THE ENRICHMENT CURRICULUM AT BATTLE ABBEY PREP SCHOOL
Enriching experiences outside the classroom are essential in ensuring that our children thrive and flourish. We offer extensive and varied extra curricular activities to suit everyone, including a wide range of sporting, academic and skill building clubs, House Competitions, Workshops and Trips and many sessions (as voted in by the school council) are simply about relaxing and having fun!
Participation in Forest School and Beach School coupled with frequent educational offsite visits allow children to transfer their learning and build their problem solving and teamwork skills. Our specialist staff (from both our Prep and Senior School) and our parent and community ‘real-life’ experts inspire and challenge pupils through talks, workshops and themed days. Our breath-taking historical grounds host exciting and memorable educational and social events organised for our children and their families.
Fundraising and outreach programs allow our students to develop an understanding of the real world and the importance of community. Our pupils develop a strong moral compass and a healthy appreciation for life. Regular school productions and musical concerts allow our students to develop their confidence and performing art skills. Our regular in-school challenges bring our House families together in mixed ages across the school to work together and support each other in a light-hearted and competitive manner.
A fun, but challenging, more able program affords additional opportunities for stretching our learners potential and giving children opportunities to really shine. Many students enter and experience great success in local and national competitions (both sporting and academic).’ Mrs Trudy Golding Director of Enrichment
Participation in Forest School and Beach School coupled with frequent educational offsite visits allow children to transfer their learning and build their problem solving and teamwork skills. Our specialist staff (from both our Prep and Senior School) and our parent and community ‘real-life’ experts inspire and challenge pupils through talks, workshops and themed days. Our breathtaking historical grounds host exciting and memorable educational and social events organised for our children and their families.
Mrs Trudy Golding – Director of Enrichment
Sports at Battle Abbey Prep School are both varied and vibrant, supporting pupils’ physical, personal, and social development. Children enjoy two weekly lessons of dedicated PE and swim daily during term time, which perhaps goes some way to explain our highly decorated swim team (National finalists ten years running) maintain such a good reputation locally. Benefiting from outstanding on‑site facilities including a full‑size 6 lane indoor heated swimming pool, astro pitch and playing fields young pupils explore a broad curriculum featuring boxing, table tennis, personal survival techniques and even aerobics, fostering confidence through active play. Games afternoons bring traditional team sports into focus; football, hockey, cricket, netball and rounders—as well as athletics, ensuring all pupils enjoy healthy competition and teamwork
Beyond the curriculum, after‑school clubs and fixtures with local schools add a fun and social dimension to physical education. Thanks to small class sizes and caring staff, children are encouraged to try new sports, challenge themselves and delight in discovering individual strengths. Through these active experiences, pupils build resilience, coordination and lifelong healthy habits in an inclusive atmosphere.
Music at Battle Abbey Prep School is at the heart of our creative ethos, nurturing both individual talents and ensemble skills. From nursery to Year 6, children engage in class music lessons led by specialist teachers, exploring singing, percussion, rhythm, and basic instrument skills. Small group instrumental tuition is also available, allowing pupils to learn piano, violin, flute and more..
Our Prep School places a strong emphasis on performance. Pupils regularly take part in school concerts, assembly showcases, and local events. Highlights include participation in the Hastings Musical Festival 2025, where our ensembles achieved an impressive 112 awards across harp, strings, and orchestra.
We also open our doors to the wider community, hosting themed arts days for local primary schools featuring music and drama workshops
Through these varied experiences, pupils develop confidence, creativity, collaboration—and a lifelong love of music.
In an era where environmental consciousness is of paramount importance we are embracing sustainability as a cornerstone of our ethos. BAS Prep appointed its very first Sustainability Lead in 2023, and since then (as anyone who regularly visits the school site will see) a huge array of Green projects have been initiated with the hope that the school will become an exemplar of environmental stewardship and a beacon for sustainable practices for schools in the area. We are trying to foster a culture in the pupils where sustainability is not a buzzword but a way of life!
Our Green Curriculum, with sessions run weekly, includes pupils and staff developing a variety of wildlife and wetland habitats at the site, planting an orchard, a wildflower meadow, developing a compost heap, maintaining a wildlife garden, planting out crop plants and establishing their first ‘pond in a pot’. The wildlife garden, which is very popular with pupils and staff alike, also features a living Willow yurt, and is a fantastic space for our Prep (and Nursery!) pupils to commune with nature.
Pupils have also designed and planted a mini wheat field in the Prep School grounds. The pupils will see their wheat grow before we harvest it and, in due course, mill it to make some Battle Abbey flour (and subsequently the creation of some Battle Abbey Prep School bread!) Understanding where their food comes from and the processes that go in to making it a reality is just one of the ways in which we make sure our pupils leave the school fully fledged Eco citizens.
