Castle Court is a Preparatory School for boys and girls aged 3 to 13. It is situated in 35 acres of beautiful grounds and has extensive playing fields. A gracious Regency house forms the heart of the school and contains dining rooms, offices, Headmaster's flat and some of the junior classrooms. In addition, the brand new rooms for 3 year olds are attached to the main house. The Pre-Preparatory department and senior classrooms are purpose-built and situated round a central terraced area. Adjacent to these are the hall, music school and a complex with laboratories, computer room, workshop, and department for art and design technology. There is an outdoor heated swimming-pool. A new library has recently been built and fully equipped in the centre of the school.
Whilst Castle Court is a day school, it is run on boarding school lines and from the age of 9 children are encouraged to stay on for tea and do their prep at school before going home at 6 o'clock. On certain evenings they may voluntarily join a wide range of informal activities such as chess, computing, cookery, drama, electronics, pottery, woodwork etc. All children are prepared for the Common Entrance or Scholarship examinations to senior independent schools, and some go on to local grammar and maintained schools. The normal curriculum includes English, Mathematics, Science, French, Latin, History, Geography, Religious Studies, InformationTechnology, Design Technology, Speech and Drama, Art, Music and Sport. The school is very well equipped with up-to-date computers on a network, and these are used to support many of the subjects studied. Castle Court has a strong musical tradition with its own Orchestra, Band, Choir and many smaller ensembles. Sport also forms an important part in the life of the children with rugger, soccer, hockey and cricket for the boys, and netball, hockey, rounders and dance for the girls, with athletics, swimming, tennis, gymnastics and some cross-country running for all.
