GOOD SCHOOLS GUIDE REVIEW 2022: ST CATHERINE’S PREP SCHOOL
HEAD Since 2012, Naomi Bartholomew MA BEd Cantab, previously deputy head and before that head of English at Yateley Manor. Educated at Portsmouth High School and read English and Education at Homerton College, Cambridge. Spent two years in south west China with the VSO, then taught in state and independent primary schools. We meet her in her spacious, homely office which is packed to the brim with children’s art, books and cuddly toys. There are three doorways - one that leads straight into the staff room and another to reception, plus the large glass doors that open out onto prep playground. It is here, in this doorway, that we spot a basket of Paddington Bear paraphernalia. ‘I always put a topical talking point at my playground window to draw the girls over,’ she tells us. Warm and gentle, yet assuring and astute, she knows every girl personally rather than ‘someone else’s version’. To this end, she has deliberately appointed not one, not two, but three deputies to share the red tape of modern headship. ‘I see myself as a teacher before a head,’ she says citing her own teachers as inspirations who ‘really made a difference in my life’. An English specialist by trade she teaches year 6 study skills and runs the prep’s debating club, which ‘is a lovely way of getting to really know girls and helps when it comes to writing up reports’. She makes a point of contacting every year 7 who has left St Catherine’s to see how they’re settling in senior school at the end of September. As one of the ‘have it all’ generation of women, she believes it’s her duty to instil a sense of balance, perspective and resilience in her charges: ‘The 24-hour global economy our girls will enter presents both opportunities and challenges. We teach high achieving girls to manage the pressure they put on themselves.’
Staff feel valued by her: ‘She is broad minded and forward thinking and always puts the pupil and their family’s best interests at the heart of every decision.’ ‘She has a great rapport with us all, she’s open and respectful’. Parents describe her as ‘phenomenal’: ‘I highly rate her.’ ‘She always has a smile and time for everybody’. Pupils agree, ‘She is really kind’. A keen wild swimmer, ISI inspector and governor at another prep in her spare time, she lives locally with her partner.
ENTRANCE Entry at 4+ involves small group taster day where literacy, numeracy, physical and social skills are assessed through play and observation. Further up, more formal internal assessments for 7+ and 9+ entry plus previous head’s report. Popular with families moving out of London seeking a more rural, ambitious but not sharp elbowed, education.
EXIT Majority - around 90 per cent - head straight over the road to the senior school after sitting the 11+ which includes maths, English, science and verbal reasoning. Head has an open conversation with parents at year 5 if it’s necessary to consider options beyond the other side of the street. ‘We don’t believe in closing any doors too early. A lot can change at the top end of prep - lightbulb moments are still happening,’ she explains. Girls who do venture off go mainly to other local girls’ schools that are ‘the right fit for them’. One mother said head’s advice for senior schools was ‘spot on.’ Nine scholarships in 2022.
St Catherine’s Prep GSA Day & Boarding School since 1885 | 4 -18 years | Guildford GU5 0DF | www.stcatherines.info