Life Magazines Independent Schools Guide

INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS GUIDE F E B R UA RY 2 0 2 0

THE FINEST SCHOOLS IN your area

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Queen Ethelburga’s

Celebrates Sports & Wellbeing Awards Double

Queen Ethelburga’s is celebrating after being shortlisted in two categories for the prestigious Tes Independent School Awards 2020.

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he Collegiate has been shortlisted in the Sport category, for demonstrating a commitment to excellence and participation in school sport, and promoting health, wellbeing and exercise with students.

The Collegiate promotes healthy lifestyle choices within a specifically developed curriculum and co-curricular opportunities. Students develop their levels of responsibility, resilience and leadership through sports participation and are challenged to achieve at the highest level.

The curriculum is supported by an experienced and dedicated team of 30 sports staff and coaches, catering to all abilities and encouraging students to engage with the many and varied opportunities on offer, such as: archery, athletics, badminton, basketball, boxing, cheerleading, cricket, cycling, dance, fencing, fitness, football, gymnastics, hockey, martial arts, netball, rounders, rugby, spinning, swimming, table tennis, tennis, trampolining, volleyball and wrestling.

The Collegiate’s THRIVE@QE programme was shortlisted for the Wellbeing Initiative of the Year category, which highlights initiatives aimed at improving mental health amongst students.

A key aspect of the Pastoral Care provision at QE, THRIVE@QE is an innovative programme consisting of a range of sessions, activities and workshops all aimed at promoting and supporting the well-being of its students. The programme is is delivered from a purpose built centralised Pastoral Care area, which offers a comfortable and welcoming space, open seven days a week, where students can receive support or have time-out.

Erica Papaglimis, Head of the Faculty at the Collegiate said: “Our commitment to delivering these priorities and support students’ health and well-being is supported by a specifically developed curriculum to ensure that every individual is introduced to a wide variety of activities. All our students are encouraged to be active and understand the benefits of sport and exercise to their wellbeing.

Participation is key and we are very proud of the level of participation we inspire across all areas.”

Tes editor Ann Mroz said: “The Independent schools in this country are truly exceptional.

And those that have earned a place on the Tes Independent School Awards shortlist are a cut above the rest. We received an unparalleled number of entries this year, all of which were first rate. The schools that have been shortlisted should be proud it’s a remarkable achievement”.

The prestigious awards recognition is the latest in a string of national awards this year, following the Collegiate receiving the highest rating of ‘Excellent’ by the Independent Schools Inspectorate, across all

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schools and areas, in February. The College was also ranked the No.1 performing independent secondary school by The Sunday Times Schools Guide 2020.

The Tes Independent School Awards winners are expected to be announced in February 2020. www.qe.org

“We received an unparalleled number of entries this year”

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Prince’s Gardens Preparatory School opens in September 2020 N estled in the heart of Kensington, a stone’s throw from some of London’s most acclaimed institutions, Prince’s Gardens Preparatory School for boys and girls aged 3-11, is due to open its doors in September 2020.

State-of-the-art science laboratories, music and art studios and an amazing ‘maker space’ are some of the innovative redevelopments underway for the project; highlighting the school’s commitment to academic excellence and character development.

The school will also have direct access to both a wonderful garden space to the rear and Hyde Park, surrounded by the inspirational museums along Exhibition Road.

It demonstrates the emphasis of the school’s teachers for nurturing a global perspective in their pupils and preparing them for the exciting challenges that life can offer through a myriad of activities.

Alison Melrose, Headmistress, told The Life Magazines about their exciting plans to renovate four Victorian townhouses at 10-13 Prince’s Gardens. “This is such a tremendous opportunity, which places the school firmly in the academic hub of London. We want our pupils to relish all that school life has to offer so that they leave us confident and excited about their future.”

The rigorous and wide-ranging curriculum draws

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on the school’s access to London’s museums and outdoor spaces which serve as fantastic stimuli for collaborative learning projects and creating the next generation of independent, curious children.

Details about the plans will be shared at information events on Tuesday 3rd March and Monday 4th May on the premises of the Royal Geographical Society.

Go to www.princesgardensprep.co.uk to reserve a place at one of these events.

“A tremendous opportunity, which places the school firmly in the academic hub of London”

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Building National Champions C

ranleigh School is an independent co-educational boarding school in leafy Surrey. With around 670 pupils aged 13 to 18, the community is small enough to be warm and friendly, everyone in the dedicated community knows one another. Yet Cranleigh currently has 11 pupils who are representing their country in a range of sports, from a wheelchair tennis gold medallist to England rugby players and GB hockey stars. Over the last decade the School collected an impressive number of National titles in Hockey, Rugby, Cricket, Kayaking, Riding, and Biathlon, including this year’s Daily Mail Schools Trophy. Cranleigh’s sporting alumni also includes many well-known faces, from F1 driver Jolyon Palmer to current England Cricket star Ollie Pope.

What makes a relatively small school consistently produce champions? Cranleigh believes it’s all in the boarding ethos, from allowing for time to practise, time to dedicate to other skills and the team friendships and coaching relationships that all have time to flourish in the extended boarding week.

The School’s motto is Ex Cultu Robur (from culture comes strength) and Cranleigh firmly believes that education is about opportunity and inspiration, and that keeping a broad range of activities and sports, rather than early specialisation, is key to success. Engagement in a range of sports keeps children fresh, reduces injury and forestalls burnout. And it doesn’t just apply to sport, many of the players in Cranleigh’s champion sports teams will also be starring in concerts, debates, exhibitions and musicals – as well as achieving success in public examinations.

Sport is certainly not just for the top sportsmen and women, everyone gets the chance to play and the School regularly has 40 teams in action on Saturdays, all viewed as equally important. A 3rd team’s fifth consecutive unbeaten season will enjoy as much praise as teams making National Finals.

Co-curricular activities are never viewed as add-ons, or as a hindrance to academic excellence, because

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pupils who are enthusiastic about school sport will ultimately be more dynamic and motivated in their Maths, Physics and French lessons. It’s a philosophy that bears fruit every year as grades consistently achieve grades above expectation, last year the School was ranked top in the country for academic value-added.

The ‘sport for all’ ethos extends to the teaching staff too, almost all of whom coach a team across the full 7-18 age range, nurturing the talent to ensure that every pupil gets a chance to fulfil their potential. Again, it comes down to that belief that sport, like education in general, is ultimately about giving all children the chance to be the best they can be. www.cranleigh.org

“Sport is certainly not just for the top sportsmen and women, everyone gets the chance to play”

Don’t miss the opportunity to arrange a visit

Contact Nicky Carter or Viki Cryer via admissions@dulwichpreplondon.org if you have any questions

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intellectually curious & ambitious PUPILS

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s an institution which seeks to innovate and improve our educational offering, we are delighted to be collaborating with Century Tech as one of its flagship

schools.

The platform makes use of artificial intelligence (AI) to understand a pupil’s learning profile and then uses this information to present an individualised pathway which is made up of ‘learning nuggets’ that suit the pupil’s learning needs. It also produces rich data that indicates to the teacher the pupils’ strengths, weaknesses and next steps.

Used with Years 7-11, the platform helps us understand pupils’ learning profiles and pathways, and to offer lessons, mentoring and support in a more targeted, focused way.

We have even heard of parents of pupils in Year 7 hosting ‘Century parties’ where they get together for dinner while children work collaboratively through their pathways.

It is really pushing our teaching staff to engage with academic data in a meaningful way.

The information that comes through a pupil’s engagement with the platform is driving learning intentions in lessons which allows teaching to be truly responsive.

Historically, teachers draw out inferences of learning based on assessments, but Century draws out those inferences for us.

It can reliably let teachers know that a pupil is strong in a particular concept, for example sentence openings or converting decimals to fractions, based on their performance in a series of tasks over time. This removes the margin of error that can sometimes come with teacher judgement, 114 FEBRUARY 2020

“In order to access the great conversations within subjects, they need to build up a complex body of knowledge”

assessment construction and progress. What we have seen already is an increased engagement with a greater level of personalised lesson planning and support as a consequence of this.

If the technology is powerful enough to draw out such reliable inferences around pupil progress, there might be an opportunity to deploy it in the context of public examination and assessment – especially given the question marks around the unreliability of summative assessment.

We are also interested in how Century might be enhanced or developed to provide summative information. Currently, the AI which drives Century is largely focused on the formative: Pupil X is quite good at this, so needs to complete a bit more of it, while Pupil Y is very good at this, so should only do a small amount from time to time. The power clearly exists for the platform to gauge competency levels – but it is not yet programmed to do so through a nationally-recognised framework, such as grades or levels.

At Haileybury, we are committed to supporting pupils to become intellectually curious and ambitious. In order to access the great conversations within subjects, they need to build up a complex body of knowledge. Century Tech supports them in doing so, which means more of our teaching time can be freed up to probe, analyse and critique this knowledge, drawing pupils into subject areas and enabling them to identify as learners.

Haileybury open mornings take place on Saturday 14 March (11+ and 13+) and Wednesday 13 May (11+) and there is an open evening on Thursday 18 June (16+). www.haileybury.com

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NURSERIES THAT HAVE AN A* APPROACH

Roosha Sue, Head of Eaton House The Manor Nursery and Head of Early Years for Eaton House Group of Schools on what to look for in choosing a genuinely nurturing nursery

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urseries come in all shapes and sizes and finding an independent nursery that suits your child’s needs can actually be an enjoyable process.

We have two bright and wonderful nurseries at Eaton House Belgravia in Eaton Gate, and at Eaton House The Manor on Clapham Common with a new additional Nursery Class in Eaton House Belgravia opening in September 2020, due to high demand.

Entering a Nursery which is part of an academic Pre-Prep (and later Prep) sister school can make your life easier.

Eaton House Schools avoids selecting children at age 3-5 in the Nursery or Pre-Prep as we truly believe that certain forms of higher intelligence do not develop until a lot later. What we provide is detailed context for each child as they rise naturally into the Pre-Prep, allowing for a seamless transition, and at the right pace for each child.

We work hard to ensure our nurseries are wonderful, stimulating and magical spaces with a timetable of gentle play and ‘lessons’ that allow our nursery children to confidently zoom past their milestones.

Beware of nurseries that promise that all children will read when they leave. Our Pre-Prep and Prep

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results prove that nurture not pushing is the right approach for long term success.

We have two nurseries in Belgravia and Clapham and both are local ‘hubs.’ High-ceilinged nurseries in mansion houses like Eaton House Belgravia’s Georgian rooms can be lovely, with plenty of space for different learning environments. The children also have access to garden squares and parks for games and free play time – they are very busy and active little bees!

When choosing a nursery, ask the teacher to pupil ratio, and whether the play is structured by subject and also seasonal. How many ‘extra’ activities are on the agenda – like mini yoga, dress up corner, gym, languages, art and craft and cooking? Your children are not there simply to attend day care but to learn and grow!

Find a nursery that allows parents to meet with teachers daily. The ideal school aims to make a difference each day, putting the wellbeing of your little ones front and centre of all that they do, aiming to give each child a fun, exciting and worthwhile learning experience.

Keep an eye out for schools where there are three intakes a year in September, January and April, so that summer babies are not disadvantaged.

Happiness should always be the top priority.

THE DETAILS If you would like to ask about the new additional Belgravia Nursery class for September 2020, please contact Sam Feilding, Head of Admissions, Eaton House Schools, on 0203 917 5050 or email sfeilding@eatonhouseschools.com

Image: Eaton House Belgravia Nursery boy at play

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Where happiness gets great results “W e’re seeing a quiet movement away from hothousing,” says David Bradbury, Headmaster at Portland Place School, an independent co-educational school for children aged 10-16. “Parents want their children to get great results, but not at the expense of their wellbeing.”

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“The happier a child is, the more receptive they are to new ideas. So we don’t test them left, right and centre. We give them space to discover their passions; small class sizes allow us to see every child’s potential and set it free.”

The Good Schools Guide describes Portland Place as “a haven for creativity”. But this isn’t just about putting on plays at the Shaw Theatre or giving free music tuition and instrument loans to every Year 7 student.

The school is creative in many ways. For example, children regularly practise their still life drawing skills at the Natural History Museum. Meanwhile, the school’s ‘Strive’ programme gives children the freedom to explore their favourite subjects by “reading, watching, listening, seeing and doing”, stretching learning far beyond traditional bookbased study.

Children at Portland Place quickly develop a sense of independence, making the most of their central London location by playing sport in Regent’s Park and visiting the world-class galleries and museums on their doorstep.

Further afield, the school has recently taken trips to the Azores, New York and Tanzania, where pupils carried out community work to renovate classrooms for a local school.

As for results, in 2019 pupils celebrated a 27% overall GCSE pass rate at 9-7. “Although we’re nonselective, we excel in helping children to progress,” says Bradbury.

“Our aim is for children to achieve personally, socially and academically,” he concludes. “We’re open-minded about what success looks like because it’s different for every child.” www.portland-place.co.uk

The Good Schools Guide describes Portland Place as “a haven for creativity”

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an education of heart, mind & soul

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he Ursuline Preparatory school is a non-selective Roman Catholic school that welcomes children of all faiths and none. The school offers a values-driven, academic education to girls from 3-11 years of age and to boys in the Nursery class.

Established in 1944 to promote the values of St Angela Merici OSU, the Ursuline Preparatory School provides an education of heart, mind and soul. The school’s mission is to develop a community that lives each day united in harmony (Insieme), valuing the contribution of all and championing the virtues of love, compassion, gratefulness and generosity. The children are encouraged to be grateful for the gifts they have been given and to develop these gifts to the full, in generous service to others. The school seeks to pass on the living and faith-filled tradition of Jesus Christ by having unswerving faith in every single one of our pupils and by encouraging them, in turn, to have faith and hope in others. A keen focus is to educate leaders in the spirit of Serviam (I will serve), keeping justice at the centre of their lives.

The girls at the Ursuline Prep School follow an academic curriculum and are fully prepared for the senior school of their choice. As a result of the Ursuline ethos, and as a result of the academic preparation process put in place, the girls here can face the 11+

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process with confidence. Last year girls received offers from the following schools: Ursuline High School, Kingston Grammar, Lady Eleanor Holles, Marymount, Nonsuch, Notre Dame, Putney High, St John’s Leatherhead, Surbiton High, Sutton High, Tiffin Girls, and Wimbledon High. This year is looking to be as successful as the last.

An Ursuline education seeks to help the young people here to be the very best in all aspects of themselves and the Ursuline Prep School is an environment in which every girl is loved and believed in every day. On such sure foundations, we help them become the very best that they can be.

Please do come and visit; you will be made most welcome.

THE DETAILS Ursuline Preparatory School is a Roman Catholic Independent School for girls aged 4-11 and a Co-educational Nursery located in The Downs, Wimbledon.

To book a visit email or call Mrs June Smith on headmasterea@ursulineprep.org or 020 8947 0859 Ext 2. www.ursulineprep.org/ enquiry-form

Ursuline Preparatory School 18 The Downs, Wimbledon, SW20 8HR 020 8947 0859 www.ursulineprep.org

@UruslinePrep

Ursuline_Prep

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Sport for all Director of Sport, Rob Kift, tells us why sport at Hurst College really is for all

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urst College has a growing reputation for the quality and breadth of its sporting provision and over the past year has met with unprecedented

success.

With a superb 140-acre campus, the college has made huge strides in developing a sports programme which has at its heart sporting achievement for all which pays equal attention to those students who simply want to participate as well as for the elite performers. There is a ‘nobody on the bench’ policy, which means anyone who wants to compete in a team can, regardless of their level. The college has built upon its strong traditions to arrive at a position where both boys and girls compete on an even footing and at all levels of ability and interest.

Central to this programme is the ambition to supply every student with a sporting diet to engage them in an enjoyable, challenging and meaningful way - and encourage them to actively pursue activities which they can continue to develop when they leave.

A sustained programme of development which included three AstroTurfs, an expanded netball/ tennis court area and a new gym – with a new swimming pool/sports complex in the planning stage - all serve to demonstrate Hurst’s genuine commitment to sport. These facilities play an important role in improving the effectiveness of the sports programme, providing a broad range of activities and the capacity to host major sporting events.

The college has assembled a talented coaching team whose passion for their sport has driven a culture which supports the students to be the best they can be. Many come from the classroom, but are supported by professional coaches, who are all experts in their field.

Hurst’s unique Player Welfare medical provision,

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which not only provides pitch-side cover on match days but also clinic time and rehabilitation during the week, helps support athletes when managing injury. It is also a part of the college’s wellbeing programme which includes strength and conditioning, sports analysis and individual mentoring.

Students have competed in more tournaments and competitions than ever before and the results have been striking not just because of the number of national successes but also in terms of the range of sports on offer and the numbers of teams in each sport. Many students also represent county and regional sides at national level – and some go onto to become professional athletes in their chosen field.

Major sports include rugby, hockey, netball, cricket, tennis and athletics; other team sports include football, swimming, skiing, triathlon, equestrian, climbing and golf. In the Senior School, there are more than 45 boys’ and 45 girls’ teams, which means, in the college’s principal sports, there are often four or even five teams at every age group, emphasising the inclusive nature of sport at the college. www.hppc.co.uk

“Students have competed in more tournaments and competitions than ever before and the results have been striking”