Kensington Prep School
2.
2
THE QUALITY OF EDUCATION The Educational Experience Provided
2.1
Girls benefit from an interesting, challenging and broad educational experience which is outstanding. It overwhelmingly meets the school’s aim to ensure that girls have an exciting experience that promotes high academic standards and enables them to become challenging thinkers. The experience provided in the EYFS successfully develops the children’s understanding. The high quality, caring environment in the school, with its emphasis on developing thinking skills, enables girls to reach high standards in their academic and personal development. The strengths mentioned in the previous report have been built on successfully. In addition, more attention is placed on learning skills. Girls who have been identified as being gifted and talented are provided with greater challenge. Parents responded very positively in pre-inspection questionnaires to the range of experiences provided for their daughters. Inspection evidence agrees with the school’s self-evaluation that the curriculum is rich.
2.2
High priority is given to the development of girls’ skills in literacy, speaking and listening, and in numeracy. In line with the school’s aims, considerable attention is given to the girls’ all-round development and this includes not only aesthetic, creative and social provision but also scientific, physical and technological development. Many opportunities are provided for ICT through its well-planned use across the curriculum. Design and technology is given due attention. The curriculum is further enhanced in Years 1 to 6 by sessions on ‘philosophy for children’.
2.3
An innovative and successful feature of the educational experience is the attention given to the development of girls’ thinking. Several times a year, girls from Year 3 to Year 6 work together in groups to undertake a ‘thinking adventure’. The most recent was titled Flying High. Girls successfully worked on a wide range of challenging activities carefully designed to enable them to think for themselves. Gifted and talented girls in music and physical education developed their ideas in these specific areas to high standards. One large group of girls was asked to think about life in a world where humans could fly. They looked at the implications of such a situation. A number of girls were concerned about the prospect of a congestion charge in the sky. At other times in the year, girls are given an ‘open homework’ where they respond to a title such as Where do We Come From? Parents often work with their daughters, and the outcomes show work that is highly original and well thought through.
2.4
The curriculum is very effectively planned, with thorough and detailed schemes of work available electronically to all staff. The management of the curriculum is of high quality, with the necessary arrangements in place to ensure that girls build effectively on what they have previously learnt. These schemes are implemented consistently. In line with the school’s aims, many imaginative activities are planned to link subjects together across the age range. In Year 6 girls undertake a project, this year’s being an imaginative ‘bite sized business’ where they developed food items which they cooked and packaged. As part of this project they visited a cookery school as well as a packaging museum. Design and technology and ICT are used to great effect, as well as literacy and numeracy skills.
2.5
Girls’ personal development is effectively catered for through the well-planned programme of personal, social, health and citizenship education (PSHCE). Imaginative use is made of the rich London environment to enhance the curriculum. The wide range of extra-curricular activities enhances girls’ experience considerably. These include music, sport, yoga, bridge and cookery. Girls are given opportunities to represent the school in sporting fixtures.