UK’s ninth best prep! says the Sunday Times

The Sunday Times has named St Mary’s Colchester’s Lower School as the ninth highest performing preparatory school in the country in its Parent Power listing of the UK’s Top 100 Preparatory Schools, which was published on 19 November 2017.

The latest Parent Power listing ranks independent preparatory and state primary schools according to the outcomes of the national Statutory Assessment Tests (SATs) in reading, maths, and grammar, punctuation and spelling taken by Year 6 children in 2016.

“Although not academically selective on entry, St Mary’s is an academic school and our pupils are encouraged to take advantage of all that school life has to offer,” said Mrs Emma Stanhope, Director of St Mary’s Lower School. “We work hard to offer a broad and balanced curriculum in a warm and happy environment with plenty of opportunities to be involved in the arts, sport and a huge range of activities. Our pupils feel sufficiently secure and confident to develop their own personalities, strengths and interests and we are able to bring out the very best in each individual.”

New-style SATs were introduced in May 2016, with a ‘scaled score’ replacing the previous ‘levels’ method of assessing children’s performance in tests covering reading, GPS (grammar, punctuation and spelling) and mathematics. In 2016, 63% of St Mary’s Year 6 pupils were judged to be working at a higher level than national expectations (a scaled score of 110 or above) in reading, 56% in maths and 56% in GPS. National expectation is a scaled score of 100.