WHAT? WHERE?

Orwell Park School is a co-educational rural prep day and boarding school in Nacton near Ipswich, set in a fabulous 110 acre location with River Orwell views. Founded in 1868 in Lowestoft, the school then moved to Aldeburgh in 1870 and on to its present site in 1937.

Today the school’s centrepiece is a stunning 18th century mansion with a lovely circular tree-lined drive worthy of a period film. The 232 children gambol freely around grounds that include a Victorian observatory, a rare clock tower, a water tower, a forest and ha-ha. It’s a proper countryside Prep where little ones gulp lungfuls of fresh air everyday and deer trot by the classroom windows. As school settings go, it doesn’t get much more magical and idyllic than this.

Orwell Park takes children from age 2 in nursery up to 13 with a 59/41 boy/girl split and small class sizes at around 12 -14 pupils. The school is non-selective, although children are invited for a taster day, a recent school report is requested for Prep upwards and there’s an assessment in maths and English to establish where a child sits within the year group. Pupils can board (from Year 3 up) full time, weekly, or on a flexi basis or attend as day pupils. Frazzled working parents rejoice because the wraparound provision is particularly good, meaning day pupils get to enjoy all the benefits of boarding life while still sleeping in their own beds. Saturday school is compulsory for Years 4 – 8, with lessons in the morning and sport in the afternoon.

The school prides itself on preparing pupils for the next stage of their education (and life beyond) and helping parents find the perfect senior school to suit their child’s individual passions, talents and personality. Orwell Park isn’t a feeder school for any specific senior school, so each year the children head off to around 25 of the best UK senior schools (including Eton, Harrow, Benenden, Uppingham and Oundle), with a rather juicy 25 scholarships awarded on average each year too.

FACILITIES

/SPORT

The star of the show here is the outside space with its brilliant sporting facilities. As you’d expect then sport is a big deal at Orwell Park School and pupils have access to everything from an assault course installed by an army regiment, grass pitches and floodlit astroturfs to squash courts, tennis courts, a heated outdoor swimming pool in a charming walled garden, a large sports hall and a nine-hole golf course, all just outside the back door.

There’s a ‘sports for all’ ethos here, so you don’t have to be a future Olympian to make the most of the opportunities on offer. The strongest sports for the school are rugby, hockey and cricket. With former pro cricketer Adam Mansfield on the staff children have the chance to take one-to-one lessons with him at lunchtimes while the U12s rugby players enjoy regular sessions with a Northampton Saints coach. There’s a huge range of other options to try your hand at if traditional team sports aren’t your thing, including aquathlon, cross country, athletics, golf, tennis, squash, badminton, basketball, skiing, equestrian and footgolf. Tennis players will be in their element with three external tennis coaches providing one-to-one lessons in lunchtimes too. And, when you’ve got a river at the end of the garden, sailing is also a popular sport.

The school has seen a huge amount of success recently in rugby winning the Rosslyn Park National Schools 7s tournament and the 1st, 2nd and U9A teams enjoying unbeaten seasons. Other teams that have swept the board this year include the senior and U9 hockey and cricket sides. Individually 25 pupils in the last year have been selected to represent the county or above in hockey, netball, cricket, cross country, gymnastics, athletics, tennis and skiing. It’s also worth noting that of the 25 scholarships awarded last year, 10 were for sport!

/CREATIVE ARTS

The performing arts are also an excellent standard here and well catered for. There are specialist music spaces in three areas of the school, including an open performing space and dedicated classroom in the Pre-Prep building, practice rooms, teaching rooms and a Music Technology suite in the basement of the mansion and a further three chamber concert rooms, each with a grand piano. It’s the sort of school where you regularly hear music drifting down the corridors, partly due to the fact that an incredible 94% of OPS pupils take individual music lessons.

There are plenty of chances to have a moment in the spotlight for musical children with 11 different ensembles and choirs, a Battle of the Bands, Autumn and Spring Concerts, and a musical performed each year as well as plenty of productions outside the school.

The dedicated art department covers an entire floor of one of the buildings and includes a kiln, multiple ceramic wheels, and light and bright studio space. The Year 7 and 8 Art Scholars have their own area and when I visited they were spending their break time working on intricate pieces and looked very confident and at home indeed.

Drama is a popular subject and there’s a lovely holistic approach to the subject throughout the entire curriculum to help children gain confidence, with the subject being used to explore situations, issues or dilemmas that occur in other lessons. Separate drama lessons take place for all children each week and every pupil gets the chance to tread the boards at some point with a senior production for Years 6-8, the Christmas Revue, the Middle School Play and LAMDA recitals.

Grand plans for the future include building a purpose-built performing arts centre/ theatre, which is really the only missing piece of the puzzle here. They currently do an excellent job of transforming the main sports hall into a theatre and the quality of the school performances each year shows that music and drama doesn’t exactly suffer from not having its own space.

The large, well-equipped Design & Technology workshop is a standout feature with a 3D printer, touch screen whiteboard, and set of iMac computers, and the quality of the teaching is up there with the best. All pupils in Years 3-8 have a double lesson in the subject each week and there’s a popular club too. No surprises then that the school has won national prizes for their pupils’ creations and has sent pupils off to senior schools with DT scholarships.

Other facilities worth a mention include a beautiful and cosy library in the main house, used for some lessons and where a popular Wednesday morning story club takes place. The dining hall is a charming historic space and pupils I spoke to raved about the quality of the food.

LITTLIES

Nursery (2+ and 3+), Reception and Years 1 and 2 are housed in the Pre-Prep building, a modern, light-filled and generously proportioned space built in 2012 with its own generous garden and little play area. Each classroom also has its own dedicated outside space for free-flow play and pulling on wellies and learning in the great outdoors is a key part of the curriculum and a daily occurrence for the children.

EYFS classroom with no children in it and views out to garden area

Every classroom includes a jam-packed library area and, in keeping with the school’s philosophy of allowing children to be children for as long as possible, there are also play spaces full of role play toys. Other facilities include a dedicated music room (every child from Year 2 up learns a stringed instrument), a general library, a large assembly/ dining hall and a large forest school area.

The Pre-Prep students have specialist teachers for French, Digital Skills, Music and PE (as well as Art from Year 1) and can take individual music lessons if they wish. There’s a lovely community feel here and the whole Pre-Prep comes together to work on projects (currently they’re all reading Leaf and are creating a beautiful piece of wall art together). Brand new for 2023 and as part of the drive to see students mix across year groups is the extension of the house system to the Pre-Prep.

As well as gorgeous cursive handwriting, an excellent grounding in French, strong musical skills and impeccable manners, you can expect your little ones to graduate from Orwell Park Pre-Prep with plenty of confidence when it comes to public speaking, thanks to the early focus on performing everything from poems in recitals to readings and prayers in church services. There are plenty of chances for parents to see their little stars in action in plays and concerts throughout the year.

ACADEMICS

Orwell Park School feeds into a broad range of top independent schools and has an impeccable 100% pass rate at Common Entrance with a particularly impressive 74% A*-B Grades in Common Entrance English. Pretty jaw-dropping when you consider this is a non-selective school, but with smaller than average class sizes, there’s clearly plenty of attention to help the children reach their goals.

Every year a good proportion of leavers win scholarships or awards to their chosen senior schools including academic, sport, art, drama and music scholarships, cementing Orwell Park’s reputation for providing a top notch all-round education.

PASTORAL CARE

There’s a laser sharp focus on pastoral care here and with a small cohort of 232 pupils it’s pretty much impossible to slip through the cracks. All pupils have a tutor, who works closely with them and their family and there’s also a Wellbeing Lead, and a buddy system. It’s clear from a quick tour of the school that all the pupils and staff have a lovely close and friendly relationship.

The school also has daily, weekly and termly pastoral and wellbeing meetings, including oversight from the Governors. The kids know they can speak to any adult about any concern and pupils are definitely given a voice – being invited to take part in annual surveys as well as committees with the staff and the School Council. Older pupils act as Wellbeing Ambassadors for their peers too.

BOARDING

Pupils can board from Year 3 and there are 35 full/ weekly boarders at the moment. Plenty of other children choose to flexi board throughout the week with Tuesdays and Thursdays being particularly busy nights and it’s a real bonus that every flexi boarder has their own bed. The school is keen to make sure pupils are boarding for the enriching experience rather than providing a babysitting service, so if children stay on a Friday they have to do at least one other night.

The girls are housed on the second floor of the mansion and have a large and homely common room with shared bedrooms that have amazing views over the river. There are up to 10 in a dormitory style room, but cleverly designed bespoke beds mean each child has some privacy and their own space to personalise. The boys are on the first floor in large rooms with seriously high ceilings and have their own huge common room. Members of the teaching staff help out in the boarding houses to further enhance the family feel and so the boarding houses don’t feel completely separate to daily school life.

THE HEAD

Guy Musson took up the role of Head in September 2023 after a stint as Deputy Head at Ludgrove School and has plenty of leadership experience at Prep Schools including the Dragon School in Oxford, the Perse Prep in Cambridge and Garden House School in London. Guy already lives and breathes the school – living on site in The Camellia House just metres from his office with his wife Milly, who teaches Maths, and their two children who attend the school.

Guy is personable, charming and full of energy and is already making his mark by welcoming parents by the school steps every day and acting as a touchpoint for any questions or concerns. He’s keen to throw the doors open wide by hosting regular events, to really promote a family-friendly, homely atmosphere and to shake off any lasting hangovers from the Covid days. Having come from a full boarding school, Guy and Milly are both huge advocates of the boarding experience from an early age and are keen to increase the numbers of boarders and ensure the experience at Orwell Park is happy, relaxing and feels like home for both pupils and parents.

In terms of capital investments, Guy’s long-term plans for the school include building a dedicated performing arts centre and making the swimming pool usable in winter.

QUIRKS

It’s a traditional prep school offering here, and quirkiness is not high on the agenda although you will find a blend of both formal (black tie events and speech days) alongside the informal (battle of the bands and the annual staff and pupil revue sketch show). Perhaps the most quirky thing is that Orwell Park calls itself a muddy wellies school and takes learning outside at every available opportunity. There’s a bespoke outdoor learning programme that includes weekly Forest School and Bushcraft lessons for the little ones and OPS Quest/OPS Challenge (think Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme meets Scouts or Brownies), camping, sailing, and shooting for older children.

There’s no need to grow up too quickly at Orwell Park School and simply enjoying being young is very much encouraged. The older pupils still play happily in “the village” a play area with zip wire, climbing frames and charming little places to play hide and seek and there’s no sense that you need to be cool as you move up the years.

Some of the quirkier life skills the your child might learn through the amazing co-curricular activities at Orwell Park School include things like building a kit car! Last year Year 7 and 8 students built a Robin Hood two-seater sports car and then took it to a race track. The school also has an excellent track record for fostering future furniture makers in the DT department with students being shortlisted in the Young Furniture Makers exhibition and one going on to win the Schools Design Prize, competing against much older students.

WHAT ELSE?

The school might be traditional and steeped in history but it is bang up to date digitally with all children from Year 3 having their own iPad to use in lessons and Pre-Prep pupils having access to an iPad in their classrooms. The school uses iPads to teach children about online safety from an early age and children use them as a portable research tool that they can easily carry around without ending up with sore shoulders.

WRAPAROUND CARE

Absolutely exceptional and a huge draw for working parents. From Nursery 2 (age 3+) children can be dropped off at 8am and stay until 5pm. Pre-prep pupils can stay until 6:30pm, which includes joining Prep pupils in the dining hall for dinner and doing their homework. There are co-curricular clubs galore as well with an eye-watering amount of opportunities for the kids. No ferrying children around after school or at the weekend to external clubs for OPS parents!

The best news is that all these extras are included in the normal termly school fees. The school is extremely flexible with its boarding too, allowing pupils to flexi board throughout the week. Many local day pupils like to test out the boarding provision to get a taste of life away from home before heading onto a full boarding senior school.

SEND

There’s strong SEN support at Orwell Park School, with an excellent open door policy so any child can access the Learning Support Department. The department is staffed by 3 qualified SpLD staff (two are Qualified Assessors), who have access to resources to support all types of educational needs. Children with 1:1 support will have a maximum of 3 weekly individual sessions and won’t be taken out of any core or favourite subjects. The school also works with outside agencies including Speech and Language Therapists, Play Therapists, Counsellors, Educational Psychologists, Clinical Psychologists and Mental Health leads when needed.

TRANSPORT

Orwell Park School is easier to get to than it looks – just a two minute drive from the A14. There are two school bus routes – Yoxford, Friday Street, Wickham Market, Woodbridge and Marks Tey, Colchester, East Bergholt. And, with a lovely sweeping circular drive and plenty of parking, drop off and pick up are a breeze.

FEES

Competitive considering the amazing facilities, level of specialist teaching and that wraparound care is included, although they do get heftier as you rise up the school: £3,213 for Reception; £3,570 for Year 1, £4,570 for Year 2; £6,891 for Year 3; £7,638 for Years 4-8 and from £9,228 for weekly boarding.

THE MUDDY VERDICT

Good for: Energetic children with a can-do attitude who thrive on being outdoors in all weathers and parents who need excellent wraparound care options. Sporty kids will love it here, although the arts are far from ignored. Orwell Park School is a magical bucolic setting where children can enjoy being young and carefree for longer. The school has the perfect balance of being both academically high achieving with an incredibly enriching curriculum but without the pupils feeling any undue pressure. The opportunities are here for the taking.

Not for: Those who prefer a more urban setting or want their child to prepare for the 11+ exam with a view to going to a grammar school. Children who don’t have a huge amount of stamina might struggle with the long, jam-packed days.

Dare to disagree? There is an Open Morning on 11 May 2024 . For an individual tour, call or email the admissions team on 01473 653224 or admissions@orwellpark.org.

Orwell Park School, Nacton, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP10 0ER

Orwell Park School, Nacton, Suffolk

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