Prior Park Paragon: Your Questions Answered

The name Prior Park Paragon reflects the close relationship that has existed between The Paragon School and Prior Park College for the past twenty years. It recognises the increasingly connected educational journey across our schools. It expresses our shared mission, values, and approach to education. The change is more than a new name; it reflects the continuing development of a partnership that already plays an important part in the lives of so many of our pupils and families. 

These developments are the natural evolution of a relationship that has grown over the past twenty years. Prior Park Paragon and Prior Park College already share the same mission, values, and educational philosophy, and many families already have children across both schools. 

Our ambition is to create an even more connected educational journey that offers all the advantages of being part of a larger family of schools. We will also preserve what made Prior Park Paragon such a distinctive and cherished school in its own right. These changes will enable us to make the most of the remarkable resources, expertise, and opportunities available across our schools while maintaining the warmth, care, and individual attention that have always been central to education in our schools. 

These developments will provide an even more connected educational experience for every pupil at Prior Park Paragon and Prior Park College. They will strengthen continuity in pastoral care, create a more seamless progression through the curriculum, and increase opportunities for collaboration between staff across our schools. 

Over time, Prior Park Paragon pupils can expect even greater access to specialist teaching, exceptional facilities, and a wider range of experiences, including opportunities in drama, music, sport, and the visual arts. There will be more shared events, performances, competitions, and enrichment activities. They will also have more opportunities to learn alongside, and get to know, older and younger pupils across the Prior Park Schools family. 

Most importantly, these developments preserve the qualities that Prior Park Paragon families value so highly in our schools: a nurturing environment, a strong sense of community, and an individual approach in which every child is known, valued, and encouraged to flourish. 

No. The name change and uniform are the visible signs of something much more substantial: closer curriculum alignment, automatic progression, greater sharing of facilities and expertise, increased co-curricular opportunities, closer alignment of timetables, and, over time, greater integration of systems. 

Yes, Prior Park Paragon remains in the same buildings, with the same teachers, and with the same ethos that underpins all that we do.  

It means that Prior Park Paragon families who wish to continue within the Prior Park family of schools can have certainty about their child’s educational journey through to the age of 18.  

That Prior Park Paragon students can spend much more of their time in Year Five and Year Six focusing on their rich and exciting curriculum. Time which, too often, is spent preparing for assessments, interviews, and other elements of transition. The relationships between staff at Prior Park Paragon and Prior Park College are already incredibly strong. Teachers at Prior Park Paragon already know their pupils incredibly well and they will be able to ensure that they will be equally well known as they move up to Prior Park College.  

In nearly every case, Prior Park Paragon families will be able to make an assured progression. In the very small number of cases where colleagues believe another setting may better meet a child’s educational needs, this will be discussed openly with families from early in Year Five.  

Absolutely. Prior Park Paragon pupils meet those standards each day at school and the growing interconnectedness between the two schools will continue to enhance the shared ethos across our two schools. An ethos which underpins our confidence that, for the overwhelming majority of Prior Park Paragon families, Prior Park College is the next logical step.  

Yes. Prior Park College will continue to welcome students from a wide array of schools, nationally and internationally,  including Prior Park Paragon. External applicants will sit an 11+ examination.  

Yes. Families will be able to apply for scholarships and bursaries through the course of Year Six and the processes for these awards will adapt to reflect the removal of entrance examinations for our Prior Park Paragon pupils.  

The 11+ entrance examination still makes sense to ascertain the ability and suitability of those students who the Prior Park family of schools does not yet know. However, the reality is that with the closer alignment between Prior Park Paragon and Prior Park College, the pupils at Prior Park Paragon are incredibly well known across the two schools. An examination is unnecessary, and the information, data, and institutional knowledge of your children is shared between the two schools.  

It will evolve and be enriched. The removal of the necessity of an entrance examination for Prior Park Paragon students is an opportunity. It is an opportunity to reflect upon what makes Prior Park Paragon so effective as a school. We will build on our existing curriculum and will enrich our young people’s learning yet further.  

Yes. Prior Park Paragon students spend much of their time at Prior Park College, and this will only increase over the coming years. As the timetables of the two schools come more into line over the next year, there will be more opportunities for Prior Park Paragon pupils to be more engaged and involved with the wide range of curricular and co-curricular opportunities at Prior Park College. There will also be more opportunities for students from Prior Park College to be engaged in mentoring opportunities at Prior Park Paragon.  

There are several reasons for a change to the uniforms of both schools. Primarily, the change is driven by a desire to have an outward sign of the increased alignment and unity between the two schools. There are, though, a host of related benefits. Parents at Prior Park Paragon will no longer have to buy a whole new uniform when moving from Year Six to Year Seven. There will be significantly more items in common across the two schools. Equally, we are taking the opportunity to make the uniforms at both schools slightly more affordable and slightly more fitting for the schools we are today. The uniform for the younger year groups will be more practical, easier to clean, and ultimately cheaper. The ideal is that we will now have a uniform which grows with you. We have retained elements of the current uniform at both schools and what emerges is an elegant, practical, and affordable means of ensuring that our students are recognisable and united.  

We are working with John Moore Sports at the moment to get timeframes on the rollout of new items of uniform. We are hopeful that we will be able to have many items available this coming term, with a view to having a final roll out of the new uniform from January, 2028.  

No. We are content that the next four terms will see some students with existing uniform and some with new uniform. Not until January 2028 will all pupils at Prior Park Paragon and students at Prior Park College need to have the full complement of uniform relevant for their year group. These four terms, broadly, reflect the sort of timeframe over which existing uniform is replaced – with a combination of wear and tear, and the way in which young people grow out of uniform almost as soon as they are put in it! 

There will be no changes to the existing fee schedules for each school.  

The announcement, name change, and shifts to uniform begin with the start of the new academic year. There will be increasing alignment over the course of the 2026–27 academic year, with a view to much closer integration of academic timetables, co-curricular clubs, and back office systems by the start of the next academic year, 2027-2028.  

In the first instance, the Head of your child’s school, so in the case of Prior Park Paragon, Malcolm Bond, or in the case of Prior Park College, Ben Horan.