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Prep schools primarily focus on children from about 7+ or 8 to 13+ years. There are, however no definitive rule. Schools can setr their own rules and age limits. The fact that the schools compete with other, especially in games and exist for the purose of preparing children for entry to the public schools exert some coinformity as tomage levels.
While the upper age range of the children is more or less fixed at age 13 because this is the age of public school entry, the lower age range is much more flexivle. Many prep schools in recent years have added their own pre-prep day schools, some of which may take children as young as 3 (true?) , but more often at about 4 or 5. ~ They spend about 3 years in the pre-prep before moving on to enter the prep school proper. In many instances this was primarily a business decission to insure a steady intake of children into the school. Many parents if satisfied with the pre-prep experience will then proceed to enroll their children in the prep school. Some children attend stand alone pre-prep schools, but pre-preps operated by the prep schools are an increasingly popular approach. Sone children also attend state primary schools during the pre-prep years.
The prep school age is the age is especially important for two reasons. First, it is the crucial point of a child's education. It is in the prep school years that a child learns basic academic skills. Children also begin to acquire a concept that they are either capable or incapable which will profoundly affect their future educational achievement. In addition prep school children are inastely curious. It is during tghe preo school years that teachers will either build on that curiosity to create a persinal commitment to learning or impair that curiosity and adversely affect attitides toward education. Second, it is also the age in which a child's character is essentially set. People can change, but often a person's basic character, values, and interests. is set in this critical formative period. It is also an age in which the children are easier to work with and much more willing to listen to adults than when they are older. Dumpton explains that "A boy is at a prep school at a crucial stage in his development and the habits which he forms in these years will stay with him for the rest of his life. Our primary concern is, of course, to prepare each boy~for his public school, although the person he is, and the way in which he behaves are considerations which are just as important as his ability to pass exams."
The standard prep school age range is children from 7/8-13 years of age. There are of course enomous differences between the children at these different age levels. The schools normally take children for their beginning form from pre-prep schools at about 7 1/2 through 8 1/4. Some schools, such as West Hill Park, accept day boys at 7 and boarders at 8. Most schools believe that children of that age are able to easily adjust to school life and "progress up the school without undue pressure." The junior section of a prep school generally included the new entrants and the younger boys through 9-10 years. These students generally take most of their classes in their form rooms. The first year is particularly difficult because many children are adjusting to the school and making new friends. Many come from the pre-pep, but many others are new to the school. Some prep schools accept children whose parents plan to enroll them in the prep schools of Public Schools, usually at about 10 or 11. Some prep school discourage this practice as it weakens the senior forms and can adversly affect a variety of school programs and activities. Newland House School, for, example, tells parents that children are not accepted if they are to leave school rarly for entry in Public School prep departments. Most boys leave their prep school at about 13 years of age. Sme boys may still be 12, but very near age 13. Most by the end of the school term in June or July are age 13. Some boys and many girls leave at age 11 to enter the junior department of their public school. Some schools believe that it is a mistake to move children at 11 from the "intimacy" of their prep school to the less personal environment of a Public school.
Most prep schools prepare boys for Public School entry at 13. The children at most Public School with prep departments (sometimes called junior or lower schools) may leave even earlier, usally at about 11. These are a few exceptions. Beech Hill is, for example, the preparatory school for a Public School (Langley) and the children generally leave a year early at 12. Children at other prep schools may stay a term or two after they reach13, if they need extra tuition. Most sähools require the student to leave after the end of the term when they reach 14.
Many prep schools have mixed pre-preps regardless of their gender orientation. Thus many prepschools have girls in the pre-prep. This varies from school to school, but moxed pre-preps are quite common. Then parents choose either an all girls' school or a coed school. Coed schools normally have comparable numbers of boys and girls in the younger forms. This is usually not the case in the senior forms. Girls generally leave earlier than the boys. Theh generally leave at 11 or 12, the usual ages for entry into girls' Public Schools. The fact that girls mature somewhat faster than boys provides a psychologically valid reason for this difference. Some older girls may remain, however, either because their Public School has the same entry age for girls and boys or because they will be attending a state school. This was built into the system at the time that most girls attended all-girl prep schools. Now that many prep schools have shifted to coeducation it causes soime difficiculties. When any of the girls leave at age 11 it maeans that the upper two forms of the school will be smaller than the junior forms. This of cource affects the economic s of running the school.
