LD: Hello, Frances. Thank you for inviting me here today at Godolphin & Latymer. It always amazes me coming here because it’s so big. The facilities are absolutely phenomenal. Every time I come, there’s something new.
FR: Yes, it’s like a Tardis. You don’t think it’s going to be that big, but when you come through the gates, it just grows and grows.
You’ve been here a year now. Congratulations! That’s fantastic. What is the process and what are you looking for in someone coming here?
There’s no getting away from the fact this is a pretty serious academic school, so we are highly selective at entry. That said, we try to be incredibly human about the process, so for instance, every girl gets an interview, and that can be done either before the tests or after. We try to be quite holistic about it, and our ideal Godolphin girl is someone who, whilst being strongly academic, grabs lots of other opportunities as well. We have a fabulous sporting programme, the creative side is strong and increasingly we are looking at entrepreneurship life skills. I can’t tell you any more other than the entrance test is really important, and they have to be able to shine. The interview is more of a conversation with them, exploring a bit more about them, seeing how they respond to new ideas. And it’s something they should absolutely not prep for. We have found girls that are very tightly prepped often aren’t often able to have that conversation; they just want to churn out what they have prepared.
Lots of parents—not so much children—are terrified of the interviews because children don’t always converse with adults freely, so we try to explain to them, ‘well actually they do, when they see family during the holidays, they will often ask them what’s happening at school…’
Yes, and that is the best prep for interview because a normal adult interaction…
I think once you have that information, you can deal with it. It’s the unknown that can cause fear.
Yes, parents should rest assured in the way they have brought up their child, the girls are super articulate.
You have the new exam coming up in January. Do you feel this will still show you the brilliance of the girl?
I’m really positive about the new exam. It doesn’t come from a point that we wanted to select a different type of girl and devised a new kind of access. Absolutely not. We wanted to, above all, take the stress out of the 11+ system as much as we could. Quite simply, if you did both consortiums groups, literally there would be thousands of girls around London who were doing four exams in January—two Maths and two English—and that’s now collapsed down into one shorter one, so I think that helps.
Also, particularly the old English test, was pretty susceptible to training, and lots of schools were doing endless practice for this in years 5 and 6, which probably yielded results, but limited what the girls were actually learning. We are trying to ensure this is a test, which is very much accessible without training, so those junior schools can just get on and give the girls a fabulous primary education.
I think it’s a good idea to take out any form of stress, when you look at the number of young adults who now have mental illness as a result of the pressure. If we can help alleviate that, it is a good thing.
Once the girls are here, can you talk about the different types of things they are able to do?
Well, Godolphin & Latymer is a busy school, and one of the things that struck me when I started is that there is so much on offer. With sports, they get a lot of choices. We have pitches on site, which is brilliant, and in 2015, we opened a fabulous new sports hall. So the offering is wide and broad, in that even though we field a lot of teams, we often do really, really well. We are often regional or county champions in lots of age groups. We ensure every girl who wants to be in a team is; it’s a sport for all ethos, and fabulous coaching for the elite. We’ve got ex-national players in netball, a rowing squad that does incredibly well, hockey is tiptop at the moment and the girls really are thriving. Girls cricket is a growing thing nationally, and again we are doing strongly there.
The thing I’m most proud of is the participation rate, which continues to be really good right the way through. We see that at the end with a lot of girls who go off to the U.S., and some of them go on to fabulous sports scholarships. Last year we won three sports awards to universities: Yale, Princeton, Columbia. One in rowing and two in athletics.
My youngest and eldest also want to go to America, and it fascinates me how much work there is and the difference between the British University and the American University. At this age—their GCSEs—they are looking at SAT, ACTs, the community service and so on.
I love the American system, because we have that very broad basis and we try to encourage that community involvement. What the American Universities are asking for is, as it were, our perfect Godolphin girl, whereas the British University is much more academic. The American application forms ask some great questions. One of my favourites is ‘how do you react to setbacks?’ Isn’t that an important question? Because this person is going to lead and make something of their life and will have to react well to setbacks.
Following on from that point of leadership, how do you give girls that leadership role here?
This is a school where a lot is run by the girls, particularly the older girls, and we have big clubs and society programmes. In most cases—with a teacher in the background and taking ultimate responsibility—the girls will lead. The other thing that is fabulous in a girls’ school is that every leadership position goes to a girl and is great at empowering them. The girls come up with some great ideas and initiatives. For example, my favourite initiative from last year was a group of older girls wanted to do veterinary science applications and have a weekly club that assisted girls with veterinary aspirations and invite speakers in. They called it Wild Aspirations and regularly get 30 or so girls who want to explore that area more fully.
Which is amazing! And for all of those girls to have a possible interest, what a wonderful opportunity to explore that and decide if it’s for them or not.
Moving onto music and the creative side…
I think every week we have about 200 individual music lessons going on with any instrument you can think of, at different groups levels. The same with art and drama. It’s done at different levels, and send a small number of girls go off to art foundation courses. Some will go on to the academic route afterwards with a normal degree course; some will take a degree in an area or art or design. The final shows of the A level & IB students are just incredible.
Would you say you have noticed much more of a move towards creativity with this generation?
Yes, absolutely, and I think they know that it is going to be a key skill for them. Technology will actually strip away many jobs that professional people used to do, but as yet, technology can’t create. That is still very much a human skill. It can’t problem-solve in a creative, social way, and we try to prepare them for a world that is as much about their soft skills as their ability to do a maths exam. I don’t think they are going to have the type of linear careers our generation had.
For girls who do not necessarily want to take on that leadership role and step forward, do you find, whilst they are seeing a whole host of others initiating things, they in turn want to become that way? How do you deal with that?
I think it does rub off, actually. I don’t think we get a group of girls who are just following. Most of them do find a niche. It might be a smaller one, or not as high profile, and we encourage them to find an area where they can shine and thrive and be solution lead. It’s very easy to come up with lots of issues, but can they find a solution.
I think it’s incredibly important if you have a boy or girl who is quite happy to be out of the limelight, to get them to come out of themselves, believe in themselves and shine.
A lot of our approaches here are very individual, particularly with learning. It’s very cutting edge. Schools can fall into a trap where one size fits all. It’s very important to understand the learning strategies for one individual will be different than the learning strategies for the person sitting next to them.
And how does the IB run with the British System?
That’s a really good question, and I am thrilled we offer both and want this to continue. The school does not have an agenda as to which one the girl follows. It’s my firm belief any Godolphin girl could successfully do both.
I think they attract slightly different types. For an individual student, there probably is a best route, but we want her to sort out which it is. The IB is growing, and I think the reason for that is the IB programme is more holistic, so all the things we’ve been thinking and talking about—like making the connections between subjects—you have to do that in IB. Whereas in A Level, if you do Maths, Chemistry and Biology let’s say, you keep them completely separate. No one says, ‘have you thought about how Biology and Chemistry relate to each other?’ You do them as three separate subjects. And then you have all the other things wrapped into the IB—the volunteering, creativity, the sport—all of those things form part of the diploma. You can do them in the A Level programme, but you have to add them on and they are not wrapped into the actual programme. I think, particularly for our girls applying to American Universities, the IB gives them what they need.
Do you think, generations ago, we just didn’t send our children to the U.S. and therefore our universities need to update themselves?
I think they are really getting to grips with IB. When British Independent Schools started to do the IB, probably about 15 years ago now, our universities got it wrong. They have since changed their thinking and know what the level is now, but we are finding that some—such as Edinburgh, Bath, Kings London—are giving preferential offers for the IB, and that’s because they feel the IB prepares you so well for undergraduate work and the broad holistic thinking it supports.
Do you think also, looking at a British university, depending on what you are doing, you have 2-3 days maximum a week you are there, whereas if you are an undergrad, you are there for 4 years, and it’s every day like school.
Yes, an IB is a much fuller programme.
If you had to describe what a Godolphin girl is, how would you describe her?
I think she’s very, very able. I think she seizes opportunities. And I think she has seriously considered her personal development whilst here and has a set of life skills behind her.
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