The official opening of the completed school at the Kneller Hall site is planned for September 2025. The development includes the refurbishment and extension of the main hall and the creation of a new state-of-the-art teaching building, auditorium, swimming pool and sports hall. The thirty-acre site will provide outdoor space that is unparalleled in the area. We hope that many of your children will choose to progress to Kneller Hall School when they are older. The challenge has always been putting in place a transitional plan between now and September 2025, because everything has been subject to planning approval. We have explored many options including building temporary classrooms and alternative sites.
In order to ensure a smooth transition for pupils of both Kneller Hall and Radnor Prep, we have decided that current Radnor House senior pupils from Year 7 – Year 13 will remain at Pope’s Villa while building works begin at Kneller Hall. We are delighted to let you know that buildings at 41 Kew Foot Rd, Richmond (next to Richmond Rugby Club) – will temporarily house Radnor Prep School from September 2023 – September 2025. Radnor Prep School will then relocate to Pope’s Villa once Kneller Hall opens.
It takes approximately 15 min to drive to Kew Foot Rd from the current Radnor site. For the transition year, transportation will be provided free of charge from Teddington Station, Pope’s Villa, and Twickenham Station to Kew Foot Road for any pupils who need it.
I am still as excited as ever about being able to offer the essence of the Radnor House Prep School from September 2023. This was never about physical space but instead, it is about a philosophical, creative way of teaching and learning which will open up young minds, encourage them to take on new challenges and leave them fully ready to embrace whatever lies ahead.
One of the benefits of a relatively blank canvas is that we can create a new and exciting curriculum. Our teaching will draw on all the subject specialisms together to link teaching and learning. I know a number of parents I have met at our Open Events have expressed how much their children have enjoyed project-based learning, and this will be the foundation on which our curriculum is based. There is a danger with the silos of individual subjects that you don’t share the contextual correlation that is particularly important for younger age children. By linking everything through the curriculum, we blend the academic rigour of subjects with the teaching of the real-life skills of teamwork and collaboration, investigation and problem-solving, through topical examples.
The new temporary premises at Kew Foot Road will provide us with everything we need. There will be two superb STEAM spaces, a science lab, rooms for music and drama and, now much closer, plenty of space for PE and Games for all, including competitive sports fixtures at Richmond Rugby Club. There is a lovely spacious playground, access to a swimming pool, school hall and library. The brand-new STEAM rooms will be fully equipped for a combination of traditional practical skills alongside the more focused product design. Exciting projects such as the Dyson Award, Formula One design, drone coding and building, motorised race-ready boats, and stop-motion animation will all form part of our new and exciting STEAM curriculum.
We have already recruited our core teaching team, who are excited about designing and implementing a new and stimulating creative curriculum. We have recruited specialist teachers for Science, History, STEAM, French, PE and Games, Music, Geography and Drama. Each pupil will have their own iPad as previously planned and will be taught to use these as an additional tool to extend and expand their knowledge and skills, fully embedded in the teaching and learning. Pupils will still have priority places at Kneller Hall or any of the other Dukes Education schools.
Our mission statement remains the same:
If you haven’t explored every turn? How can you be bold, if you’ve never felt nervous? How can you know what you want, if you haven’t discovered what you don’t? How can you enjoy the win, if you don’t know how it feels to lose? How do you know the answer, if you don’t understand the question? We champion our children to be ambitious and inquisitive. To try new things and be unafraid to fail. Challenge structures and norms. Uncover what their best is, not someone elses. Experiment and change their minds. Balance different passions and ways of learning. Embrace change and the unknown. Discover who they are not who they want to be. Because Radnor House Prep is a place where curious minds can explore.
Stephanie Piper, Head
13th March 2023