Stover School

[EduCativ]

Welcome to Stover Preparatory School. We are a school where academic and personal development goes hand-in-hand.
Here, your child will develop in a safe and secure environment, one where our staff does go above and beyond to get to know every pupil. It is this nurturing environment that allows children to not only enjoy school but also to take risks with their learning, without fear of failure. Only by taking such risks, will children be able to fully achieve their potential.
At Stover, we seek to ‘prepare’ our pupils for the future and do so by offering a broad and balanced curriculum: one where the Arts and Sport are encouraged alongside English, Mathematics, Science, and Computing. Furthermore, we place great emphasis on the development of personal skills including communication, problem–solving, risk management, resilience, and leadership, whilst also focusing on developing the skills of public speaking culminating in all children sitting the English Speaking Board examination in Year 5.
We also believe that it is our job to ‘inspire’ pupils, facilitating a lifelong love of learning. To this end, our teachers plan and teach engaging and stimulating lessons both in and outside of the classroom, and are always seeking to provide those ‘WOW’ experiences. Children are given the opportunity and time to discover and investigate whilst working with their class teachers, as well as specialists in Music, Drama, Sport, and Languages.
We are blessed with having 64 acres of land at Stover and we utilize this to support and enhance learning experiences as often as possible ranging from poetry in the classroom, outdoor maths, and pond dipping in Science, through to storytime and the learning of survival skills in our woodland school all pupils, from Reception to Year 6 have Forest School as part of their curriculum.
Children can take part in a range of after-school activities in Reception through to Year 6. These include sports clubs as well as ICT, Quiz club, Fencing, Judo, Clay Pigeon, Orchestra, Arts and Crafts, Construction, and even Zumba!
We are a friendly, caring, and supportive school with an active parent body – the ‘Friends of Stover’ who meet regularly.
You are very welcome to join us for one of our Open Days where your children can join in activities whilst you meet staff and have a tour around the school. Alternatively, if you would like to visit us individually then please do contact us to arrange.
We look forward to meeting you.
Perhaps it is our location, in the foothills of Dartmoor yet in the heart of Devon’s glorious countryside, just a few miles from the sea, that makes Stover unique. We are a close and warm community, all working towards one goal – the education of children, from the early years, right through until they become young adults.
Excellence in teaching and nurturing pupils lies at the heart of all we do at Stover. These dual objectives drive our decisions and shape our priorities. By teaching, we include, along with our excellent academic results that we continually achieve year after year, our teaching of important life skills such as self-confidence, self-esteem, respect for others, and care for the community.
From the early beginnings of the Chestnut School in Newton Abbot in the late 1920s, Stover School was founded on its present site in 1932 by Mrs. Joan Key (née Dence). The 64-acre site comprises the core of Stover Park, the historic estate of the Templer family from the 18C. The estate was acquired by the XI Duke of Somerset in 1829, remaining in the Seymour family until its sale after the Great War in 1921.
Through the generosity of the Key family, the school became an educational Trust and a company limited by guarantee in 1956. The Key family has continued to take a close interest in the school since that time, with two family members serving on the Board of Governors today.
Until 1994 the school was a day and boarding school for girls aged 11 – 18 years. A Nursery was opened in 1994 and a Junior School for girls the following year. Junior-aged boys were admitted in 2002, originally being taught in parallel classes to the girls. Since then, boys have been progressively assimilated into the Senior School, so that, today, both the Preparatory School and the Senior School are almost fully co-educational. A new Boarding House for boys has recently been constructed.
Class sizes are modest and education standards high. The school also has a long-standing reputation for excellence in music, drama, and expressive arts. Increased pupil numbers since the admission of boys have prompted the expansion of other facilities at the school in recent years. These have included a new Art and Photography Block, a new Science and Mathematics Building, and campus-wide expansion in ICT facilities and other modern technologies. Outside, a short course golf course, additional playing fields, cricket squares, a covered tennis court, and a new sports pavilion with changing rooms have created greater opportunities for competitive sport and leisure.

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