Within their scenic and spacious grounds, resilience is built, pupils are equipped for life's realities and love and respect for the countryside are instilled

A curriculum that emphasises rural traditions and time outdoors better equips pupils to deal with what lies ahead – as these prep schools demonstrate

- MARY SKIPWITH

I hope you all have a restful half term. Oh, and a reminder for those of you whose trout are in the school freezer: please take them home with you but whatever you do, don’t forget to take them out of your kit bag.”

Such announcements – this one made by Robert Lankester, headmaster of Maidwell Hall in Northamptonshire – are commonplace in prep schools around the UK where the focus is as much on the countryside as the curriculum. They accommodate not just those pupils who shoot for the stars but also the ones who aim for the clays, where the emphasis is jumping over poles on a pony as much as through hoops for exams and where the children are allowed to be as free-range as the school hens.

Some prep schools have field sports woven into their DNA. For instance, Abberley Hall School in Worcestershire started life as a hunting lodge in the 12th century. Back then it would have had horses from the Royal Court galloping across its scenic acres; fast forward almost 1,000 years and pupils hack around the same grounds on the school ponies. Elements may have changed but the sense of adventure remains. Wellies and rods are snatched up at breaktime to fish the ‘Inkpot’ lake with the headmaster, thrillseekers abseil down the 120-year-old clock tower and clays are obliterated mid-air.