Choosing The Right School Education
child’s academic education. Will they still receive a good all-rounded education capable of fi tting them out for a career in a cosmopolitan, global world? To answer this, let me repeat the comment made to me when I rang a highly regarded country prep school three years ago. My seven year-old son was in a London prep school which continued to the age of 13 and therefore did not prepare their boys for their 7 or 8-plus entrance to prep schools. I rang the school and asked whether it mattered. “Not a jot,” a friendly voice laughed. “We have our London children and our country children. We start them all at the beginning and in a year they have all caught up.” And this is from a school where approximately 50% of their boys go on to Eton. It is vital to remember that there are plenty of children who have started off in the state system, in sometimes, huge classes, who have then progressed successfully on to a good prep and public school. Ultimately, remember that each level of school is about getting your child into the best school for them, at the next level. Be honest about what you want and open with heads. T is is a long relationship and possibly the most infl uential one on your son or daughter’s future, outside the immediate family. So just as with any close relationship it is best to start on an honest footing.
✏ Nursery schools - how to select the best
For parents living in rural areas, there can only be two considerations – quality and distance – and they alone can decide the compromise between both. A good nursery will demand early registration, and by that I mean within
a year of birth. For the London-based parent, however, choosing a nursery school can be fraught. In popular independent school postcodes, you will need to have made the decision before the baby is born and have sent the letter off from
At this stage, education is more about preparing a child for “big” school
I was
advised to hang about outside the school gates and watch the other parents
www.fi rstelevenmagazine.co.uk
the maternity ward. Even then, your application may be vulnerable to how far into the academic year your baby has been born. Aspects to consider at nursery school include schooling: Steiner and Montessori are two options. If you choose Montessori, read up on it fi rst and look up the accredited Montessori schools. As with all schools, a visit is vital. Talk to the teachers, are they enthusiastic? Do the children look happy? Education at this stage is more about preparing a child for “big” school and ensuring a good fi rst impression of a structured education. I was advised
to hang about outside the school
gates and watch the other parents. Do they look like parents you would be happy to mix with, because you will soon fi nd that your child’s social life, and your happiness within the school system, depends upon your ability to forge friendships with parents. Do ask yourself how much you want to be involved with a school. Are you the kind of mother who wants to be on the PTA or do you want to be able to leave them at school without feeling guilty for not being more involved. Some schools have a
more open-door ethos, which encourages parental involvement. While a good PTA can make a school, it also puts pressure on parents who work to get involved, when in fact all they want is to hand over their child knowing that they will be safe.
Autumn 2011 FirstEleven 33
London schools
If your child is in a London school, you have to start playing the game from the maternity ward. The story of the father racing from the hospital to get his child down for the right school is not apocryphal. Each school you choose helps to get you into the next one and London parents cannot aff ord to be complacent. When your obstetrician asks if you want to cross your legs until 1st September, the
beginning of the school year, don’t look at him as if he is mad, he is doing you a favour. London schools will not accept pupils out of their academic year and there is no advantage to being the youngest in the class. Prep schools try to be fair – some introduce monthly quotas but whether it’s fi rst-come fi rst served or a selective process, good schools are over-subscribed and the competition is stiff . If you have been on the ball, and got your child down for two or three schools at birth, perhaps a couple of co-eds and a single sex, then the second bit of advice which I was given, is to keep it simple. Choose the school close to you, near where your
children’s school friends live. You do not want to be crossing a city at 6pm because your child has made friends with another who lives miles away. They are all good schools and it isn’t until you reach the prep school stage that you might need to choose feeder schools for your chosen public school. I know of one father who wanted his child to go to Eton and worked backwards to make sure he chose the school likely to give his son a shot at it. As a school which places boys into single bedrooms, Eton, by a former registrar’s admission, is more inclined towards boarding schools where children have been better prepared for boarding.
An aerial view of Putney Park School in west London
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