Frequently Asked Questions

Our breakfast club is available from 7.45am every day for children from Nursery to Year 6. Children are supervised by our qualified teaching assistants and enjoy a selection of cereals, toast and spreads, breakfast pastries, juice and milk. Fees are charged on a termly basis and details of costs can be found here.

Our breakfast club is available from 7.45am every day for children from Nursery to Year 6. Children are supervised by our qualified teaching assistants and enjoy a selection of cereals, toast and spreads, breakfast pastries, juice and milk.

Lower Junior children can attend our after-school Crèche, which operates every day until 6.00pm. Children can play with a wide range of equipment and enjoy recreational activities indoors and outdoors. A hot meal is provided to all children staying for Crèche. Fees are charged on a termly basis and details of costs can be found here. We also offer a choice of co-curricular activities which run each day, including sport, dance, music and crafts. Where external coaches are required, a small charge is payable.

Upper Junior children enjoy an extensive programme of co-curricular activities each day. Most activities run from the end of the school day, until 4.40pm. Some activities run until 5:30pm. The vast majority of activities are provided free of charge, include a hot meal in the dining hall and supervision until 6.00pm. Some activities are chargeable, for example horse riding and golf. Clubs on offer include a variety of sports, music, coding, art, young historians, young journalists and much more. Prep is available every day for Upper Junior children to complete their home learning in a quiet, supervised environment.

Our formal school uniform is supplied by Hewitts of Croydon.  It can be purchased in store or online at www.hewittsofcroydon.com. The 1853 Society (our Parents’ Association) regularly hold second-hand uniform sales in our Coach House and parents will be notified of upcoming dates.

Our sports school uniform is supplied by Dreamsports and can be purchased online at https://customathletics.com/teams/royal-russell-school.html

All meals and snacks are included.  We believe in the importance of a healthy diet.  All our children eat lunch in our dining halls where they can choose from a full range of hot food with meat and vegetarian options, pasta, jacket potatoes with a choice of fillings, fresh vegetables, fruit, dessert and water or squash served every day. All food is prepared from fresh ingredients, every day by our team of 32 chefs and assistants. Our Catering Manager is always pleased to meet with parents to discuss individual dietary needs.

French is taught from Nursery to Year 6 by our specialist teacher. In Years 4, 5 and 6 our pupils also receive specialist teaching in Spanish.

Should your child fall ill, we will contact you using the information you have given us and your child will be cared for by our qualified nursing staff in our on-site Medical Centre, until you come and collect them.

The 25 metre indoor pool and ancillary teaching pool allow all our children to develop their swimming skills during lessons throughout the year, from Nursery to Year 6. Children can also swim during swimming club after school, join the swimming squad and compete in a host of inter-school, borough, county and national events.

Parents receive a report during the last week of each half term in Autumn and Spring and at the end of the first half term of the Summer term. We hold a ‘Meet the Teacher’ event at the start of each academic year, where you’ll have the opportunity to meet your child’s new teachers. Parent Consultation evenings are held twice a year to discuss your child’s progress. There is also an opportunity for you to look at your child’s work during our open book viewing.  Throughout the year, teachers are happy to meet parents on an individual basis as needed.

Children develop academically and socially at an individual pace and work is personalised to challenge at appropriate levels. Teachers work in partnership with the Head of Learning Enrichment to provide suitable extension work and enrichment opportunities.

Sport, at all levels, is at the heart of our ethos and sport at Royal Russell is an enjoyable experience. The Lower Juniors have specialist PE, Games, Dance and Swimming lessons, whilst Upper Juniors are coached in Football, Netball, Swimming, Hockey, Tennis, Rounders, Cricket, Trampolining and many more! All sports are available to both girls and boys and all children have regular opportunities to represent their school, at all levels.

We recognise the value of parent partnerships in home learning. Lower Juniors receive home learning activities to follow up on class based work, including phonics and spelling patterns and times tables. Upper Junior pupils will receive spelling investigations, mathematics tasks and reading activities on a weekly basis. All children across the Junior School also receive a range of cross-curricular home learning tasks relating back to a central topic or theme. These activities are always appropriate to the children’s age and activities become more in-depth as the children move into the Upper Juniors. All children are expected to read for 20 minutes per day. 

We are a relatively small school with approximately 340 children in Nursery through to Year 6.  We are a family school with a caring and supportive community and our small size means that we are able to get to know all our children very well. 

Class teachers send all parents a weekly email on Friday afternoon, which includes highlights of the week, details of any home learning and notification of events and key diary dates. The Headmaster also produces a weekly bulletin. Important documents and forms are available online through our Parent Portal.

All children from Nursery to Year 6 have weekly Music lessons and we encourage music making at all levels. Many pupils receive individual tuition in a range of instruments and this is arranged through the Junior School Head of Music. There are many opportunities for the children to perform in orchestras and sing in the choir, with regular concerts and assemblies.

Junior School pupils only sit our entrance examination if they are applying for a Scholarship or a Bursary. Children are continually assessed through their everyday learning experience and, in the majority of cases, at the end of Year 5 are offered an unconditional place ahead of external candidates. The majority of our children transfer with ease and confidence.

Senior pupils at Royal Russell are happy, vibrant and ambitious. They accept places at Universities where they study competitive courses such as Politics & International Relations; Chemical & Civil Engineering; Natural Sciences; Law; Genetics; Artificial Intelligence and Veterinary Medicine.