Pre preparatory, prep, junior, senior and sixth form what do they mean

Written by Rosie Keeling

An Independent or ‘private’ school generally contains four different departments according to the age range of the pupils. Some independent schools contain all four departments where as others may only cater for pupils within a particular age range such as prep.

Independent pre-preparatory (pre-prep) school
Pre-preparatory or pre-prep, caters for two to seven year olds and is also known as nursery school.

Independent preparatory (prep) and junior school
Preparatory or prep is also known as junior school. Traditionally prep school begins at seven years and ends at eleven or thirteen. On the whole the independent sector tends to use the terms preparatory and prep and the maintained sector junior. However, independent junior schools are becoming more frequent.

Independent senior school
Senior school caters for pupils from eleven years to eighteen or from thirteen to eighteen. The latter being particularly the case with some boy senior schools.

Independent sixth form
Sixth form is for students aged sixteen plus and lasts for two years.

If you are looking for a school then why not use our school search? The school search allows you to search for schools by a range of criteria including options such as pre-prep, prep, senior and sixth form as well as other criteria such as geographic region and school type such as day or boarding school as well as whether the school is coeducational or not

For an even more detailed search you can use our personalised advanced school search. The personalised advanced school search allows uses to refine their search by factors such as subjects, sports and exam types offered as well as the schools religious affiliation and whether or not the school offers school fee assistance such as school scholarships or bursaries.

A list of independent schools by London borough is also available as well as a list of independent schools by county and town.

Looking to attend a school open day? Then search for upcoming school open days using our school open day search.

Further information on pre-prep, prep, junior, senior and sixth form:
School structure (state vs independent schools)
Pre-prep schools
Prep schools
Senior schools
Sixth form

Related posts:

• London Borough School Search (Independent schools)
• Prep Schools – A Tough Decision?
• Searching for school by county?
• Search for school job vacancies using ISC’s new job search
• ISCias Information Officer – Helping parents find independent day and boarding schools

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 9th, 2009 at 4:10 pm by Rosie Keeling and is filed under Prep Schools, Private Schools, School Fees - Private Schools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.