The five best independent prep schools in or near Croydon are;
- Elmhurst School in South Croydon,
- Old Palace Prep of John Whitgift School,
- Oakwood School,
- Royal Russell Junior School, and
- Croydon High Junior School in Selsdon.
They are all day schools and are within two miles of each other in a leafy residential suburb. Why choose these? Because these Croydon prep schools rank in the top 5% of schools in the country, as determined by the Schoolsmith Score.
If you’re putting together a shortlist of schools, this brief note might help you, because it actually compares the schools, just like you do. And there are links throughout to explainer articles (they open new tabs). There is also a partner review for state primaries in the same area, stretching from South Norwood to New Addington to Sanderstead. And that can be found here.
There are differences between the schools, which I’ll expand on below. But, to cut to the chase, the highest scoring Croydon preps are Royal Russell Junior School and Old Palace Prep. And they are the second and third highest priced too. The lowest fees are at Oakwood School, and it is also the best value for money. Do you get what you pay for? It depends on what you want, and what’s important to you. I’ve got some quizzes to help you with that. Otherwise, dear reader, read on.
Age range, gender mix, and faith
Many parents don’t get beyond the obvious differences between schools. These are the structural differences such as age range, gender, faith, all-through or not. You may have a preference one way or another, but these aren’t indicators of a better education.
First of all, there’s gender mix. Croydon has three single-sex prep schools. Croydon High Junior and Old Palace Prep are girls’ schools. Elmhurst School is a boys’ school. Oakwood School and Royal Russell Junior are mixed schools. Oakwood School has a roughly even split of boys and girls, whereas Royal Russell Junior is closer to 60% boys.
As for age range they are all 3 to 11. Which means that they all have a nursery or pre-school class.
In addition, each of the schools offer wraparound childcare from 7.30/8.00am to 5.00/6.00pm.
As for faith, each of these five preps welcome pupils of all faiths and none. Two of them, Old Palace Prep and Royal Russell Junior have a historic affiliation to the Church of England. Oakwood School is a Catholic school in the Opus Dei tradition. Christian/Catholic social morality informs the culture and pastoral care at all three schools. And there are assemblies and some religious celebrations. There is more religious observance at Oakwood School. There are daily prayers, twice weekly mass, and preparation for the Holy Sacraments.
Standalone preps and all-through schools
Elmhurst School and Oakwood School are standalone prep schools. They exist to prepare pupils for entry into a range of schools at the end of Year 6. The benefit being that choice of destination is more informed in later prep years than in Nursery or Reception. That said, Oakwood School is part of the same group as two senior schools; The Cedars School and The Laurels School.
Croydon High Junior, Old Palace Prep, and Royal Russell Junior, on the other hand, are junior departments of all-through schools to age 18. At these schools, the curriculum is geared towards preparing the pupil for moving up into the senior school, rather than transferring to another school. And pupils are expected to make that transition. Which brings a benefit of a stress-free Year 6 for pupils, and parents. The schools might also argue that teaching time can be diverted to activities more beneficial than exam preparation.
Academic selection and inspections
Oakwood School, and Elmhurst School are not academically selective, operating a waiting-list admissions procedure. Croydon High Junior, Old Palace Prep, and Royal Russell Junior are academically selective, with age-appropriate assessments as part of their admissions processes.
The degree of academic selectivity can dictate the pace of lessons. It can also be a prime determinant of academic outcomes; smarter pupils get better results. But not always. Demographics and, dare I mention, teaching, influence academic outcomes too.
ISI, the independent schools’ inspector, makes the following observations about pupils’ ability profiles at these Croydon prep schools. At four schools, Nationally Standardised Tests indicate that ability profiles at Croydon High Junior, Royal Russell Junior, and Old Palace Prep are ‘above average’. That sounds fitting for selective schools. The same is true for Oakwood School, which is non-selective. At Elmhurst School ability profiles are ‘average’. Make of that what you will.
The most recent ISI inspections for Croydon High (whole school), Royal Russell (whole school), Old Palace (whole school), and Oakwood School were ‘Excellent’ across all areas. Elmhurst School was ‘Excellent’ for pupils’ personal development, and ‘Good’ for pupil achievement.
Buildings and grounds
The choice of school setting is either a converted Victorian house in a small suburban plot, or a purpose-built 1960s/1970s unit in the extensive grounds of the senior school. The latter typifies Croydon High Junior (20 acres) and Royal Russell Junior (110 acres).
Old Palace Prep occupies a mix of Victorian and more recent buildings, two miles from the senior school. Collingwood School is based in a converted Victorian house. Oakwood School has recently moved to a Grade II listed Georgian house in 3 acres of grounds. Elmhurst School is based in three adjacent suburban Victorian houses with limited outdoor space.
Class sizes and classes per year
The size of a school can influence the ‘feel’ of a school, as well as the extensiveness and variety of facilities. These schools aren’t particularly large preps, and are typically one or two classes per year;
- 1 class per year; Elmhurst School and Oakwood School,
- 1 class per year, sometimes two; Old Palace Prep,
- 2 classes per year; Croydon High Junior,
- 2 classes per year rising to 3; Royal Russell Junior.
Average class sizes at Croydon prep schools range from 13 to 19 pupils. Classes at Old Palace Prep are usually the smallest, averaging 13 pupils per class. Croydon High Junior, Elmhurst School, Royal Russell Junior and Oakwood School average 17-19 pupils per class.
Facilities at Croydon prep schools
As far as facilities go, there’s not much to differentiate between these Croydon prep schools. Elmhurst School aside, they each have a similar range of sport, arts, and academic facilities.
The three junior divisions of the all-through schools have access to the widest range of facilities. Royal Russell Junior and Croydon High Junior have the benefit of accessing the facilities of their respective senior schools. Similarly Old Palace Prep, though that involves a two-mile minibus drive across Croydon. However, Croydon High Junior and Old Palace Prep pupils have more facilities specifically for them than pupils at Royal Russell Junior.
Starting with sports facilities. All five schools have indoor and outdoor games facilities. Which means that they all have a multi-purpose hall and playgrounds at the very least.
In addition, Elmhurst School pupils use external facilities, in particular, the grounds at the Old Whitgiftian Association. Oakwood School has a playing field. Old Palace Prep has its own field, gymnasium, and tennis/netball courts. And then pupils at Old Palace Prep, Croydon High Junior and Royal Russell Junior can access the fields, Astroturf pitches, sports halls, and swimming pools shared with their senior schools.
As for arts facilities, all five schools have a school hall for the primary aged pupils. In addition, the other four schools each have an art room and a music room(s). These facilities are shared at Royal Russell Junior within the school’s performing arts centre and music school. Pupils at Croydon High Junior can also avail themselves of the dance studio at the senior school.
Academic learning facilities are also similar at Oakwood School, Croydon High Junior, Royal Russell Junior, and Old Palace Prep. They each have an outdoor learning space, library, DT and/or science room, and a computer suite and/or laptops/tablets in the classroom. Elmhurst School has a computer suite and classroom-based resources.
Computing and remote learning
As well as computer suites for teaching computing skills, or classroom/library devices for research and project work, there are also dedicated devices.
During the pandemic, remote teaching, assisted by technology, became a necessity. Blended learning (face to face and online) is now a reality. Perhaps not for the youngest pupils, but certainly for those in Year 3 upwards. As such, schools are starting to issue dedicated devices to their pupils. At Elmhurst School, for example, all pupils from Year 4 upwards have their own Chromebooks. At Royal Russell Junior, all pupils from Year 5 have a dedicated iPad. The other four schools provide pooled iPads, Chromebooks, laptops, on an as-needed basis.
Academic curricula
All five of the Croydon independent prep schools offer curricula based on, and augmenting, the National Curriculum.
They all acknowledge the importance of skills development, as well as fact acquisition. This balance is topical in curriculum design for all schools, and these Croydon preps balance the two differently.
Elmhurst School, for example, has an ‘Integrated Curriculum’ which links English with other subjects according to a termly theme. Royal Russell Junior links computing, science, history and geography up to Year 2, after which subjects are taught separately.
Perhaps the most thematic of all the five curricula is at Old Palace Prep. Here all subjects, except maths and English (mostly) are linked by thematic topics using the Cornerstones Curriculum.
Croydon High Junior has a bespoke ‘Enterprise Technology’ curriculum which integrates technology across the curriculum. Specifically, it is designed to enable girls to be creators of, rather than passive users of, technology. The school has also been a finalist in the national Raspberry Pi computing competition, twice.
There are other ways to encourage thinking and so-called ‘21st Century Skills’ in primary age pupils. Another example is the Maths Week and Science Week at Elmhurst School. Or the Year 6 Business Enterprise (entrepreneurship) course at Croydon High Junior and Elmhurst School.
The curriculum at Oakwood School emphasises Catholic social morality. Particularly in lessons such as PSHE. RE, naturally, plays a prominent role in the curriculum as a core subject along with English and maths.
All five schools all introduce some degree of verbal and non-verbal reasoning and English/maths exam preparations for Year 6 11+ exams. At Oakwood School, preparation starts as early as Year 3.
Outdoor learning and trips
All five preps offer plenty of educational trips to support and stimulate their curricula. And there are field, cultural, adventure, sporting and musical residential trips too, usually in Year 6. However, Elmhurst School and Royal Russell Junior offer residentials from Year 5.
Outdoor learning, however, isn’t as prominent in Croydon prep schools, as it is in some other areas. Elmhurst School is the exception with a term of Forest School per year for each Year group.
To a greater or lesser degree, some pupils at each of these prep schools enter national academic competitions. Usually, it’s part of a ‘gifted and talented’ programme. And pupils at Homefield Prep, in particular, have met with some success too, appearing in national finals for chess, maths, and science.
Foreign language teaching
At most prep schools French is the main foreign language from Nursery or Reception. And so it is for these Croydon Preps. Oakwood School, though, teaches Spanish from Reception.
Three schools add an additional language. Royal Russell Junior adds Spanish from Year 4. Oakwood School offers classics from Year 5. Croydon High Junior also adds Latin, but from Year 6.
Subject specialist teaching
Primary school teachers can, and often do, teach a wide range of subjects to their pupils. Their expertise is in teaching this age group. Prep schools make the case that subject specialists may be better for some subjects. Also, the progression from one to several teachers prepares pupils for teaching in senior schools. How much subject specialist teaching each school offers, and when they offer it, varies.
The five Croydon prep schools offer a similar menu of class-based teaching to Year 3, but with subject specialist teaching in sport, music, languages, and sometimes drama, art and computing.
Old Palace Prep maintains the highest degree of class teacher-based teaching of the five. Others introduce science or art specialists from Year 3. Elmhurst School pupils have maths and English specialists from Year 4. Oakwood School and Royal Russell Junior transition to mainly specialist teaching from Year 5.
Sport at Croydon prep schools
It is in the provision of sports and the arts that private schools excel. In particular, time spent on sport, and lessons dedicated to music, art, drama and sometimes dance set them apart from state schools.
And these five schools are no exception. At least two PE/games sessions per week and 10% of curriculum time dedicated to sport. They offer between 10 and 15 different sports. Royal Russell Juniors offers the most sports.
Facilities, pupil numbers and specialist teaching are the key ingredients for sporting achievement at independent prep schools. These five all turn out representative teams across, at least, the major sports.
Royal Russell Juniors has reached national finals (and won) in basketball, football, and trampolining competitions.
The arts at Croydon prep schools
Art and music are popular pursuits throughout these schools’ curricular and extra-curricular programs. For a start, they all have curricular art lessons and extra-curricular art activities.
Even the smaller schools have a couple of choirs and some instrument ensembles. At Croydon High Junior, Old Palace Prep, Oakwood School, and Royal Russell Junior, at least half of all pupils learn an instrument outside curricular music.
Royal Russell Junior, Croydon High Junior, and Old Palace Prep have the highest number of music ensembles and activities.
Most schools fold drama into English or a ‘creative topic’. Not so at Croydon High Juniors, Old Palace Prep, and Royal Russell Juniors who all have curricular drama. This is in addition to musical and dramatic performances and extra-curricular ESB and LAMDA speech and drama exams at all five schools.
Dance is a curricular subject at Old Palace Prep. Elsewhere, dance doesn’t feature beyond Year 2 though it is on each of the schools’ extra-curricular programmes.
And there are many extra-curricular clubs. There’s sport, of course. But in addition, most of these schools offer over 10 non-sport clubs per year group, per term. Croydon High Juniors, Elmhurst, and Old Palace Prep are particularly strong for academic/hobby and arts clubs.
Exam results and destination schools
It’s hard to compare these five Croydon prep schools on exam results since they don’t all enter the same comparable national exams. Only Oakwood School pupils enter SATS exams, and average attainment results put that school in the top 8% of all schools in England.
As for destination schools, there are some differences between the five.
Pupils at the three junior/prep departments of all-through schools invariably move on to their senior schools at the end of Year 6. A small minority from each leave for grammar or comprehensive secondaries. Old Palace School is usually in the top 6-7% of UK independent schools by A Level and GCSE results
Elmhurst School leaver destinations are more evenly divided between independent schools and grammar/comprehensive schools.
Half of Oakwood School leavers move on to the Group’s senior Catholic schools; The Cedars and The Laurels. The other half head to a mix of independent and grammar/state schools, perhaps with more of an emphasis on Catholic schools.
Fees and value for money
For the 2022/23 academic year, Year 6 tuition fees at these prep schools range from £3,500 to £5,100 per term. Fees at Croydon High Junior, Old Palace Prep, and Royal Russell Junior are at the top end of the range. Fees at Oakwood School are the lowest. Elmhurst School charges around £4,000 per term in Year 6. The difference between the highest and lowest fees comes to £4,800 per year, excluding lunch and extras such as residential trips.
| Schoolsmith Score | Tuition Fees v National Average (Years 1-6) | Value for money (rank) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Croydon High Junior | 80 | +25% | 5 |
| Elmhurst School | 76 | +0.5% | 4 |
| Oakwood School | 79 | -11% | 1 |
| Old Palace Prep | 83 | +20% | 2 |
| Royal Russell Junior | 83 | +22% | 3 |
To put these fees into perspective, total tuition fees from Year 1 through to Year 6 at the three all-through junior divisions are 20-25% higher than the national average. Fees at Elmhurst School, however, are at the national average, and those at Oakwood School are 11% lower.
Royal Russell Junior and Old Palace Prep are the highest scoring Croydon prep schools. And there is some correlation between fees and Schoolsmith Score. The three highest scoring schools have the highest fees. And the two schools with the lowest fees have the lowest scores. Oakwood School offers the best value for money as measured by £/Schoolsmith Score.
What accounts for this difference in fees? In general, it’s location, grounds, facilities, class sizes, staffing, and local demographics. Some of which applies here. Of course, the adage of ‘getting what you pay for’ can also be true, which I hope this note has highlighted. These are all good prep schools, providing a worthy educational experience. But when it comes down to it, what are you prepared to pay for?
See also the best independent prep schools in Balham and Streatham, Wimbledon, Sutton, Purley, Caterham, Forest Hill and Sydenham, Bromley, West Wickham, and Reigate and Redhill
Why are these the best independent prep schools in Croydon?
Schools that feature in these notes are those with the highest Schoolsmith Scores, not just in Croydon, but nationwide. This is an objective score that accounts for 50 different aspects of schooling, grouped into 5 broad categories. You can read more about them from the links below, and the Schoolsmith Score here.
- their achievements; academic, sporting and artistic,
- the breadth of the education they offer,
- the quality of teaching,
- their facilities,
- their look and feel.
A quick pause for breath
By now you might be wondering what you should be thinking about when choosing a school? It happens to everyone. Why not try my 7 one minute quizzes for those starting their school search? Wood, trees, and all that…