Laying the right foundations

I have just returned from an evening visit to the boys’ boarding house. Some were chatting about the day’s events – matches against another school – over bowls of cereal, there is talk of last weekend’s overnight trip to the hills, the charismatic French teacher, recently returned from a school trip across the Channel is playing animated board games in a ‘dorm’. There is a lovely atmosphere; they are at ease, at home. And in the girls’ house too there are happy faces and plenty of laughter. Real education never stops, goes beyond the ‘normal’ day.

So much of what we offer is intangible but precious. In our schools standards are high; there is invariably a stimulating range of activity beyond the classroom. Ordinary miracles happen in many classrooms and an enduring love is kindled of art, literature, drama, music or sporting activity. Skills are taught which are invaluable in the world of today – in technology, languages, innovative science, spoken English, personal and social education. But less tangibly, qualities are fostered – of initiative, adaptability, a sensitivity to the needs of others; the ability to communicate and get on with people, the determination to persevere and see a difficult task through to fruition. Our pupils, through the rich educational experience we provide, come to believe in themselves, to feel a real sense of pride in their achievements, to reach for the stars and to become good citizens.

Recently views have been gathered from former Hillstone pupils as they reflect on their prep school days:

‘I particularly remember the warm, friendly, tight-knit community that enabled you to grow at your own pace.’

‘There is always someone who cares, who has time to talk and to discuss your day, your work, your hopes, your fears.’

‘Being given a position of responsibility gave me much more confidence in myself and helped me come out of my proverbial shell.’

These reflections speak eloquently of the real difference our schools make in children’s lives.

P H Moody, MA, Headmaster, Hillstone Malvern College

The burning issue amongst prospective parents considering a boarding education for their children remains a time-honoured one. Whilst they want to give their children the opportunity to enjoy and benefit from the boarding experience, they are increasingly reluctant to commit themselves to it at too early a stage in the child’s preparatory school career. When a more flexible option is available, then a whole new world can open up. With children becoming more and more involved in the selection process, it is quite natural for their views on boarding to be taken into account by their parents. Institutions that leave the timing of this critical decision to families themselves can look forward to the future of boarding in their schools with a great deal of optimism. At Cheam we have experienced a reversal in the downward boarding trend by offering such a range in our boarding provision – full, weekly and ‘flexi’ are available to all the children (boys and girls seven to 13) and there are relatively few who have not yet sampled boarding in one guise or another. No longer should there be any stigma attached to boarding if both the home and the school are very much involved in the initial decision making process.

Mark Johnson, BEd, Headmaster, Cheam School

Happy and fulfilled, eager to face the challenge of the adult world, confident in their talents and abilities, sympathetic to the needs of others yet ambitious to hone their own skills and to make their individual contribution to society: if we can produce young men and women matching that description after five years of secondary schooling we have achieved our goal.

It’s no small aim, and its attainment becomes possible only if the soundest foundations have been laid in the period before a child enters the secondary phase. And that is where our preparatory schools serve us so well. At King’s we have our own junior school; consequently only one quarter of 13-year-olds join our senior school from elsewhere. But no matter where their apprenticeship has been served, those children’s ultimate success depends to a huge extent on the seeds implanted and nurtured by their preparatory schools.

The sense of fun that grows in a community from an awareness of common goals and the sharing of failures as well as successes; the acceptance of discipline that emerges from the realisation that happiness depends upon cooperation and unselfishness; the adaptability developed out of exposure to diverse influences and a range of challenges – physical, intellectual and spiritual; most crucially the appetite for learning that reflects so faithfully the teachers’ enthusiasm for knowledge and the business of finding out: those, briefly stated, are the legacy of a preparatory school training, without which the work of the following decade is rendered baseless and ineffective.

Richard Youdale, MA (Cantab), Headmaster, The King’s School Ely

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