Search the Community

Bancroft’s School was founded by the Drapers’ Company in 1737 on the Mile End Road as a day-school for local boys from a diverse range of backgrounds the School has come a long way geographically and institutionally since then but the School remains committed to enabling pupils from a wide range of backgrounds to enjoy our education and has a long tradition of excellence. We are now a co-educational independent day school for around 1000 pupils from 7 to 18 and an unashamedly aspirational school, devoted to scholarship and intellectual inquiry. We aim to provide an atmosphere in which each child can flourish and we believe that children succeed when they take full advantage of the huge range of different opportunities we provide – whether immersed in academic research, being out on the sports fields, taking part in charitable activities, acting on the stage, playing music and attending some of our numerous clubs and societies, our pupils challenge themselves and learn by taking part wholeheartedly in school life. At Bancroft’s, we continually strive to ensure that all our pupils leave here with the confidence, self-awareness, and knowledge to thrive in the world beyond, as well as taking with them an awareness of others and an abiding curiosity about the world. We want our children to be active, reflective learners with learning skills that will set them up for life and to share in an ongoing dialogue with their teachers about their learning. We want Bancroft’s Prep to be imbued with a genuine spirit of inquiry. Children are encouraged to take responsibility for their learning journey they can evaluate their work and understand where and how to make progress. We encourage parents to be involved with their child’s learning, so they too understand their child’s strengths and areas for improvement. Children are taught by their class teacher wherever possible the relationship between a child and their class teacher is vital in terms of pastoral care. Also, we have several specialist subject teachers, for example, Art, Music, Computing, Physical Education and French. Our curriculum is dynamic, progressive, and fluid. We will always make adjustments to meet the needs of year groups, classes, and individual children. It has been put together with the National Curriculum in mind, and is broad, balanced, and designed to engage, challenge, and inspire our bright children. Children have fun in their learning. We encourage them to think, ask questions and solve problems. This philosophy can be found across the curriculum. For example, in Maths, Science and Computing we focus on the ‘how’ and the ‘why,’ the underlying concepts, rather than simply answering. We have recently introduced Personal Development as a new subject this includes Religious Studies Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural Education alongside Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education. These lessons are designed to address issues around these themes and as with all subjects, we encourage children to have an open dialogue with teachers. Along with playing sport during PE and Games lessons, children have the opportunity to participate in fixtures and tournaments involving other local schools. View full school