Back to their roots Kevin Doble, Principal of Northwood Schools

Prep schools need to return to their founding principles, says Kevin Doble, Principal of Northwood Schools, by offering pupils a rich and varied journey of discovery

How do we define an excellent prep school education? One that gets its pupils into the ‘right’ senior school, with all the incumbent pressure or one that treats education as a voyage of discovery for young people? A school where children demonstrate great academic ability but are wracked with a fear of failure? Or a school that unearths the passions of its pupils and prepares them to become intellectually curious people who will go on to lead rich and interesting lives. It’s obvious where my allegiances lie, and here is why.

‘Which schools do you feed?’ is not an uncommon question asked by prospective prep-school parents, often before they have arranged a visit to a school. It’s not a surprising query as the considerable investment parents will make in a prep school education ought to have some form of proportionally valuable return. For many parents, this means enabling access to selective, oversubscribed senior schools. Indeed, a significant proportion of the organisations and websites that purport to advise on which prep schools are excellent, will focus on the calibre of schools that they feed. Connected to this, will be commentary on the breadth and depth of the prep school’s preparation for the now ubiquitous Year 6 assessments for competitive senior school entry, and the extent to which the core subjects receive priority attention. Understandably, parents will want to be assured that in these days of fierce competition, their prep school will be able to get their son or daughter into a senior school in which they will thrive. After all, is this not now the most important job of the prep school?

Well, it didn’t use to be. In 1864, the Clarendon Commission published its report on the state of the nine leading independent schools in England. It praised these schools for imbuing in their pupils a strong sense of character, a capability and desire to engage in a range of disciplines and interests, and a love of healthy sports and exercise. British public schools became revered worldwide for offering a truly broad education, where academic study was on a par with an appreciation of cultural pursuits, the development of good character, of spirit and of rigorous, healthy physical growth and teamwork.

The initial emergence of prep schools was motivated primarily by the need to prepare middle-class children for the customs, practices, games and traditions of these public schools. Prep schools modelled themselves as age-appropriate versions of the public schools, with the promise that their pupils would be able to engage in a similarly wide curriculum and, thus, be best prepared to make the most of their careers at senior school. The consequence of this was that younger children