Students being set prep is not falling, sadly! And the amount of prep being set is not falling either. However, the amount of students attending the prep sessions are in serious decline.

Mr Sinclair, a teacher at Gordon’s for more than twenty years, discussed some very interesting statistics which highlights the decline of prep attendance over the past ten years. A decade ago an estimated 80% of students attended prep after school. However, these days the figure has dropped to an estimated 36%

The new Y7 students this year, however, is definitely bucking this trend with the majority of them attending prep. Jeremy, in Y7, stated: “I think prep is a good way to get your homework done faster so there are no excuses for not handing it in.”

Despite that, many people in older years said that in Y7 many people attended prep after school and now people don’t really attend prep anymore. So, will this Y7 trend die down?

Mr Sinclair said that the decline in attendance of prep sessions is a direct result of students getting involved in clubs outside of school and therefore being unable to stay for prep. Furthermore he believes that post-Covid many parents now work flexible hours and are therefore able to have their children at home a bit earlier than perhaps before the shift in the working days hours.

Whatever the reason, less students are staying for prep. Will the figures go up this year? Only time will tell.

Harry, Y7