Handling your children’s schedules can be very challenging, especially once they start school and you have to keep track of playdates, show and tell, birthday parties, assignments due, Jeans for Genes days and so forth. As a working parent, I have been guilty of bringing my daughter to school in uniform on the one day that children wear supposed to be dressed up in costume, and any tool that can prevent such disasters can be a life saver! I was very excited to hear that there is a new app for groups of parents to keep track of all things they need to remember, founded by London parents Shilpa Bhandarkar and Amit Rai. Coo is an exciting new app designed to help parents connect with other school parents, and organise all the scheduling and paperwork around their kids’ various activities in one place.

Here is our interview with Co-Founder Shilpa Bhandarkar about schools in London and Coo.

1. How happy are you with the educational landscape in London?
Very happy! London has an incredible range of quality schools so we are all in the privileged position of being able to match the personalities and interests of our children to the right school for them. I particularly love the fact that schools seem to make a genuine effort to keep the curriculum and topics of research at school relevant to world events. For example, in the run up to the World Climate Change conference earlier this week, my 6 year old has been learning about the concept of global warming and what families can do to reduce their carbon footprint. That’s pretty cool for a 6-year-old!

Personally, I love the sense of community that many London schools strive to build. Perhaps a consequence of living in a large international city where most of us don’t have the support of extended family, but whatever the reason, there seems to be a very strong sense of community amongst school families – which gives parents a much needed support system.

2. Where do your children go to school?
My older daughter is in Year 2 at Channing in Highgate and my younger daughter is at nursery at the Gower School in Islington.

3. What is Coo and what is the story behind it?
Coo is a new group communication and calendar app designed to help parents simplify their family life. It allows parents to connect with other parents in their children’s schools, classes and other activities, and to organise all their children’s activities in an easy way.

Both Amit (my co-founder) and I have children of similar ages. During a playdate in Hampstead Heath last summer, we overheard our 6-year-olds sharing stories of the worst things that had happened to them that term. On Diya’s list was the fact that her parents had forgotten to pack her swimming bag one week, which meant she missed her precious swimming lesson with all her friends. On top of Rohan’s list was the fact that he had missed a classmate’s birthday party because his parents got the date wrong.

Needless to say, our kids had managed to pick the ONE thing we had forgotten that term. If you add up all the things parents are expected to remember – take in £1 for charity on Tuesday, homework due on Wednesday not Friday this week, class trip permission slip due on Thursday, dress in pyjamas for Children in Need day on Friday – it ends up being a really long list. But each of those things really matters to your little ones.

The idea that all families were going through similar but there was no way to collaborate and share the burden did not sit right. So we set about to change that – and now you have Coo!

4. How are you using the app yourself to connect with other parents or carers?
I now have Coo groups for my older daughter’s school group, PTA group and tennis class. I have another group for my younger daughter’s nursery class. My husband and I use Coo to coordinate our family calendar and (never ending) things-to-do list. And we have another group for our neighbourhood friends to coordinate playdates and local activities. If I could get Perform and swimming class on Coo, I’m set!

I find I now communicate much more with the other parents in my group – the non-obtrusive but real time nature of the news feed really helps. I spend infinitely less time sifting through countless emails trying to find the relevant one at the time I actually need it. And my husband’s and my calendar is always up to date – so no more “remind me what time the Christmas play is again?”

5. What feedback have you received from London parents so far?
Our parents really appreciate the app. Someone has finally designed a product that caters to their needs. Here is some of the feedback we have received in the last couple of months:
“Can’t tell you how much time Coo has given me back” (Mum of 4)
“Coo is my ultimate fall back for calendar fiascos” (Mum of 2)
“Coo has made being a class rep a doddle” (Mum of 2)
“Great to have all the information I need and be on top of things.” (Dad of 2).

6. What are your future plans for Coo?
We released a new version of Coo in November, with a brand new homepage and other features our users asked for. We are now speaking to PTAs and activity clubs across London to get more schools and groups on Coo. Ultimately, I would love for schools to get on Coo. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if up-to-date school information, including the calendar, was always available on your phone?

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For more information please see below.

Website: www.coo.social
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CooSocialApp
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CooSocialApp

While Central London seems awash with excellent girls’ prep schools, there has for a long time be a shortage of excellent boys’ pre-preps, which is why competition for places at Wetherby or the popular co-educational prep schools is so intense. It is great news then that Falkner House is starting a pre-prep school for boys aged four to eight, following their recent acquisition of 20 Penywern Road, SW5. We will be starting in September 2017 for reception with the school growing year on year. Falkner House has spent years searching for an ideal building for this venture and feels confident that the new site is perfect. Just south of Earl’s Court station and only a 10 minute walk from Brechin Place, it is a large 19th century building with space for a playground at the back. 20 Penywern already has character and, after 18 months of builders, it will have style!
Falkner House has always been a family business and the new school will be no exception with Mrs Anita Griggs as principal and her daughter, Mrs Eleanor Dixon MA (Cantab.) as headteacher. Mrs Dixon was educated at Falkner House, St Paul’s Girls’ School and Cambridge. She worked as a lawyer at a City firm before joining Falkner House in 2011 following the birth of her oldest son Barnaby. At Falkner House Mrs Dixon works in all areas of the school with particular focus on lower school maths and preparing children for the 11+ process. Mrs Griggs remains as headteacher at Brechin Place where she will continue to work closely with and alongside her daughter Mrs Flavia Rogers BA PGCE.

There is a historical aspect to this development – Mrs Griggs’ father, Humphrey Nunes ran Falkner House Boys’ School at 19 Pembridge Villas, W11 for many years. After his death, the building and school were sold and the family is thrilled to be able to play their part once again in London boys’ education.
The new Falkner House will have the strengths of the original: small, family run and personal, with exceptional teachers, a broad curriculum and the best fundamental educational principles at the heart of the school. There will be the same emphasis placed on camaraderie, good manners and kindness. Every child should have the right both to a happy childhood and the very best education, with the importance of the academics balanced by sport, music and art. Boys will develop their strengths without being hot-housed; they will be prepared for the best possible schools for them at 7+ or 8+ in a sympathetic and supportive fashion. The registration list is now open!
Should you be interested please call the office at Brechin Place on 020 7373 4501 for more information. The school will also be organising group meetings to take place in the spring at Falkner House Brechin Place. This is to give people the opportunity to talk to Mrs Dixon and Mrs Griggs about the new school and to ask any questions.

Guest post by MaiHanh DeLorenzo, Metal Rocks Education Advisors (see further info and bio below)

When Anke asked me to write about the 11+ exam, my first response was that it was like trying to write another Churchill biography, that is: What new is there left to say? But then, realising that new Churchill biographies come out every year, I decided that giving my perspective on the exam and the process would hopefully provide some anxious parents and students with a few meaningful insights, despite the hundreds of websites and thousands of pages already out there on the topic. And so, first let me say that my experience is in the top 15-20 selective schools in London and its environs, and I will write to an audience I believe doesn’t need basic answers to the question of “What is the 11+?” as only savvy parents will be reading this piece. I will answer what I perceive to be the important questions a parent should be asking about the 11+exam and the admission process.

When should my child start preparing for the exam?
Most people start at the beginning of Year 5, which is fine. However, if possible, six months earlier than that is ideal for two reasons. First, it gives you two summers to prepare. Summer is the key time given the amount of freedom available away from fixed schedules and extracurricular activities. Secondly, learning things slowly over time (drip-feeding) always trumps cramming, which involves far more stress for the parents and child. Starting earlier, depending upon the school, also allows the parents to prepare their child for the CAT exams, which are important to many top-tier schools. At the very top academic schools, if your child scores below 120 on the CAT, you will need to ace the exams and the interviews to have much of a chance. Sound harsh? Yes, it is.

What or how do I teach my children for the exam?
One only need look at five or six old exams to see patterns emerge in the questions. I have identified 16 different exam problem types that, over time, have accounted for approximately 80% of most exams. We all know what these things are, inter alia, basic arithmetic, time, simple probability, number patterns and so on. If your child is well prepared for the obvious, you can assure yourself of 60-80% of the exam in the bag. What separates the applicants from the admitted is the other 20%: logic puzzles,
pattern recognition and other mental gymnastics.

Schools like to say that they create exams that are tutor-proof: this is a common untruth in this annual rite of passage. You want to get better at piano? Practice the piano. Want to get better at tennis? Play more tennis. And if you want your child to be able to think more logically and creatively, he or she can practise that, too. Studies abound proving that creativity can be nurtured, as can logical thought (playing chess is one great endeavour to build this type of mental scaffolding). I have developed a few key exercises that, over time, help develop the thinking necessary to have a good shot at capturing that extra 20%.

Have you ever sat down with your child and looked at a picture and had them talk you through it? What are we seeing, what is happening, why is it happening, what does it mean? Try this with “Aristotle Contemplating a Bust of Homer” or “The School of Athens” or “The Tower of Babel” and see how they compare after doing this a few times. Playing board or card games with your children is another simple way to help develop a ten-year-old’s critical thinking skills.

More importantly, once you have identified your top schools, make sure to understand either from other parents, online forums or professionals in the field of how their testing have evolved over the last year or two (you needn’t go back more than that). This year, one top London school Head announced to parents during the call back day that “almost all of the callbacks” had done well on the maths exam, but that many of them found the reasoning too difficult. You can guarantee that this school will have a tougher maths and an easier reasoning section in 2017. Knowing this is a key edge to admission to that one school.

Outside the usual tuition, how can I best prepare my child for this exam?
I’m glad you asked that question! You could start by searching online for Carol Dweck and the research she has done on developing mindsets and the perils of praising your children directly. But there are lots of evidence-based tasks you can do to help them through this stressful period. For a start, did you know that children who perform in spelling bees handle stress better than those who don’t? This isn’t an exhortation to enroll your child in the nearest spelling tourney, but you should know that children
who deal with stress on a regular basis from sporting teams, chess competitions, etc., handle testing stress better than those who don’t. Stress, like pain, is relative: some people find something stressful while others find it stress-free.

Did you know that studying something for 15 minutes in 2 rooms induces better recall than studying for 30 minutes continuously in the same room? Did you think a quiet, uncluttered place is the best place to learn? Not according to multiple studies going back to 1978. Varying what you study in one sitting dramatically improves learning, yet few people (and no schools) do this. No wonder Mark Twain said he never let his schooling interfere with his education!

My simple point it that if you want to be one of the 10% of parents of applicants lucky enough to get their children into some of the top schools, you should be preparing your children more creatively and more efficaciously than simply sitting them down and drilling through the fifteen times tables. If your child is young enough, read up on the benefits of a musical education or learning a second language: these will help with the exam and, more importantly, have lifelong mental benefits.

My child is smart and in the top of the class, isn’t this enough?!
Mostly: yes but often times: no. One very prominent boarding school just outside of London rejects 40 of the top 100 applicants based on their test scores alone. Why? They are not only looking to select the best students but to accept the best class. They need an orchestra; they need a rugby team; they need to put on plays; and so on. My recommendation to clients I get early enough is for the child to specialise in one specific thing that he or she loves: play chess, collect stamps, keep bees or write haikus if that’s your thing. You don’t want to be a mile wide and an inch deep, as the saying goes.

Here is a small but telling example to gain an easy edge: If your child is 5 and you want him to learn a musical instrument, do not choose the violin. Choose the viola. Why? Everyone plays the violin; it doesn’t set you apart. However, few choose the viola (which some think is easier to master) and every school orchestra needs one.

Do I need to tutor my child?
Every school has the same answer to that question: absolutely not! I usually answer this question with another question, which usually startles my interlocutor: Would you bring a knife to a gunfight? Of course you need to prepare your child! Everyone else will be, although most people will simply lie and say they are not doing anything extra with their children. This is another dirty secret.

Do you need to hire a tutor? The answer to that is definitely not. If you have the time, the skills, the patience and the inclination, by all means do it yourself. The sad fact of the matter is that parents who listen to their schools and do nothing but a few old exams over the weekend here or there are leaving their child at a very significant disadvantage to those children who are learning things above and beyond their curriculum. The top schools condemn extra tuition while concomitantly
writing exams wherein only students learning beyond the school curriculum succeed.

Finally, one only needs to look at a few recent high profile placements at tutoring and test preparation shops to understand what’s really going on: former Headmasters and Headmistresses who only last term decried tutoring are now themselves working for the Dark Side and doing their best to help parents get their children into their desired schools. The only way to respond to this harsh reality is to do as they do and not as they say.

Re-reading this, I expect I might have increased the anxiety of some parents, especially those with only a year to prepare for the most selective institutions. This was not my objective. However, the fact of the matter is that more and more people are applying to the most selective schools, thinking that this maximises chances to the best universities, which maximises chances to the best careers. All of this is true.

Keeping your eyes on the prize is key. Be truthful about the abilities and desires of your child, get a good understanding of each institution and have an idea of which one is the right school for your child. Do a little work each day in an intelligent, focused and deliberate way.

I wish you the best of luck with your child’s progress in preparing for the 11+. If you have made your way through this whole article, you are likely already one of the few very committed parents ready to help your child through this process. Your commitment will make all the difference.

MaiHanh DeLorenzo is the Founder and Advisor at Metal Rocks Education, Ltd. based in central London. She has over 13 years of experience teaching and inspiring children to achieve their potential. With an extensive and deep knowledge of top schools in London and its environs, MaiHanh has successfully placed children at 7+, 8+, 11+ and 13+ at the following competitive schools: Westminster School, St. Paul’s Girls’ School, Eton, North London Collegiate School, City of London School for Girls, South Hampstead High, Colet Court, Westminster Under, King’s College School Wimbledon, City of London School for Girls’ Prep School, Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School, Highgate and Westminster Cathedral Choir School.

MaiHanh graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown University in Washington D.C. with degrees in Finance and Economics. She is a former Mergers & Acquisition investment banker at J.P. Morgan and a private equity investor specialising in the education sector. Please email her at maihanh@metalrockseducation.co.uk if you have any questions.

Colet Court in Barnes

Friends, readers and clients often ask me if you really have to sign up to all the nurseries and private schools at birth. In recent years, this is becoming a very popular topic among education journalists as well (see here for my recent press coverage). In conversations with journalists, I always give them a very accurate, down to earth picture about the school scene and tell them that with a few notable exceptions, it is absolutely not necessary to sign up on the day of birth, and that it is arguably not even the best nurseries or schools that require immediate registration (at least if you agree that selecting only those children whose parents register them at – or before! – birth is the best strategy for selecting your most able pupils).

But then, the story they write is always the same – journalists love stories about crazy private school parents, and that’s why only the exceptions are reported, adding to the hysteria and making the problem worse. As I told one of the journalists recently, it might not have been true that you really needed to sign up at birth at most places a few years ago, but of course, if enough journalists write about it, freaking everyone out in the process, it might well become reality in the end.

So let me tell you the real story here, since the newspapers find the truth too boring. The truth is that there are less than a handful of nurseries and schools where you can even apply before the child is born and where this would provide an advantage (off the top of my head, Broadhurst School in Hampstead, the Gatehouse School in Tower Hamlets and the Little Jungle nursery in East Dulwich). Almost all other nurseries accept registrations from birth only, and even at the outstanding and very popular ones listed in my overview of top nurseries in London, you would be absolutely fine if you registered your child sometime when they are three or six months old, even much later for many of them (at least if you are happy with an afternoon place – morning places tend to get taken up more quickly). Notable exceptions are the Acorn Nursery in Notting Hill, where I would advise anyone to register asap (if interested) and the Falkner House nursery in South Kensington, where parents are advised to register within a week of birth if possible (once this is written down here, of course the time window could shrink further – it does help that Falkner House is opening a second nursery around Earl’s Court in September 2017!).

Pembridge Hall School in Notting Hill

At prep schools, early registration is even less important, since most select their children via competitive assessment, not by date of registration. Wetherby Pre-prep for boys and Pembridge Hall for girls are the famous exceptions, where immediate registration is indeed helpful, but beyond those two, I can’t think of any school that would require you to apply at birth. The Hall in Hampstead and Ravenscourt Park Prep require registration by the 1st birthday, and a few oversubscribed selective prep schools only accept 150 – 200 applications before they close their lists (Thomas’s Battersea, Falkner House, Thomas’s Kensington, St Paul’s Cathedral School, for example), so you should not leave it for too long, but again, if you get it done by your child’s 1st birthday (a few months earlier for summer borns), you will usually be absolutely fine.

Some schools have specific time windows during which you can apply. At Arnold House, you need to apply between your son’s 1st and 2nd birthday, at Highgate, you will need to apply between March and May the year before 3+ entry, at South Hampstead High School, in the September two years before entry, at North London Collegiate School, it is between May and November the year before entry, and at Wimbledon High School you can only apply from April the year before entry, for example. Interestingly then, at many of the top prep schools, you are not even allowed to apply before your child is 2 years old! These schools only want relevant applications by informed parents who have made up their minds, they are not trying to collect registration fees from families who might well have moved away or lost interest in the school by the time the 4+ assessments come around.

So if you are reading this when your child is already six months old (or two or three years old, for that matter), don’t despair just yet, at 80-90% of the nurseries and schools profiled on this page, it is certainly still worth trying for a place.

Now that we have covered nurseries and prep schools, of course you may wonder if it is any different for the really sought after senior schools, such as St Paul’s Girls’ School, Westminster School or Eton. Again, timelines differ, and you generally need to apply earlier for boarding schools than for London Day Schools, but you certainly don’t need to apply for Colet Court or Westminster Under before your child is 5 (at the earliest), and for senior schools, you can wait much longer. Senior schools that require a a pre-test in Year 6 would usually require registration by the end of Year 5, but that shows you again that it is nothing to worry about when your child is a toddler or just starting Reception.

Of course, registering is only one aspect, the more difficult part is actually getting in! If you talk about the top 10 or top 20 schools in London, they are indeed highly oversubscribed, but this is also a result of the fact that everyone wants to get into the same old schools. Schools like Westminster, City or St Paul’s are supposed to be aimed at the top 2% or top 5% of pupils, but of course the top 30-40% apply and try to get in there, which is why you can find 5 or even 10 applicants per place at many sought after schools. The number of applicants per place at grammar schools is actually far worse even than at private schools, since they are free and attract a far wider range of the population. The Henrietta Barnett School, for example, receives 2,000 applicants for 93 places these days (interestingly, in 2007 the number was only 1,200, which shows you how much worse it has become). It is only slightly better at the Tiffin Boys’ School and Tiffin Girls’ School, which receive about 12 applicants per place. This should almost make you think getting into City or SPGS with only 800-1,000 applicants is a walk in the park in comparison!

That said, I do think the ride can be much easier if you sort registrations out early, simply because it provides you with more certainty and reduces the time spent on waiting lists, so there is certainly a psychological benefit to knowing you already have your nursery sorted or your confirmed place at Wetherby waiting for you, but there are plenty of outstanding nurseries and prep schools in London, and most of these do not require immediate registration, at least not yet!

It is still very early days but the first pre-prep schools have started releasing their 7+ results. This post will be updated as schools release their results.

Hampstead Hill 7+
– Boys: 12 offers from Highgate, 22 from UCS, 2, from Habs, 1 from Westminster
– Girls: 4 City of London, 6 Highgate, 10 SHHS, 1 NLCS

Golders Hill 7+
5 offers from Highgate, 5 from UCS

Awaiting results: St John’s Wood Pre-Prep, Eaton House Belgravia, Garden House Boys’…

Most schools have yet to report their 11+ results officially, but a few are starting to send out theirs, while others are waiting for the final acceptance deadline to pass to make sure all offers are final and they can report acceptances as well. We will update this post as new information is published over the next weeks. The few schools that have published 11+ results already are:

Eaton Square School 11+
List of offers includes…
Alleyn’s
City of London Girls
City of London Boys
Downe House*
Dulwich College
Francis Holland, Regent’s Park
Francis Holland, Sloane Square
JAGS
Godolphin and Latymer
Latymer Upper
Queen’s Gate
St Mary’s Ascot*
Tudor Hall*
Whitgift

and 11+ Pre Test results (* represents Boarding):
Eton*
Harrow*
King’s College Wimbledon
King’s Canterbury*
Tonbridge*
St Paul’s

Queen’s Gate Junior School 11+

We are pleased to announce Queen’s Gate Junior School girls have been offered places at the following Day Schools: Queen’s Gate Senior School – including one Academic Scholarship, one All-Rounder Scholarship, and Mathematics Exhibition, English Exhibition and Art Exhibition awards.
London Day Schools:
City of London School for Girls, Godolphin & Latymer, Latymer Upper School, Queen’s College London, Francis Holland School, Putney High School and Wimbledon High School.
And the following Boarding Schools:
Wycombe Abbey School, St Swithun’s School, Benenden School (including one Scholarship), Cheltenham Ladies’ College and St Mary’s School Ascot.

Following recent press coverage on oversubscribed London nursery schools, I was kindly invited by the most oversubscribed nursery of them all, Broadhurst School in Hampstead, to come for a visit and meet Principal Mrs Deirdre Berkery and Head Mistress Mrs Alison Fisher. The nursery is located on Greencroft Gardens, a mere 2 minute walk from Finchley Road station in a beautiful house that could be mistaken for a private residence. Only the few buggies parked in front and a small inscription at the entrance give away that there is a well-known nursery school located in this building.

Established in 1958 by Mrs Mary Berkery as one of the first preschools of its kind, Broadhurst School is still very much family-owned and run, and the school is still considered Mrs Berkery’s “baby”. It was a big step then for Mrs Berkery to hire Mrs Fisher as Headmistress five years ago, but there is clearly continuity in terms of its ethos and approach. The school offers preschool education for children aged 2.5 to 5 years, and children generally join in the September following their 2nd birthday, although summer borns may join in January instead. Initially, children join part-time for either a morning or an afternoon session, but many can and do opt for a full-time place in the second year. The school also offers a Reception class for those children joining their prep schools at 5+ (typically Arnold House, The Hall, St Christopher’s). The settling in process is very gradual and can take as long as the child (and the parent!) needs, which I found laudable and relatively rare for a London nursery (although this is very much standard best practice in continental Europe). The main idea behind this is that children only learn when they are happy and settled, and even children who don’t cry may be anxious and hence less able to benefit from the educational programme on offer.

Broadhurst School on 19 Greencroft Gardens

The school day follows a relatively clear structure, with free play after initial drop off, followed by more structured table time, when children sit down with a teacher and work on jigsaws, cutting, tracing, matching, counting activities in small groups. Following these activities, they might do music or yoga (once a week), and each group generally spends 20-30 minutes per session in the beautiful outdoor playground that the school is lucky to have (complete with slides and flower beds). I visited the school shortly after drop-off, when table time was in full progress in all groups, although in each group, a small number of children had opted to play freely – building houses with magnatiles seemed to be a popular activity this morning, as was stacking building blocks. In the younger groups, each teacher was working with as few as 3 – 4 children at a table, which explains why Broadhurst parents tend to comment that the school knows each child very well and can give parents detailed feedback on their abilities and progress. Displays on the wall showcase the nursery children’s emergent writing and artwork, which is visibly of a very high standard, giving me as a more relaxed South West Londoner a little Sputnik shock!

Now that the 4+ assessment results are out, Mrs Berkery was listing the schools children are moving onto in September. For girls, South Hampstead High School, St Christopher’s, Channing and North London Collegiate School seem to be the most popular destinations (some girls leave for Sarum Hall at 3+). Among the boys, many are moving onto either Arnold House or The Hall, with a small number off to a variety of prep schools (St Anthony’s seems to be another popular choice).

Although the high standard of children’s letter formation makes you think children may be pushed quite early, Mrs Berkery was adamant that they spend a lot of time developing pre-writing skills in a fun way (playing with sand, threading beads, working with play dough) to build up the muscles and fine motor skills for correct pencil grip and early writing. You can tell that a lot of thought has gone into the materials used, and clearly, the school has been able to optimise games and activities to enhance learning over the last 65 years. We discussed at length the support for bilingual and trilingual children (or any children who need further help developing their language skills), which are probably soon going to be the majority in many Central London nurseries, and I was shown carefully selected word games used to encourage correct use of prepositions and necessary vocabulary.

Following my tour of the school, Mrs Berkery and Mrs Fisher were kind enough to sit down with me for a long chat about North London schools, nursery admissions, 4+/5+ assessments and the long-term view parents need to take of their child’s education. On the topic of admissions, indeed they confirmed that to ensure a place parents were advised to register within three months of finding out they are pregnant, but that it was certainly worth joining the waiting list later for places that do come up regularly. For example, if a March born boy leaves the nursery, they would aim to replace this child with another boy born around the same time, and this way even those registering later can get lucky. I certainly have personal friends who were offered places (afternoon places, admittedly) even though they registered “only” a few months after their child was born. So if parents are very keen, it certainly sounds less impossible than newspaper articles would like to make you think.

On the subject of assessments, Broadhurst School is very honest and tries to manage parents’ expectations. They certainly try to ensure parents don’t join the school just because they want their child to go to Oxbridge (on the Broadhurst – The Hall – St Paul’s highway!) or under the assumption that there is some sort of guarantee that their child will get into Arnold House or South Hampstead High School. Although the track record suggests that the school maximises assessment preparation as much as possible, there are obviously things that are out of the school’s control. Behaviour is one issue that can hurt even the brightest candidates, according to Mrs Berkery (she gave the example of a boy clinging to the only racing car in the assessment room, not willing to share it with any other child), and of course personality plays a role as well. A child may be brilliant at nursery and at home but simply too shy or intimidated during the assessment to show their potential. There is a language issue as well. As a non-selective nursery school, there are children who start at Broadhurst aged 2.5 speaking very little or no English, and though they work on language development as much as possible, these cases highlight why there is never a guarantee, even for a bright child who is well prepared.

Broadhurst School has clearly developed excellent and deep relationships with many of the most sought after North London prep schools, and Mrs Fisher will be in regular contact with them to ensure strong cooperation and information flow. This will be very reassuring to many parents anxious about the admissions process, as they can obtain in-depth advice about the local schools from Mrs Fisher and Mrs Berkery who maintain an open relationship with all parents. But beyond anxiousness about getting into the “best” school, both felt strongly that first and foremost children need to be happy and at ease in order to thrive, and parents need to visit the school personally to get a feel for its ethos and approach. Given how oversubscribed it is, of course only those who can be offered a space are invited for a personal visit, so I hope this review of my own visit to the Broadhurst School gives the reader enough information to decide if they would like to register their child.

Pembridge Hall and Wetherby are joining Garden House and Abercorn to open a New York prep school based on the English national curriculum!

Alpha Plus Group is delighted to confirm that they will open a new school in New York City in September 2017. The school, which will be called Wetherby-Pembridge School New York, will be located in a superb building on the Upper East Side on East 96th Street near Central Park.

Students will enter the school for up to two years in preschool in a co-educational setting, which will be called ‘The Minors’. They will then progress to Kindergarten/Year 1 and be entered into a separate form of boys and girls, which will run initially to Grade 5/Year 6. The boys’ form will be called Wetherby and the girls’ form will be called Pembridge Hall.

Refurbishment works will commence on the school’s building this summer in order to have everything in readiness for September 2017.

The school will have a capacity of approximately 280 students and will follow the English National Curriculum. This curriculum option, combined with their own bespoke academic curriculum at Wetherby School and Pembridge Hall, will prepare children for top onward schools in the UK, the US and internationally and will be appealing to many families in New York.

The search for a Headteacher for the new school has already commenced, which will be followed by the recruitment of the Leadership Team and staff.

Julian Drinkall, CEO, Alpha Plus Group, comments:

“This is a very exciting initiative for our Group, and we look forward to offering our Gold Standard of educational provision to families in New York.”

Further details about the new school will be announced in due course.

Big changes are afoot at the co-educational pre-prep Phoenix School in Hampstead. The UCS Council has decided that the school should transition to an all boys Pre‐Prep school with children aged 4‐7, with the entry point being directly into Reception via a 4+ assessment. This means that the last in‐take of girls will be September 2016 and the school will no longer offer a Nursery class from September 2017. The first boys‐only Reception cohort will therefore be in September 2018.

As part of this transition the school will change its name from The Phoenix School to UCS Pre‐Prep from September 2016. The change of name should enable parents less familiar with the school to gain a clearer understanding of the school’s role within the foundation of UCS. The changes will enable UCS Pre‐Prep to offer enhanced facilities for the children, including a research library, creative arts studio and science garden. UCS remains fully committed to providing an outstanding education for all pupils and the strong ethos and heart of the school: their commitment to supporting all pupils to develop their potential as individuals and intellectual curiosity in a small and nurturing environment will remain the same.

All children in Year 2 will continue to sit the 7+ examination when the school is all boys, but there will be an increasing expectation, as we transition, that many of these children will feed through to the UCS Junior Branch thus strengthening the school’s relationship within the Foundation.

Now that the opening of St Anthony’s Girls’ School is easing the pressure on girls’ school places, this might be very good news if you have a son, as there will now be more places available for boys at UCS Pre-Prep.

Eleanor Dixon, appointed Head of the new Falkner House School

There is a shortage of boys’ pre-preps in London, which is why competition for places at Wetherby or the popular co-educational prep schools is so intense. It is great news then that Falkner House is starting a pre-prep school for boys aged four to eight with an attached co-educational nursery, following their recent acquisition of 20 Penywern Road, SW5.

Falkner House has always been a family business and the new school will be no exception with Mrs Anita Griggs as principal and her daughter, Mrs Eleanor Dixon as headteacher. Mrs Dixon was educated at Falkner House, St Paul’s Girls’ School and Cambridge. She worked as a lawyer at a City firm before joining Falkner House in 2011 following the birth of her oldest son Barnaby. At Falkner House Mrs Dixon works in all areas of the school with particular focus on lower school maths and preparing children for the 11+ process. Mrs Griggs remains as headteacher at Brechin Place where she will continue to work closely with and alongside her daughter Mrs Flavia Rogers.

I recently enjoyed the opportunity to interview Mrs Griggs and her daughters about the new Falkner House School, which will not be called Falkner House Boys’ School “to avoid awkward apostrophes”.

When and in what form will the new Falkner House School open?

The school will open in September 2017 with a co-educational nursery (Lower and Upper Nursery) and its first Reception class of around 20 boys. After this first intake, the pre-prep will have a two-form entry of 36 boys in two classes of 18. Eventually, the school will educate 120 children from Nursery to Year 3.

Will the boys’ school be selective at 4+?

Yes. The 4+ process will be run along the lines of the girls’ school, but the assessment will take place in October (3 months earlier than the girls’ assessments) to align the process with other boys’ schools in the area that require parents to make earlier decisions. We would be more than happy to delay these assessments until January if other boys’ schools align their process accordingly.

Do you believe boys can be assessed reliably at such a young age?

Yes, we do feel we can do it. We have built up lots of expertise by running the co-educational nursery for many years and our Head of Nursery is very involved in running the 4+ assessment process. Of course, with any child (boy, girl, or indeed a puppy!), the later you assess the better, but we feel, based on our experience with nursery aged children, that we can assess reliably.

Did you consider opening a prep school till 11+ instead of a pre-prep at all?

We are open to the idea and certainly have the expertise to prepare children for the 11+. But, unfortunately, there are currently not enough places at 11+ and it would not be fair on the children. You cannot put all your eggs in the Latymer Upper basket for 11+. If schools like Colet Court or Westminster Under increased their intakes at 11+, we would certainly be open to the idea.

How is the school going to be different from the girls’ school?

The curriculum and approach will be very much the same. We will adapt the teaching methods and the pace of classes a bit as boys can have shorter attention spans and need more change. They also benefit even more from small groups and one-on-one teaching. There will be lots of sports, including Swimming from Reception and games at Holland Park and Barns Elms.

What is your view on tutoring for the 7+/8+?

We try and tell the parents that they are the most important person for their child.  They need to take an active interest in their children’s learning. And we as a school work hard to get parents to trust us that we are already doing what is best for the child. We can provide everything at the school. If they need extension, we do that here, if they need extra Maths help, we can do that here. But when we say “less is more”, we really mean less is more. If we felt more Maths or more worksheets were going to lead to better results we would do it, but they don’t. Children need to have a childhood and they need to be able to go home and play in the sand and get messy after a full day at school.

Another problem with tutoring is that it takes away a child’s ability to work independently. When they enter the exam room, there will be no tutor sitting next to them telling them what to do. We will take our boys to the girls’ school for a mock exam in the autumn term of Year 2 to experience what it is like to go into an unfamiliar building to sit an exam. We also work on building up their confidence and resilience which are so important in this process.

What will be special about the new boys’ school?

The new Falkner House will have the strengths of the original: small, family run and personal, with exceptional teachers, a broad curriculum and the best fundamental educational principles at the heart of the school. There will be the same emphasis placed on camaraderie, good manners and kindness. Every child should have the right both to a happy childhood and the very best education, with the importance of the academics balanced by sport, music and art. Boys will develop their strengths without being hot-housed; they will be prepared for the best possible schools for them at 7+ or 8+ in a sympathetic and supportive fashion. We welcome open dialogue with parents and always have an open door policy.

Should you be interested please call the office at Brechin Place on 020 7373 4501 for more information. The school will be organising group meetings to take place at Falkner House Brechin Place. This is to give people the opportunity to talk to Mrs Dixon and Mrs Griggs about the new school and to ask any questions.

Summer holidays lasting 8 if not 10 weeks are a real challenge for working parents particularly, but luckily London offers great opportunities for school aged children in a wide range of areas. Summer camps can be very neighbourhood specific, so you need to ask around what other classmates are doing. Some schools organise their own holiday activities as well. Here’s is an overview of summer camps and activities that we can recommend or have been recommended by other London parents across London:

Sports

Richmond Gymnastics

The Richmond Gymnastics Association runs professional summer camps for children from Reception age upwards. The camps run on a weekly basis from 9am to 1pm. Henry Lamb Tennis offers summer camps located at Kensington School and Newton Prep School (open to pupils of all schools. Darius Knight offers table tennis summer camps for pupils at Newton Prep, Thomas’s and Knightsbridge School, among a few others. We are also big fans of Love Swimming fast track courses held at the luxurious Dolphin Square gym in Pimlico. Supercamps offer multi activity camps open to all children aged 4+ upwards at St Nicholas Prep School in South Kensington and Putney High School, while Camp Beaumont run multiactivity camps at King’s College Wimbledon.

Drama, Music and Dance

Perform run drama courses from children 4+ to boost their confidence via fun and games. Theatrebugs run drama camps for kids aged 3 – 7, ending in their own performance at the end of the week. Stagecoach is a well established drama programme for kids. While they run term time activities for children aged as young as four, their holiday camps are for children from 8 to 18 only.

London Children’s Ballet offer summer school for children aged 9 – 12 and 12 – 16. The English National Ballet School offers courses for children aged 11 – 14 and 15 – 19. The Kensington Ballet School runs summer courses for little ballerinas each year.

The Place is a professional dance school in Soho that offers a week of contemporary dance sessions for 5 – 7 years olds lasting 2 hours each morning this July.

Little Voices run summer camps for little singers in a variety of locations in London. For your budding musicians, The Strings Club run holiday camps in Hampstead and Balham.

Technology

For the serious techies, FunTech Camps in North London offer a variety of summer camps ranging from JavaCoding to Minecraft in several North London locations and Richmond. Firetechcamp offer technology and coding classes (including Robotics) for children aged 7 – 18 located at Imperial College in South Kensington. Mad Science camps are geared to younger children from 4 upwards and introduce children to the excitement of exploration and experiments. Camps are offered across London. Mini-Engineers run exciting themed LEGO camps in Central London for children between 5 – 11.

For older kids (9+) who want to get into programming, Code Today offers Fundamentals of Programming with Python courses in Hampstead.

Languages

Chelsea Young Writers run acclaimed creative writing workshops run by established children’s authors targeted at age group 7 – 13. CYW’s Imaginarium Club aimed at 9 – 11 year olds will fuse a study of the local natural environment at Holland Park Ecology Centre with the encouragement of a wider artistic appreciation to unleash their creative talents.  The Hua Hsia School in Hampstead offers Mandarin language and Chinese culture camp in July this summer. And for full French immersion, head to Et Patati Patata full day French camps in Fulham W14.

If you’re looking for full day activity camps, Little Forest Folk in Wimbledon come highly recommended. Unfortunately, all their summer camps are booked out already for this year, but keep it in mind for October half-term! For a similar outdoor camp, try First Hand Experiences summer camps in Fulham or Greenwich. In North London, Holiday Academy runs children’s day camps in NW1 London (Camden / Primrose Hill), for children aged 3-12 (in age groups) from all schools. Join them for exciting sessions including music, drama, art, sport and forest school each school holiday.

Other activities

Of course, you may not actually be looking at camps or childcare and just need inspiration for what to do with your children during the holidays. Here are some of our top things to do with your child this London for the perfect “staycation” in London

• book a Westend show like “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, “Mathilda” or “the Gruffalo”
• spend a day outside of London on a farm. Our favourites are Bucklebury farm in Berkshire and Bocketts Farm in Surrey
• A trip to the London Wetland Centre in Barnes is a must!
• a day on the Princess Diana Memorial Playground (come early to beat the crowds!) and/or Battersea Park Zoo
• a creepy crawlies session at the Chelsea Physic Garden or any of their other family activities
• take a ride on the London Eye
• visit the Museum of London Docklands
• spend a day in Greenwich exploring Greenwich Park, Cutty Sark, the National Maritime Museum, the Royal Observatory…
• what are you planning to do in London this summer?

North London Collegiate School, Edgware

And the top secondary school in London is….  the St Paul’s Girls’ School (again)! The second place goes to Westminster School, followed by the North London Collegiate School (as always, it seems). Girls Day School trust (GDST) schools are well presented with two out of the top 20 schools in the ranking (Putney High and SHHS would be the third and fourth GDST schools narrowly missing out on rank 21 and 22 respectively). Other selective state schools such as Tiffin Girls’ School, Henrietta Barnett and Queen Elizabeth School, London’s highly selective grammar schools, also feature near the top of the league tables.

Certainly, one major observation that has to be made is that the league tables probably reflect the level of selectivity of a school more than anything. It is less clear what the value add of each school is, but at least you know which school will attract the highest share of ambitious, hard working and smart children, which is of course also useful information to have.

Several schools have not yet published their results (St Paul’s School, for example, which publishes results only in November), their results will be added in due course. Lady Eleanor Holles School will likely also be in the top 10 once results are released.

One school to watch that is not yet in the top 20 is the Kings College Maths School London,  a selective new free school in South London that offers children A-levels in Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Computer Science and Economics only. 40% of its students are girls. 30% of their leavers got offers to study at King’s College last year, with a further 15-20% getting into Oxbridge. The school has not published the percentage of entries at A*, which is why it is not included here, but 100% of Maths A-Levels were marked A/A* (83% A*), and 77% of Further Maths A-Level entries were marked A/A*.

Top 20 London schools ranked by % of A*’s at 2016 A-levels

GCSE results 2016 will be released on Thursday 25th August, which will provide potentially more up to date info on the ranking of London secondary schools. Since some schools (such as NLCS, King’s College and Godolphin & Latymer, for example) offer their pupils a choice of A-Levels and IB Diploma and many schools accept external candidates into their Sixth Form, GCSE results tend to reflect the quality of a senior school more accurately.

Follow @Londonpreprep

Following the release of last week’s A-Level results, schools across the country have now also released their GCSE results 2016, which enables us to compile a ranking specifically for London day schools. GCSE results give us a more recent picture of how a school is performing, since the pupils who take the exams have usually joined the school at 11+ not too many years ago. A-Level results can also be skewed by the fact that schools have a sizeable new intake into their Sixth Form, or that only some candidates take A-Level exams while others pursue the IB Diploma. For this reason, I consider the GCSE based ranking the best picture of how well a school is doing academically at the moment.

As always, results are ranked by the percentage of entries marked A*, as it is simply too easy in this country to gain an A, so there can be a big difference in a candidate who achieves an A or an A*. A* grades this year were reserved for 6.5% of entries, while 21.7% were marked A. This percentage was down on last year, of course, which caused some stir in many newspapers, but the truth is that if the top mark is awarded to more than 20% of pupils, it really loses its “top mark” quality, so the percentage of A*’s is really what tells you which schools have the highest performing candidates.

While the top 5 in the table are very stable, Notting Hill & Ealing High and Wimbledon High, two GDST schools, have certainly moved up considerably in recent years. Francis Holland Sloane Square has also done really well this year, in fact better than its sister school Regent’s Park, which is supposed to be harder to get into. We’ll find out next year if this is a blip or the beginning of a trend, which would be great. Ibstock Place is the new co-ed school to watch, having climbed to rank 23 for the first time this year. Here are the top 25 senior schools in London, keeping in mind that we are awaiting full results to be published by St Paul’s (Boys’) School, Latymer Upper School and Queen’s Gate School.

Following Helen Pike’s move to Magdelen College Oxford, South Hampstead High School has just announced that Vicky Bingham will take over as Headmistress of SHHS from January 2017.

Kensington Wade, the first dual language English Chinese prep school in the UK is set to open in London 2017.

The school will be the first of its kind and has been founded by Adrian Richardson, founder and principal of the Cothill Trust, together with Professor Hugo de Burgh, an expert on China and cultural relations between China and the UK.

The desire to open a school of this kind has been founded on the belief that future generations will benefit greatly from learning Chinese at an early age and therefore be able to operate in a world in which Chinese will continue to have a strong influence on business, politics and international affairs. Kensington Wade will open its doors in September 2017 to give a head start to youngsters.

Hugo de Burgh said, “Learning Chinese opened another world to me, enriching my life and giving me opportunities I would never otherwise have had. Now I want the next generation to have the same, only earlier. I am delighted to be opening the first immersion dual language English Chinese school in Western Europe and to be able to offer children the opportunity to be educated in two wonderful cultures and education systems. We will instil in our pupils a thirst for enterprise, initiative and creativity balanced with academic excellence, social skills and high cultural empathy”.

Kensington Wade will offer an immersive bilingual education from ages 3 to 13 with a curriculum informed by the successes of both English and Chinese educational cultures. Pupils will be qualified for either the leading British independent schools or the Chinese school system. The school will not only offer dual language education, but also immerse the children in Chinese culture; for example martial arts as part of the sports programme, calligraphy as part of the arts programme and ‘maths mastery’ in the academic mix.

Adrian Richardson said, “In my nearly fifty years of launching and running pre-prep and prep schools, I have been fortunate to see how education has changed and adapted to be as effective as possible including the bilingual Sauveterre, which was the first attempt by an English preparatory school to learn a foreign language by immersion. Albeit for one term only. Learning from the Chinese educational system is just a part of this and the benefits of a bilingual education are invaluable”.

Laura Marani has been appointed has the school’s first headmistress, ex-head at Pembridge Hall School for Girls and founding principal of the bilingual La Scuola Italiana a Londra in Holland Park.

The school will be based in a brand new, state of the art building on Kensington High Street with a 685sq m. sports hall, unusual for such a central London location and a roof top terrace garden for the playground. Registration for the school is open now and please contact www.kensingtonwade.com for more information.

Below is a comprehensive overview of 13+ results at London prep schools. We’re awaiting the publication of several important prep schools and will update accordingly, but most prep schools have already released their 2016 results:

Dulwich Prep
41 scholarships, 87 candidates

Dulwich College 34
Alleyn’s 6
Eton College 3
Harrow 2
King’s College Wimbledon 1
Sevenoaks 2
St Paul’s 1
Westminster 3
Winchester 2

Eaton House the Manor, Clapham
Tonbridge (5)
Eton (4)
Dulwich (4)
Westminster (2)
King’s Wimbledon (2)
Harrow (2)
Radley (2)
One boy is going to each of the following schools: Bradfield, Brighton, Emanuel, Kingston Grammar, Oundle, St Paul’s and Wetherby Senior.

The Hall School, Hampstead
55 boys leaving The Hall to join the following schools: St Paul’s 13, Westminster 12, Eton 7, Harrow 6, City of London 4, UCS 4, Radley 2, Sevenoaks 2, Charterhouse 1, Mill Hill 1, Tonbridge 1, Wellington 1, Winchester 1.

The Hampshire School, Chelsea

Results for 13 candidates

Day Schools
City of London 1
Dulwich College (Sports exhibition) 1
Kew House 1
St James Senior Boys School 1
St Paul’s School 1
The American School 1
Wetherby Senior School 3

13+ Boarding Schools
Haileybury School 1
Frensham Heights School 1
New Hall School 1
Bradfield College 1

Hereward House, Hampstead

• UCS (1)
• City of London School (2)
• Westminster School (3)
• St Paul’s School (4)
• Highgate School (1)
• Eton College (1)
• Brighton College (1)
• Mill Hill School (2)

Hill House International Junior School, Knightsbridge

• Charterhouse 2
• Eton College 2 (1 Music Exhibition)
• Winchester College 1
• Dulwich College 6
• King’s College Wimbledon 3 (including scholarship)
• St Paul’s 2
• Westminster School 5
• Wetherby Senior 8
• UCS 2

King’s House School, Richmond

Emanuel (1)
Hampton (11)
Harrodian (1)
King’s College School (3)
Reeds (1)
Royal Grammer School, Guildford (1)
St. Paul’s (7)

King’s House has also sent boys to the following boarding schools:

Charterhouse (3)
Epsom College (5)
Eton (1)
Radley (1)
Seaford (1
St. John’s, Leatherhead (1)
The King’s School, Canterbury (1)
Wellington (2)
Whitgift (1)
Winchester (1)

Lyndhurst House, Hampstead

Our boys will be attending the following Senior Schools:-  City of London 4, 1 on an Academic Scholarship. Haileybury 1, UCS 2, Oakham 1, St Albans 1 on a Sports Scholarship. Merchiston Castle 1, Mill Hill 2, Wetherby 1 and Westminster 1, through the Westminster Challenge.

Northcote Lodge, Clapham

33 candidates, 3 academic scholarships, 3 music exhibitions. Bradfield 2, Dulwich College 4, Eton 2, Harrow 3, King’s Canterbury 2, Tonbridge 5 plus various others.

Thomas’s Battersea

• Alleyn’s 2
• Bradfield College 1
• Bryanston School 4
• Charterhouse 1
• Dulwich College 6
• Eton 2
• Harrodian 2
• Harrow 3
• Ibstock Place 1
• King’s College Wimbledon 2
• Oundle 1
• Rugby School 1
• Sevenoaks 1
• St Edward’s Oxford 1
• St Paul’s 10
• Stowe School 1
• Wellington 3
• Westminster 3
• Wetherby Senior 1
• Winchester 1

Westminster Cathedral Choir School

• Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School
• Charterhouse
• City of London School for Boys
• Downside School (1 x Music Scholarship)
• Dulwich College x 3
• Eton College
• Harrow School x 3 (1 x Music exhibition)
• King’s School, Canterbury
• London Oratory School
• Radley College
• St Edward’s School, Oxford
• St Paul’s School
• Tonbridge School
• University College School x3
• Wetherby School x 2
• Whitgift School
• Winchester College x 4 (2 x Music Scholarship)

Wetherby Prep, Marylebone

• City (2)
• King’s College Wimbledon (4)
• St Paul’s (5)
• UCS (3)
• Westminster (1)
• Wetherby Senior (15)
• Bradfield (2)
• Bryanston (2)
• Charterhouse (5)
• Eton (9)
• Harrow (5)
• Marlborough (4)
• St Edward’s (1)
• Stowe (3)
• Wellington (2)
• Winchester (1)

Awaiting: Arnold House, Eaton Square, Knightsbridge School, Newton Prep, Thomas’s Clapham

Awaiting: Arnold House, Eaton Square, Knightsbridge School, Newton Prep, Thomas’s Clapham

Head Laura Martin, Graham Able and Ebru Nart

St Anthony’s School for Girls, the new independent Catholic school located at Ivy House, North End Road, NW11, welcomed founding parents, governors, and other guests on the evening of 12 October to celebrate its official opening.

The school is situated on the North End Road (A502) between Golders Green and Hampstead Heath, and it is the sister school to the highly successful St. Anthony’s School for Boys in Hampstead.

Laura Martin, head teacher of St Anthony’s School for Girls, joined by Graham Able, Executive Deputy Chairman of Alpha Plus, the educational group which the school is part of, shared the vision for the school and its aspirations for its pupils.

In her speech to guests, Miss Martin said; “St Anthony’s School for Boys was founded by Richard Patton in the Victorian period, and moved to its current Hampstead location following the Second World War. Here we are in 2016 on the next leg of the St Anthony’s journey, opening the Girls school. I feel extremely privileged to be part of the St Anthony’s name and to have the opportunity to build on the ethos and values which have been integral to the success of the boys’ school.

“I would like to say to our founding parents: your girls are a credit to you and it’s our privilege and our pleasure to teach every one of them. Our girls are our purpose, and they really are exceptional.”

Ebru Nart, a founding parent with a daughter in year 3 commented at the opening event: “Irem my 7 year old daughter moved to St Anthony’s School for Girls from a state school. She came from a very good school, however it is easy to get lost in mainstream education due to the large class sizes. Irem is a bright girl, and I know she will get the attention she needs here to flourish to achieve her full potential. In only 5 weeks since opening the teachers know the girls really well already which is brilliant, and the girls have bonded very well. Irem is really happy here.”

Following the official presentations by Laura and Graham, guests were treated to a tour of Ivy House, a magnificent three story building with a beautiful façade overlooking Golders Hill Park and a large terrace to the rear. It is the former home of the London Jewish Cultural Centre and of the prima ballerina, Anna Pavlova, and was also at one time occupied by the painter JMW Turner.

The building has an impressive area of 12,000 square feet and has undertaken a programme of extensive refurbishment to create the very best teaching space, encompassing 14 classrooms, specialist science, music and art rooms, as well as a multi-purpose hall for dining, drama and other purposes.

St. Anthony’s School for Girls teaches pupils in a Catholic environment, and is inclusive and open to other faiths. The new school will educate girls from age 4 – 11. Classes in Reception and Year 3 opened in September 2016 and growth will be organic after that, with Year 1 and Year 4 opening in September 2017 and so on. The maximum roll will be 280.

Alpha Plus Group owns and operates eighteen first-class independent schools, nurseries and sixth form colleges. The Group stands for excellence in education provision, known as the Gold Standard. By providing first-class learning, children and young people are able to achieve their full potential in a challenging yet secure and caring environment. Teaching throughout the Group combines the best of traditional and modern methods and provides access to the latest classroom technology.

St Anthony’s School for Girls is holding an open day 10.30am – 12.30pm, Saturday 12 November. Parents wishing to attend should contact Registrar, Georgia Hutton on 0208 992 5189, or email admin@falconsgirls.co.uk

Alpha Plus Group is delighted to announce the opening of a new school called Wetherby Kensington. The school will open in September 2017 and will be located at 4 Wetherby Gardens, SW5 0JN, not far from Falkner House School for boys that will be opening on 20 Penywern Road at the same time.

Wetherby Kensington will be a two form, non-selective, pre-preparatory school for boys from Reception to Year 3. It will follow exactly the same curriculum and share the same values and ethos as Wetherby School, and will be an integral part of the Wetherby Group of schools, which also includes Wetherby Preparatory School and Wetherby Senior School.

Miss Helen Milnes has been appointed as the founding Head of Wetherby Kensington. Miss Milnes has been Deputy Head (Pastoral) at Wetherby School for over six years, and has been at the school since 2008.

Graham Able, Executive Deputy Chairman of Alpha Plus Group, comments:

“This is a very exciting addition to the Wetherby family of schools. The model of success which the Wetherby Group has provided is one we know is in great demand among parents, and so we are especially pleased to be opening Wetherby Kensington. We are also delighted to appoint Miss Helen Milnes as the founding Head of Wetherby Kensington. She is an outstanding educator and her experience as Deputy Head (Pastoral) at Wetherby School made her the perfect candidate for the new Headship. She will do a wonderful job of establishing and running the new school.”

The places will initially be filled by children already on the Wetherby waiting list. Parents interested in a place or who would like further information about Wetherby Kensington can contact Wetherby School for further information.

This coming Friday 2nd February is the official deadline for acceptances of 4+ offers at many schools. It is a tough time and parents worry a lot about making the right choice. In surprisingly many cases when parents contact me about schools, they actually have a clear favourite – they love the kids, the Head, the inspection report looks great and so forth – but then someone has told them school B that also offered them a place is officially “better” or more prestigious. They may not have liked it when they visited or it may be a 30 minutes drive from their house, but the other school is supposed to be “better”, so would they be foolish to turn it down?

The beauty of London is that we do have so much choice, and many families are relatively flexible in terms of location, so I see more and more parents applying all over the place, and then having to choose between schools that are located in Harrow, Notting Hill, Putney and Dulwich. And people ask me “but which school is the best? It does not matter where!”. It is hard to believe that it does not matter where, given that most people have friends in certain neighbourhoods and jobs to commute to. You will also find that some schools outside of London are excellent academically but may be filled with kids from families who know each other since generations, which may make it hard for the child to fit in.

The other downside of families applying from all over the place is that a small number of sought after schools are suddenly getting a ridiculous amount of applications, as many as 300 or 400 applications for 30 or 40 places. Of course, many people will be disappointed. I feel it is really important people understand what a random process it can be when the children involved are 3 or 4. You simply cannot count on your child getting in, no matter how brilliant they are, and I always advise parents to have a non-selective backup choice so they don’t need to stress.

In my observation, non-selective schools with smaller class sizes can actually be a fantastic choice for a wide range of kids. They work very hard to get the best out of each child, whereas highly selective schools can be relatively laid back, as the kids are so advanced when they start school anyway. When you visit excellent non-selective schools and look at what their kids do, you will be surprised to see many of their children working at the same if not a higher level than kids in schools that select by 4+ assessment, so don’t think a school is not good for bright children just because it is non-selective.

When you are already talking about very good schools to begin with, it is impossible to say which one is “better” as an outsider. I have been asked in recent days if Falkner House or Kensington Prep is better, if Haberdasher Aske’s is better than Latymer Upper, and if Westminster Under is better than St Paul’s Junior? There is no obvious answer to these questions without looking at the child, first and foremost, and family circumstances.

In summary, what I recommend parents to focus on would be the following:

• your personal impression of the school during your visits: did the kids look calm and happy? Were they enthusiastic and confident? Were the staff friendly and at ease? How did they interact with the children, each other and the parents?
• speak to parents with kids at the school. I must add that it is very personal and you can get completely opposite stories about the same school, so take these stories with a grain of salt, but if a particular complaint comes up many times, there is probably an issue.
• check the inspection report. It is not everything but it will give you confidence and highlight any issues there might be
• look at the leavers’ destinations. Don’t get too hung up with exact numbers and percentages, as they vary from year to year and reflect the level of selectivity of a school as much as the quality of teaching, but you would at least want to see some kids moving on to the sort of senior schools you might be aiming for eventually
• check the sibling policy. If you have a younger child, be aware that not all schools offer automatic entry for siblings.

Good luck making that decision! If it makes you feel better, I can assure you that once you are inside a school, you will realise that it is all about the 11+ (or the 7+ if your child is at a pre-prep), and then one day you will realise that what really matters is what university you go to rather than which school you went to, and then one day your child will realise they still need to get a job one day, so there is a long way to go. When I was last choosing between two schools and fretting over the decision, I realised after studying both carefully that my daughter would probably end up at the same secondary school no matter which of these two prep schools she came from, so I chose the one that is close to my house and where I knew she would be happy, and that is the approach I would recommend most people to take.

A good friend recently sent me a link to a place called the London School of Mathematics and Programming (London SMP) offering “early intellectual development” classes for children as young as 3 or 4, asking me if I had heard of them and what my opinion was? “Here we go again”, I thought, just another of the myriad of preschool classes designed to prepare children for 4+ assessments or 7+ exams. Then I studied the website and course contents further, read up about the school’s founder and director, Anastasia Stone, and was so impressed that I texted my friend back “I think this is the real thing!”. My prayers have been heard. Having heard of the successful Russian School of Mathematics (RSM) in the US, I had long been looking for a similar initiative in the UK. Little did I know that an even more intriguing school had opened and quickly expanded on my doorstep. Excited about this discovery, I met Anastasia Stone and her partner Fred in January to learn more about the school, its history as well as its future in person.
Anastasia Stone’s involvement with Mathematics and Science goes back to her childhood. As a teenager, she took part in numerous Maths Olympiads and started tutoring Maths at the age of 15. She obtained a First Class Honours degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from St Petersburg State University and then went to work in investment banking and corporate finance, moving to London in 2008. While initially coaching children for their 11+ exams here, she founded the London SMP in 2013, convinced that the UK would benefit from a ‘Russian approach’ to Maths education. What does that mean?

“The first observation I made when moving here and teaching Maths”, she explains, “was the different way in which children handle challenging Maths problems. When children faced a question they did not know the answer to, I was surprised by how many would either skip the question, despair or cry”. This was opposed to the Russian problem-solving approach where Maths is not seen as a set of “Maths facts” to memorise but a way of breaking down problems and finding possible solutions creatively.

While initially running camps and courses in various locations, the school found a permanent home in High Street Kensington in 2015, opening a Russian school of Mathematics and Programming. As word spread, it was time to add courses in English, leading to the opening of the English branch of the London SMP at Notting Hill Gate in September 2016. Currently, there are 100 kids per week enrolled at the Russian School and 80 per week at the English school (and counting). In late February 2017, another hub is set to open, running weekend classes at the Grey Court School in Richmond.

Anastasia was especially proud to tell me the story of a group of 8 year olds in one recent class who tried to find as many different solutions as possible to one problem. By the end of the session, the group had found 14 different ways of solving it. The emphasis is very much on solving puzzles in creative ways and learning strategies for how to deal with unusual problems. The classes are therefore not tied to the UK Maths curriculum but teach kids systematic thinking and problem solving, as well as finding proofs.

Another emphasis of the school is to make Maths fun by hosting Maths Battles and robotics competitions the same way it would be done in sports clubs. London SMP teams have competed in Maths battles against teams from various grammar schools (from Sutton and High Wycombe, most recently, as well as partner Maths clubs from Russia), and their team is also due to compete against teams from a selection of top independent schools in May, providing a strong incentive for participants to prepare for the competition.

Selecting staff who can inspire children is a key priority for the school. How do they go about it? “When I was a private tutor I started to identify brilliant people who I wanted to work alongside. Having likeminded people who are passionate about their subject and willing to share their knowledge is key. Our staff come from both academia and the corporate world and must always be a good role models for our students. To date all our staff have come through mutual connections, recommendations and their interest in the school.”

To provide the right environment for debates and discussions, maths clubs take the form of small classes (no more than 12 pupils in a class led by a teacher and a teaching assistant) where children may be further divided into groups to work on specific problems. The problems set often look more like games or questions of logic rather than serious mathematical challenges.

For younger children (aged 3 -7), the London School of Mathematics and Programming offers courses in Early Intellectual Development, and for those aged 7+, independent courses in Mathematics, Programming and Robotics. The aim is to help children understand and love mathematics and coding, be inventive, open-minded and strive to think outside the box. You can register for a trial lesson here.