FAQ's about school life

York House School is a medium-sized Prep school with just under 400 pupils. It caters for pupils aged 2 years 9 months to 13 years old in Nursery to Year 8.

We keep small class sizes to 18 children to ensure that each child receives high quality individual care. For English (for Y4 up) and Maths groups (from Y5 upwards) children are taught in smaller groups.

The School went fully co-educational just over a decade ago with 12 girls in the school, we now have around 130 girls in the school with most year groups being at least 1/3 girls. Our Admissions policy reflects our co-educational status and our waiting list is split by gender to ensure the school maintains it's co-educational status.

Your child may start in our Nursery in the term they are turning three years old. We offer Taster Days before a child starts to ensure that their transition into School is easy. Children that start when they are turning three will enter Lower Nursery and children that are in the academic year before Reception will join Upper Nursery.

Although the majority of children do join at the start of the academic year, we do understand that a change of house or other circumstances can mean that a family may not be in a position to join us until later on in the year. Therefore, children are very welcome to join us at any time during the year, subject to spaces and a successful assessment. For Children in Nursery, parents can decide the best time for their child to start.

We have some families that live close enough to walk to school across some footpaths around the school from Croxley Green and Chandler’s Cross. However the majority of our parents drive from surrounding towns & villages such as: Rickmansworth, Hemel and Watford, Sarratt, Chorleywood, Chalfont st Peter, Chalfont St Giles, Kings Langley, Abbots Langley, Chipperfield and Loudwater.

We do not offer a minibus service at present, but this may be a possibility in the future.

We offer wrap around care from 0730 until 1800.

At York House we offer some Learning Support during lessons and one-to-one basis for a small number of children with specific learning difficulties. The Head would be happy to talk to parents who have concerns about their child’s progress during a parental visit to the School and during our assessment process, our SENCO will be able to discuss any individual needs.

At York House, we have an EP Programme (Exceptional Performance). The children who have been identified as Exceptional Performers in either a specific area such as Music, Maths, Science, Sport or Reading or across many areas will be given opportunities to use and develop their gifts and talents to fulfill their potential.

Yes. Children can have one to one music lessons from Year 2 upwards in a range of instruments. We also have Orchestra, Strings group and Brass Club where children can further hone their skills by playing as part of a group. We also have choir available for children and we also offer individual Speech and Drama lessons.

We provide all meals and snacks for a full day at school. This starts with a morning snack, hot lunch and afternoon snacks. There is also the option of a hot tea (served around 4.30pm) if booked in advance. Special dietary needs are also catered for.

We have official twitter accounts for different areas of the school and a main account @YorkHouseSch for parents to follow, we also post pictures onto Instagram account and our website displays posts from our Social Media feeds.  

In addition to using social media to see the great things that are happening during the day, we hold informal coffee mornings and a weekly newsletter to keep parents up-to-date with events at school.

More formal feedback is given through Parents’ evenings, Effort and Attainment Grades and detailed, written reports.

We also hold a Welcome evening at the start of each academic year which is a chance to learn about the academic year ahead and enjoy drinks with staff and parents, later in the year there will also be a parent’s meeting as well as events such as Open Door events, where parents can view work.

All our children learn French as part of the curriculum from Reception to Year 8 and are taught by a specialist Modern Foreign languages teacher. Children also learn Classics and then Latin from Y5.

The School is inspected by ISI the independent Schools inspectorate, they inspect the school on a cycle, in 2017 the school had a compliance inspection and in December 2019 had a full Educational Quality Inspection. The report can be downloaded here: Inspection Report 2019.