Cambridge International School

A prep school of barely fifty pupils set in the parkland of Cherry Hinton Hall, Cambridge International School trades scale for intimacy. Children join from the age of two and stay through to the end of Year 6, taught in small, mixed-age classes that average around ten. The setting is the draw: a light, modern building wrapped in mature grounds on the south-eastern edge of the city, with Cherry Hinton Park used as an extension of the classroom. Spanish runs from Nursery upward, Forest School features for every year group, and a Mother Tongue programme supports the many families who arrive in Cambridge from abroad. This is an independent, non-selective day school for boys and girls aged 2 to 11, founded in 2006, owned by Dr Harriet Sturdy and part of the Inspired Learning Group. Every Independent School Standard is currently met.

International mindedness is the organising idea here, and it is more than a slogan. Cambridge draws a transient, globally mobile population: research families, visiting academics, postdoctoral staff on two- or three-year contracts. The school is built for them. Children arrive speaking dozens of first languages, and the school treats that as an asset rather than a hurdle, celebrating different cultural backgrounds and teaching pupils to weigh other perspectives. The ethos talks about respect, collaboration, empathy and understanding how one's actions affect the wider world, and the small roll makes that ambition achievable in a way it would not be in a large school.

Scale shapes everything. With around fifty pupils on roll against a capacity of 140, classes are tiny and often span more than one age group. That means teaching can be differentiated closely, stretching a confident reader while supporting a child who finds a topic harder, and it means every pupil is known by name across the school. Mixed-age grouping asks something of the staff, but it suits a community where children may join mid-year and at any point in the calendar. Boys slightly outnumber girls, in a rough 60:40 split, and the mix of nationalities changes year on year as families come and go.

The setting is unusual for a city school. The school occupies a modern building within the grounds of Cherry Hinton Hall, a Grade II listed Victorian house built in 1839 with ornamental lakes, a walled garden and parkland that is now a public park managed by Cambridge City Council and the summer home of the Cambridge Folk Festival. For pupils, that history translates into space: learning spills outdoors, into the school's own grounds and the surrounding park, and outdoor education is woven through the week rather than bolted on. The school moved to this site in 2007, a year after it was founded, and the parkland has shaped its character ever since.

For families, the practical character of the place is its flexibility. The nursery runs almost all year, classes admit across the calendar, and wraparound care brackets the day, so the school flexes around working parents and around the unpredictable timetable of an academic city. That is a deliberate fit with the community it serves rather than an afterthought.

As an independent prep, Cambridge International School does not publish Key Stage 2 results in the way a state primary would, so the usual league-table measures do not apply. The honest read is to judge the school on its curriculum, its specialist teaching and the progress pupils make, rather than on a single headline percentage.

The curriculum is planned around the UK National Curriculum and the Early Years Foundation Stage, but the delivery is deliberately thematic and creative. Topics are often built around the science or humanities curriculum, and the school sets out three plain intentions: to develop communication and language so that every child can access learning and make progress, to nurture positive learning behaviours and a curiosity towards knowledge, and to ensure children are respectful and responsible towards each other and the environment. The stated impact is straightforward: children knowing more, remembering more and understanding more. Teaching is differentiated to match the wide spread of ages and starting points within each class, and a dedicated special educational needs team supports children who need it.

Specialist provision is broad for so small a school. Spanish is taught from Nursery to Year 6, music sits at the centre of the week with every child learning an instrument, swimming runs in the summer term, and Forest School is offered to all year groups. The Mother Tongue programme is genuinely distinctive: full-time pupils receive lessons in their home language twice a week, which both eases the transition for international arrivals and keeps bilingual children fluent in a language they will return to. That a school of fifty can sustain Spanish, instrumental music, swimming, forest school and home-language tuition at once says a good deal about where its priorities sit.

Pupils make good progress within this curriculum framework, supported by suitable assessment arrangements and schemes of work. Where pupils go next is the truest measure for a prep, and the school sends its leavers to a small number of local maintained and independent senior schools in and around Cambridge. The school does not publish a named destinations list or scholarship tally, so families weighing a specific senior school should ask the head directly about recent transfers and how preparation is handled.

The teaching model is built for a small, internationally mixed cohort. Lessons are differentiated within mixed-age classes, so a single teacher routinely plans for several stages at once, stretching the more able while scaffolding for those who find a topic difficult. The intended impact, in the school's own words, is children knowing more, remembering more and understanding more, and the small classes make that close tracking realistic.

Language runs through the approach. The first curriculum intention is to develop communication and language so that every child, including those still acquiring English, can access learning and make progress. Practitioners and teachers are experienced in working with children who speak English as an additional language, and the Mother Tongue lessons reinforce home languages alongside English. Specialist teaching in Spanish from the nursery onward, and weekly forest school, mean even the youngest children meet subject specialists rather than a single generalist. Teaching supports good progress, and a suitable framework for assessing pupils' performance is in place.

For a prep school, the senior schools pupils move on to are the real quality signal. Cambridge International School describes its leavers as moving to a small number of local maintained and independent senior schools, reflecting both its size and its mixed, often transient community. Cambridge is unusually rich in options at age 11, from the city's well-known independent senior schools to strong maintained schools and church schools nearby, and a small prep can prepare children for several of these routes.

Because the school does not publish a year-by-year destinations list, the practical step for families is to ask the head about recent leaver destinations and about how the school readies Year 6 pupils for entrance assessments where a chosen senior school requires them. For internationally mobile families, the more common pattern is a move onward with the family rather than a single local pipeline, and the school's broad, language-rich grounding travels well. Parents can also use the FindMySchool local hub to compare the Cambridge senior schools they are considering side by side before settling on a target.

Entry is non-selective. The school is clear that it is not formally academically selective, while setting high expectations of every pupil, so admission turns on fit and availability rather than an entrance exam. Children can join the nursery the day after their second birthday and must attend for a minimum of two days a week; entry into the primary school runs from Reception at age four through to Year 6.

The process is straightforward: families register their interest, visit the school or attend an open event, read the admissions policy and terms, then apply. A registration fee of £100 plus VAT is payable on application, and an admission deposit of £500 secures a place, deducted from the first invoice once a child starts. Because the school is small and admits across the year, places can open at short notice, which suits families relocating to Cambridge outside the usual September cycle.

Open mornings run during the year and require no appointment; one recent open morning was advertised for a Friday in October from 9.30am to 11.30am. As dates change each year, check the school's current calendar before planning a visit. The small roll, currently around fifty against a capacity of 140, means there is usually room, but popular age groups can fill, so early registration is sensible. Families weighing the move can use the FindMySchool map search to compare home-to-school distance and travel before committing to a visit.

Pastoral care benefits directly from scale. In a school where every child is known by staff across the building, concerns are spotted early and individual needs are met through coordinated support. Safeguarding, pastoral and healthcare staff work together to meet pupils' needs, with support plans put in place where required, including referrals to specialist mental health services. Pupils know how to raise concerns, can name several trusted adults, and show sound online-safety awareness.

Safeguarding deserves a frank note. An additional inspection in 2024 identified shortfalls, and the school was revisited that October to check on progress. Inspectors then found appropriate safeguarding arrangements in place and implemented effectively, including in the early years: staff suitably trained, designated safeguarding leaders knowledgeable and working well with outside agencies, a revised code of conduct and mobile phone policy adopted, low-level concerns understood by staff, and the proprietor maintaining effective oversight through regular reviews and an annual safeguarding audit. Attendance procedures were brought into line with current guidance during the same period.

The parkland setting brings its own consideration, and the school has built risk procedures around it. Leaders recognise the unusual risks of a site open to dog walkers and members of the public: staff use agreed signals to bring children quickly to an adult, pupils are taught how to respond if approached by a dog or a stranger, and early years park outings follow precise, leader-monitored procedures. For the youngest children, arrival and departure run through a secure handover space with staff deployed at key times. The overall direction of travel, from a 2024 setback to confirmed effective practice, is the reassuring part; the caveat is that parents will want to satisfy themselves the systems are holding.

For a school of this size, the enrichment offer is purposeful rather than vast, and three pillars stand out.

Outdoor learning is the signature. Forest School runs for every year group, using the school's grounds and the surrounding Cherry Hinton parkland, so children spend real time building dens, tracking the seasons and learning outdoors rather than reading about it. With ornamental lakes, mature trees and open grass on the doorstep, that parkland access is a genuine advantage few city schools can match, and it is built into the timetable rather than reserved for a summer week.

Music is the second pillar and unusually strong for the roll: every child learns a musical instrument, and there is a choir, so performance and discipline are part of ordinary school life rather than an option for a few. One-to-one music tuition is available alongside the core provision for families who want their child to take an instrument further.

Sport and clubs make up the third strand, scaled to the school. After-school clubs rotate seasonally and have recently included Football, Footgolf, Board Games, Art and Forest School, while swimming lessons run in the summer term. Chess is taken seriously, with the school having tasted success at tournament level, a notable result for so small a community. None of this rivals the breadth of a large prep, but for a school of fifty the named, regular activities give children a real spread of experiences across sport, the arts and the outdoors.

Fees for 2025/26 are charged per term and exclude VAT. Nursery and the lower years, Reception to Year 2, are £4,269 per term plus VAT, rising to £4,623 per term plus VAT for Years 3 to 6. A non-refundable registration fee of £100 plus VAT applies on application, with a £500 admission deposit credited against the first invoice. The published fees include a good deal: Spanish lessons from Nursery to Year 6, textbooks, art and craft materials, Forest School, summer-term swimming, twice-weekly Mother Tongue lessons for full-time pupils, and day trips. Residential trips, wraparound care and one-to-one specialist or music tuition are charged separately, as are hot lunches.

The school does not currently publish scholarships, means-tested bursaries or sibling discounts, so prospective families should treat the headline fee as the cost of a place and confirm any individual arrangements with the office. This is the main financial point to weigh: unlike many larger independents, there is no advertised route to reduce fees through merit awards or income-assessed aid. Set against that, the inclusion of Spanish, swimming, forest school and home-language tuition in the core fee means fewer of the extras that inflate the real cost at some schools.

The nursery is integral to the school and sits within the Early Years area of the primary building. It runs as two rooms: Ducklings for two- to three-year-olds and Cygnets for three- to four-year-olds, with a new Baby room for children from six months to two years opening from Autumn 2025. The nursery is open for fifty weeks of the year, which suits working families and the school's international parents, and children can start the day after their second birthday, attending a minimum of two days a week.

Staffing is by qualified Nursery and Early Years practitioners overseen by a Nursery Manager, and all are experienced with children who speak English as an additional language, an important point for so international a setting. The early years follows the EYFS framework, with the same outdoor, language-rich approach as the rest of the school: Spanish features from the nursery, and forest school and park outings start young. Arrival and departure are managed through a secure handover space, with staff deployed at key times to keep supervision tight, and the required child-to-adult ratios are met. Progression into Reception is seamless because nursery children are already on site and known to the wider school, removing the jolt that can come with moving settings at four.

For nursery fee details, see the school website. Government-funded hours are available for eligible families; see our guide to nursery funding.

The school day starts at 8.45am. Wraparound care brackets the day for working parents: an Early Morning Club runs from 8.00am to the start of school at a published rate per day, and a Late Stay service runs until 5.30pm, with after-school clubs slotted in before pick-up. The nursery's fifty-week year extends that flexibility for the youngest children, with care available from 8.00am to 6.00pm. Hot lunches are available as an optional extra.

On location, Cherry Hinton Hall sits just south-east of central Cambridge, close to the city and within easy reach of the surrounding villages, with the park on the doorstep. The site is well placed for families across the south and east of the city and along the Cherry Hinton corridor. Families weighing the commute can use the FindMySchool map search to compare home-to-school distance and travel options before committing to a visit.

Very small roll. With around fifty pupils against a capacity of 140, the school offers intimacy and close attention, but a smaller peer group, fewer same-age classmates and a narrower range of activities than a large prep. Families who value a big cohort and broad competitive team sport should weigh this carefully.

No published financial aid. There are no advertised scholarships, bursaries or sibling discounts, so the fee is the fee. Budget on the full published cost plus extras such as wraparound care, residential trips and one-to-one tuition.

A safeguarding wobble, since resolved. An additional inspection in 2024 found safeguarding standards not fully met; a follow-up that October confirmed the school had put effective arrangements in place. The trajectory is reassuring, but parents will want to ask leadership how the improved systems are being sustained.

Limited public data. The school publishes no Key Stage 2 results, no named senior-school destinations and no rankings, so judgement rests on the curriculum, the specialist provision and inspection findings. Ask the head for recent leaver destinations to fill the gap.

Cambridge International School is a small, warm, internationally minded prep that does a specific job well: settling globally mobile families into a parkland setting, teaching in tiny mixed-age classes, and giving every child Spanish, an instrument, Forest School and, where needed, support in their mother tongue. Its most recent inspection found every standard met, and a 2024 safeguarding setback has since been resolved and confirmed effective. It is best suited to families, often international or relocating to Cambridge mid-year, who want close attention, flexible all-year nursery care and a language-rich early education, and who are comfortable with a very small school that does not publish exam data or financial aid. Families seeking a large cohort, broad competitive sport or a documented route to specific senior schools should look more widely, and every prospective parent should ask leadership directly about leaver destinations and the durability of the strengthened safeguarding arrangements.