King Edward VI Preparatory School
As we celebrate our 10th year of partnership with King Edward VI School, Southampton, we are excited to announce the beginning of a new chapter in our School's journey. After careful consideration, the Governors and Executive Leadership Team have decided that Stroud will align fully with the King Edward VI brand from September 2024, to become King Edward VI Preparatory School (or KES Prep for short).
Stroud has been a symbol of community, family, and academic excellence for many years. This change signifies an opportunity to build on this legacy and embrace the future to ensure our School remains a beacon of learning for generations to come.
Over the years, Stroud has constantly evolved and adapted to meet the changing needs of our pupils and of our community. This year we have introduced the Head’s Recommendation, which enables Stroud pupils at the appropriate academic standard to access guaranteed entry to KES without the usual entrance exam process. We continue to invest in our outdoor education programme across both Stroud and KES, and we recently announced that our Nursery will extend to 51 weeks of to offer even greater support to our families.
While our name and brand identity may be evolving, the ethos of our school will remain unchanged. This commitment is clear for all to see in our September 2023 publication which can be viewed below. We are proud of our accomplishments, our values and of the unique educational experience we provide. We are also proud to offer our families support and preparation in gaining places at a wide range of senior schools, alongside our preferential route to KES.
After 10 years of successful partnership, that has brought benefits to both Stroud and King Edward’s, we stand together and celebrate our commitment to innovation and progress, and to nurturing a diverse community that values individuality, fosters creativity, and encourages lifelong learning. The spirit of who we are, the dedication of our staff and the diverse talents of our pupils will continue to flourish under our new banner. We look forward to working with our families, pupils and staff in the coming weeks and months as we continue on our journey, together.
We hope you will find our FAQS below helpful. We would welcome the opportunity to show new families around our fantastic school – to make an enquiry, please do get in touch here, we'd love to welcome you.
Will the Prep School still feed to a range of senior schools?
Stroud has always prepared children for a wide range of independent and state schools, including grammar schools. This year alone our Year 6 children have received offers from 8 different senior schools. Despite developing ever stronger links with our Senior School, we will never adopt a ‘one size fits all’ approach and we will continue to support our families to find the right school for each child.
When will the brand start to change?
Through the 2023-24 academic year there will be a lot of work in the background to ensure that there is a smooth brand transition next summer, prior to September 2024. We will be working on adaptations to the KES crest, and of course consulting with our parents about our new uniform. Throughout next year, Stroud will maintain its green brand identity.
How will you honour the history of Stroud?
Stroud has a rich history and we will be working with our staff and parents to look for ways in which we can honour this legacy. Our pupils are affectionately called ‘Stroudies’ and we will certainly look to keep this moniker as we move forward. We will also be creating a more formal reception room for parent meetings and open events and we hope to celebrate the history of the school and our archive material here, for all to see.
Will the uniform change?
We will be consulting with our current parents before the end of the Summer Term 2023, and then we hope to put an agreed new uniform into production, ready for September 2024 for all new starters. A new uniform will always be phased in allowing a full academic year for our current children to grow out of old uniform before having to switch to the new uniform in September 2025. Of course, families who wish to make the switch in September 2024 will be very welcome to do so.
Will you become more selective if there is increased demand for places?
For the past few years we have operated a ‘gently selective’ admissions policy and there is no plan for this to change. Whist we remain broadly inclusive as children join in our earlier years, as the children progress through the school we add in some short assessments and classroom-based activities to their ‘Taster Days.’ This ensures that we can maintain our excellent support for pupils already in the school, that new children will be able to access our busy Prep School curriculum and that they will have every chance of progressing to our Senior School.
