A preparatory school, or prep school, in current English usage, is a independent school designed to prepare a student for fee-paying, secondary independent school. The age range is normally eight to eleven or thirteen, though it may include younger pupils as well. A private school which only caters for under eights is a "pre-prep" and the junior departments of prep schools which cover the first years of schooling are also called "pre-preps".
This usage of the term is in contrast to "prep school" outside of the United Kingdom, which is usually taken to mean a university-preparatory school. Like public schools and other secondary-level prep schools elsewhere in the world, many British prep schools are boarding schools; often, such schools are highly selective and academically challenging.
The Incorporated Association of Preparatory Schools (IAPS) is the prep schools' heads' association serving the top 500+ independent prep schools in the UK and worldwide, with a total of 130,000 pupils. IAPS is one of seven affiliated associations of the Independent Schools Council (ISC).
Partial list of British preparatory schools
- Bancroft's Preparatory School, Woodford Green
- Belmont Preparatory School, Holmbury St Mary, Surrey
- Bilton Grange, Dunchurch, Rugby
- Dragon School, Oxford
- Durham Choristers School
- Edge Grove, Aldenham, Hertfordshire
- Fairfeild Preparatory School, Loughborough
- Haslemere Preparatory School, Haslemere
- Horris Hill School, Middlesex
- Milbourne Lodge School, Esher
- The Pilgrims’ School, Winchester
- St Dunstan's Abbey School - The Plymouth College Junior School, Plymouth
- St Ives School, Haslemere