Welcome to Rokeby!
We are delighted that you have taken this opportunity to look at our website. Would you like to pay us a visit and find out a little more about the school and what we have to offer your son? Below are our terms for registration and entry. However, you may simply want to gain a feel for the school first. In that case, call our reception and we will arrange for a tour and an initial meeting with me, free of any charge.
One request: bring your son with you. We would like to meet them too!
We look forward to seeing you in the near future,
Headmaster
Entry to Pre-prep 4+
Rokeby has recently changed its entry policy at 4+. We have decided to change our entry policy for a variety of reasons but primarily to make it more child-friendly and for the whole procedure to be less stressful. We will no longer be holding assessments, but we will be offering places on a ballot system. The ballot will take place at the beginning of March, eighteen months prior to entry.
Boys can be registered on the Pre-prep School waiting list at any time from birth. The cost of registration, which includes a visit to the school, is £50.00 and is non-refundable.
Before being entered into the ballot there are certain requirements that need to be fulfilled. Boys must be registered and parents must have visited the school by 28th February, prior to the ballot taking place for their son’s year of entry, i.e. eighteen months before the September when he will start. The first 44 names out of the hat will be offered firm places, with siblings being given priority, provided that the older sibling is doing well at Rokeby. All further names will be drawn out and placed on a Waiting List. All places offered will be subject to a positive nursery report.
Once offered a place in the Pre-prep, parents or guardians must within two weeks of the date of offer, sign and return the Acceptance of Offer Letter, the Application form for Membership of Rokeby Educational Trust Ltd, and they will be required to pay a deposit of £2,500. Half of this will be deducted from their first term’s bill and the rest will be held as a deposit until their son leaves at 13; if he leaves before this time, the remainder of the deposit will be refunded ONLY if the Headmaster has agreed the reason for their son’s move. If we have not heard after the two week deadline we will then automatically assume that the offer is not required and the place will be offered to the first person on the Waiting List.
Parents or guardians of a boy who accept but do not take up a place will forfeit the whole deposit paid.
As mentioned, Rokeby will ask for a nursery report. Should we find the report unsatisfactory, then a full refund will be made and the offer retracted.
Rokeby is a high-achieving school with an impressive academic record which does its very best to help all boys in every year group to achieve their potential. Parents will be kept informed of their son’s progress throughout his time at Rokeby. Progress through to the Prep School (Year 3) is conditional on pupils achieving the satisfactory standards required during their time in the Pre-Prep. In the event that a boy is not achieving the standards required, parents will be contacted by the Head of Pre-Prep and/or the Headmaster, to discuss their son’s academic progress and a possible alternative school. However, Rokeby does hope and expect that all boys entering the school at 4 will remain until 13.
Entry to Prep School 7+
The Prep School operates a waiting list for external candidates only.
Entry to the Prep School is at 7+, that is, boys must have reached the age of 7 prior to September 1st in the year of entry.
Boys can be registered on the Prep School waiting list at any time from birth. The cost of registration, which includes a visit to the school, is £50.00 and is non-refundable. Boys already at the Pre-prep do not need to be registered on the Prep School waiting list and will not be required to take the entrance examination.
Entry to the Prep School at 7+ is based on the entrance examinations held in November each year for entry the following September. All external candidates for entry to the Prep School at 7+ sit the entrance examination.
The fee for the external candidates to sit the entrance examination is £200. This fee is refunded if a place is not offered. The fee will not be refunded if a place is offered but not accepted.
There are a maximum of forty eight places (subject to overall numbers in the school) available at the 7+ entry level in each academic year.
Boys in the Pre-prep are automatically offered a place in the Prep School (Year 3) on condition that they have achieved the satisfactory standards required during their time in the Pre-Prep. In the event that they have not, parents will be contacted by the Head of Pre-Prep and/or the Headmaster, to discuss their son’s academic progress and a possible alternative school.
The places available in the Prep School which are not taken by boys in the Pre-prep – normally eight to ten places – are offered to external candidates who passed the entrance examination in such order as the Headmaster may decide.
Once offered a place in the Prep School, parents or guardians must, within one month of the date of offer, sign and return the Acceptance of Offer Letter, the Application Form for Membership of Rokeby Educational Trust and the Loan Agreement Form; they will be required to pay a deposit of £2,500. Half of this will be deducted from their first term’s bill and the rest will be held as a deposit until their son leaves at 13; if he leaves before this time, the remainder of the deposit will be refunded ONLY if the Headmaster has agreed the reason for their son’s move. If we have not heard after the one month deadline we will then automatically assume that the offer is not required and the place will be offered to the first person on the Waiting List.
Parents or guardians of a boy who accept but do not take up a place will forfeit the whole deposit paid.
Scholarships
Up to four scholarships are available for each year group in the Prep School. They may be awarded on entry at 7+, or on entry at a later date. They may also, exceptionally, be awarded to an existing pupil in the Prep School. The majority are usually awarded at 7+ entry. In most cases scholarships will be awarded on the basis of academic ability or performance but they may also (at the Headmaster’s discretion) be awarded on the basis of ability in music, sport or art. All scholarships carry a basic entitlement to fee remission of up to 15%. Further fee remission is normally subject to a means test, although the Headmaster has discretion to agree a higher value non means-tested scholarship in exceptional cases.
