Extra-curricular opportunities and trips offered at our Sussex independent school, Sompting Abbotts Preparatory School
Education at Sompting Abbotts is definitely not just about academics! It's about facilitating experiences, igniting enthusiasm and discovering talents outside the classroom ...
Weekly Coding Club: tech culture is alive at Sompting Abbotts. Children in the main school learning how to programme using Arduino code micro-controllers
Whether your child's a techie and desperate to learn coding; a history head and fascinated by the Vikings; a sports-lover, aspiring ballerina or would-be thespian, we've a club to help fulfil passions. We also offer private music tuition through our team of specialist music staff and Speech and Drama and LAMDA training.
West Sussex prep school Sompting Abbotts has a purpose-built shooting range that is used by boys and girls during the weekly Shooting Club
We plan lots of activities to inspire pupils to try new pursuits. Plus regular county sports fixtures, drama performances, orchestral, choir and musical concerts, and a busy calendar of school trips. Here's a taste of extra-curricular life at Sompting Abbotts Prep School:
Pre-Prep extra-curricular options
After-school clubs take place on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 3.30pm-4pm, with ballet classes on Mondays.
They're open to children in PP2, PP3 and PP4 (Reception, Year 1 and Year 2).
The club themes change each term and include: Parachute Games; Indoor/Outdoor Games; Science and Nature Club; Music Club; Outdoor Art Club; Fabulous Food Cookery Club; Around the World Learning; Butterfly Club and Weather Club.
Trips and educational visits for the Pre-Prep
“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”
The weekly Lego Club led by our Master Builder
The Pre-Prep attends a topic-related school trip each term.
These have included Amberley Museum, Drusilla's Wildlife Park, The Sea Life Centre, Woods Mill Nature Reserve, Herstmonceux Science Museum, Weald and Downland Open Air Museum, the Shoreham Lifeboat Station and Goodwood Home Farm.
We often receive educational demonstrators and groups into school too such as Brighton and Hove Museum, theatre groups, storytellers, the police, the fire brigade and local artists and musicians.
Extra-curricular options for Main School pupils
Opportunities outside the classroom are an essential part of each pupil’s Main School journey.
In Main School, Friday afternoon activities are available to all children from Year 3 to Year 8. Different clubs are offered across terms:
All our Main School children get that 'Friday feeling' as they head off to spend the last part of their afternoon doing something they love or want to try! Here's a quick glimpse into some of our Friday extra-curricular activities for our Prep age group. Some clubs are traditionally academic; others are more arty or sporty and we change the line-up each term so there's always something new to try or learn. Whatever termly club they choose, the children are learning new skills, socialising across year groups and above all, having fun!
Shooting Club: supervised and using the School’s shooting range (Years 6 to 8)
Lego Club: hosted by a 'Master Builder' in the Main School
Let's Get Cooking: hosted in the Main School kitchen
Gardening Club: using school greenhouses
Coding Club: Arduino-based coding, applied to different IT platforms, for programming, on school premises
Debating Club: on school premises
Squash Club: at West Worthing Squash Club
Summer Cricket: using the nets in the school grounds
Tennis Club: on school courts
Table Tennis Club: on school premises
Mountain Biking Club: on the school grounds
Chess and Board Games Club: on school premises
Drama and Musicals: on school premises
Anglo-Saxon History Club: on school premises
Dance Club: on school premises
Trips and educational visits for Main School pupils
Overnight trips are introduced in Year 3 and other curriculum-based outings are important parts of our education. Visiting speakers, artists, authors and theatre visits add another level of interest and excitement to the programme of learning. Day and overseas trips include:
RS trips to Canterbury Cathedral
History trips to Bignor Roman Villa and Battle
French trips to France, generally to Château de la Baudonnière, Normandy
Science trips to the Big Bang UK Young Scientists & Engineers Fair, the largest celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) in the UK, and the Science Museum in London
English trips to local theatre. Our Year 8s also take part in the philosophical and theological discussion seminars at Windlesham House. We will be attending the TEDx talks in Brighton 2017 and 2018.
For Art, children are taken to galleries to see their work exhibited in galleries such as the Towner in Eastbourne and Worthing Art Gallery, as well as to other exhibitions and sculpture parks
The Music department arranges for children to attend performances at Glyndebourne, Worthing, Brighton, Lancing College chapel and other locations
At the end of their Common Entrance exams, Year 8 attends a much-anticipated end-of-term reward five-day water-sports trip to Cornwall.
“Extra-curricular activities such as debating for the older pupils contribute to pupils’ achievements so that they argue cogently. Pupils are also successful in speech and drama activities and in a variety of sports fixtures, with pupils reaching county cricket standard.”
What child doesn’t love to collect handfuls of glossy brown conkers? At Sompting Abbotts, they don't just fill their pockets — even socks become makeshift pouches. And so, at this time of the year, we send the children out into our school grounds to look for shiny conkers (not that they need any persuading).