Cedarbrook Academy is a coeducational prep school. Twenty-eight years of considered teaching, eight-to-one classes, and a community that takes the long view on every child.
When parents come to Cedarbrook for the first time, they almost always ask the same question. They ask what makes us different from the other good schools in Cantonments. It is a fair question, and I have stopped answering it with a list.
Instead, I take them to the library. There is usually a child curled up in the window seat with a book that is too long for them, and another at the table working through a maths problem with a teacher who is doing nothing but waiting. Then I take them to the back field, where a coach who knows every child's name is teaching a passing drill to children who are laughing. That, I tell them, is what we are.
We are a school that has decided not to be in a hurry. We keep our classes small because thinking takes time. We keep our days unrushed because curiosity needs room to wander. We keep our community close because a child only becomes themselves when they are seen, and seeing takes patience. If that is the school you have been looking for, you will know within the first ten minutes of being here.
Come and see us. The door is open.
The youngest end of the school. Two small classes, indoor and outdoor every day, story circles in the morning, painting and water trays in the afternoon, naps for those who still need them. We are not in a hurry to push them into formal lessons.
By the end of Reception, children read independently, count comfortably to a hundred, and know how to ask a good question. The rest follows.
The longest phase, and where the school's character is built. Mornings are academic and quiet. Afternoons are creative, physical, and social. We add a second language in Y3 and a third in Y5.
By Y6, our pupils sit Common Entrance and the equivalent secondary entrance exams. Placement at the top three secondary schools has been a hundred percent for the last eight cohorts.
Our smallest phase. Three years of preparation for IGCSE and the West African examinations. Specialist teachers in every subject, single-subject homework, and the start of a tutor system that runs through to graduation.
Senior pupils take leadership of the daily life of the school. They run clubs, they read with younger children at the end of the day, and they sit on the head's weekly council.
The best place to start. Open days run on the first Saturday of each month. Private tours are available on request. You meet the head, see the classrooms during a working day, and the child gets to sit in for a lesson.
One page, no fee. We ask for the child's report from their current school, two short paragraphs from a parent, and a portfolio if there is one. We aim to respond within a week.
For most year groups, the child spends a morning at Cedarbrook. Reading, writing, a maths task, a small interview with the head of phase. No tutoring required. We want to see who they are, not who they have been coached to be.
We make our decision within ten working days. If we cannot offer a place, we will tell you why, in person, and help you find a school that will be a better fit.
New families come in the week before term starts. A welcome tea, a uniform fitting, a chance for the child to find their classroom. By Monday morning, no one is a stranger.
The next open day is the first Saturday of the month. If that does not work, we run private tours on weekday mornings. Either way, we will give you the full half-day, with no script.