjects. Our academic programme is rigorous and features reading targets, spelling tests, tables tests and study skills for senior pupils. At the age of thirteen, most of the children sit Common Entrance or Scholarship examinations to well-known Public Schools or Independent Schools. Children who move on to Grammar School are typically well ahead of their peers and parents apply to the Education Authority to register them for the entrance assessment, which is a Verbal Reasoning Test.

Pupils are taught in classes or groups of between twelve and up to eighteen, depending on numbers. We try not start the year with more than seventeen pupils in a form, though sets can be up to eighteen as we place pupils where they are most comfortable. There are sets for Maths, English, French and Latin.

The pupils who are chosen for Scholarship classes in our senior years, are in small groups, say from eight to sixteen for academic subjects and then grouped with other pupils up to seventeen for non academic subjects like PE and Art. This ensures strong horizontal grouping and proper adjustment when they move on to Senior Schools where their classes will be twenty or more. We have three or four form entry and, in the senior years, group forms either 1, 2 or 3 in ability or we have a scholarship form and a two mixed ability classes, depending on the number of pupils in that particular year. In the younger years, we have mixed ability forms.