The Good Schools Guide
Warwick Preparatory School Review 2018
www.warwickprep.com @WarwickPrep
What the Good Schools Guide says: Headmistress Hellen Dodsworth has been in post since September 2016, previously Co-Head at Coten End Primary School, Warwick and she holds a Music and Education degree from Warwick University. Mrs Dodsworth combines leadership presence and a strong sense of authority with the warmth needed as Head of a Prep school. She brings considerable school leadership experience, understanding the best of current thinking in areas such as pedagogy and use of data. She has developed the curriculum at the Prep to embrace the best of the national curriculum but adapted it to the school’s specific needs. She is keen to pursue links with other schools, within both sectors. ‘No school should be an island’, she tells us.
‘Facilities only dreamed junior schools.’
Parents find Mrs Dodsworth very accessible and of in most are happy to go to her with any niggle, something she strongly encourages. She has two boys being educated within the Foundation, and when not supporting their numerous activities, she enjoys continuing her musical interests.
Our view This school is part of the Warwick Independent Schools Foundation – Warwick Preparatory School, Warwick School and King’s High School - with all the schools sharing a common ethos but each feeling quite distinctive. At present all but King’s High are on the same large site on the outskirts of Warwick. King’s High is to join them in a two phase move from 2019 and both parents and staff see this as hugely positive – ‘the girls will have the best of both worlds – lots of contact with the boys but separate lessons in key years’, a parent said. The buildings are well underway and though the building site does not enhance the slightly soulless feel of the campus, once inside the Prep school, friendliness and vibrancy take over. The Prep uses facilities only dreamed of in most junior schools – a professionally-equipped theatre, concert hall and amazing sports facilities, including Astro Turfs, an indoor sports hall and a swimming pool, for example. The theatre attracts professional touring companies, so the children have easy access to these, too. When King’s High completes its move to the campus, there will be stunning new Music and Drama spaces. Children gain a healthy number of scholarships to senior schools each year and do well in national competitions. As the girls move into the Prep, they are increasingly taught by specialist teachers. They adore their very practically-focused science lessons. An exciting, ongoing, foundation-wide Mars space project has involved children talking directly to astronauts on the International Space Station. DT is also popular, with a lot of effort put into making a coherent curriculum where Science links in with DT work, with lessons on force, for example, aligned with modelling types of aeroplanes. There are themed off-timetable weeks when the school brings in visitors, runs workshops and gets the children deeper into projects. Even the Nursery has Science and Music weeks.
The school is determined to use evidence - national standardised data as well as in-school assessment - to plan the next stage of each child’s learning. There are no dogmatic approaches here. The school uses a variety of different reading methods alongside phonics. ‘Every child learns in a different way,’ one of the senior staff says, ‘and we want to find the right way for each child’. Professional development for staff is high on the Head’s list of priorities. TeachMeet sessions, where teachers share good practice, are run across campus and will in future include staff from other schools. The strong Learning Support department includes ‘Every child learns in a an Early Years speech and language specialist. The different way, and we department has the reputation for working very want to find the right effectively with families. Interventions - at no extra charge - can be very short term or involve more way for each child’. intensive ongoing work. There is also a school counsellor who will work with parents and the school drawing up well-being plans if necessary. The school has Prep and Pre-Prep libraries, with a dedicated librarian; older girls can work in there after school. There is plenty of Drama, Art and Music going on, all in very well equipped spaces. There are many performance opportunities, though the Year 6 girls did say that they had had fewer drama lessons in Year 5 because they had to work for their exams. They still managed an apparently amazing production of Annie, though, and when we visited, the Year 2 production was under way involving the whole year group. Virtually all the school learns an instrument from visiting teachers. As well as their own concerts, pupils attend some King’s High ones and take part in Foundation-wide events such as a recent woodwind celebration.
Everything from coding to maypole dancing fills the children’s lunchtimes and before and after-school sessions. When we asked a group of children from across the school what clubs they actually attended (as opposed to the long list produced in school literature), they were all doing more than one a week, and some seven. Lots of educational visits are planned, including residential and overseas trips. There are regular visitors; the Nursery had just had a visit from a pilot and a beekeeper.
School Structure By junior school standards this is a large school – nearly 500 pupils - which can be an issue for some parents. There are 60 in Nursery, with no selection, but the school aims to identify very quickly if there are any difficulties and the learning support department springs into action. There are three classes in the Nursery, four a year in the pre-prep, going back down to two when the boys leave at the end of Year 2. The Nursery is a large, open plan space with different areas for a range of activities. There is no slightly bungling, amateurish, homely feel about Warwick Prep, but nevertheless the school prides itself on making the big seem small. It certainly seems as though everyone knows everyone else. This is partly due to the excellent pastoral approaches. Older girls are trained to support younger ones through a play leader scheme, ensuring older pupils get to know and feel a responsibility for younger ones and younger children have role models.
Leadership Opportunities and Positive Relations Increased leadership opportunities include school and class council representatives, which children have to apply for, and which help to teach problem solving approaches. A Skills for Life programme involves focusing on a major life skill each term. During our visit it was independence, and the children were challenged in morning assembly to consider opportunities to act independently in school. Parents say this programme has had a huge impact. In another programme, introduced by the current Head, children are given opportunities during class to recognise and explore their feelings, and learn how to speak about them with clarity and confidence. The school leaders see this work as being just as important as progress in Maths and English. Relations between children and staff seem universally positive. The children say the teachers are kind, want to help them and are good at dealing with any arguments. Relations between children, too, seem warm and supportive. They understand the need to look out for each other. Parents comment how experienced and wise staff are, especially notably when dealing with friendship difficulties. They are in awe of the well-oiled and efficient running of the school, with a general recognition that it is very good at flagging up early any academic or social problems. A few parents would like more frequent reassurance that everything was alright, though there are regular reports and parents’ meetings. Fair Rules – devised with input from children and staff – are visible around the school. The emphasis is always on learning from mistakes and understanding why miscreants have behaved in the way they have and its consequences on other people. A parallel merit system focuses on positives, with much celebration of successes. A 50 Stars in a Jar competition encourages working in teams. The school council is taken very seriously; it has recommended new achievement boards which are about to be installed.
‘The school has to be right for the whole family, not just the child’, says the Head, aware that many have busy lives with both parents working, and some live quite a distance away - though most are relatively local. Wraparound care is available from 8.00am to 5.45pm. There are numerous clubs immediately ‘The school has to be after lessons, and anyone staying later is provided with a light tea (extra charge). Weekly information right for the whole family, not just the child’. bulletins and parent form reps do a sterling job reinforcing the relevant parts for their year group. The school has an academic reputation, but there is plenty going on outside the classroom too. Forward looking with traditional moral values; parents describe the atmosphere as busy and purposeful as well as caring and nurturing. The children we met were articulate, positive and enthusiastic about their school and life in general.
Entrance Children join the Nursery or reception and there are places at other stages: girls can also join at 7 - though waiting lists are growing at KS2 level.
Exit Boys leave at 7 and are more or less guaranteed a place at Warwick Junior School. These offers might be probationary if there are concerns that the school might not be right. The girls stay until 11 and take an entrance exam to get into King’s High. Most go to King’s High despite the pull of strong local grammar schools.