LD: Hello Huw. Thank you for inviting me to Eaton House school today. It's always a pleasure returning to Eaton House and seeing all the old faces.
Can you tell me all about the school expansion?
HM: Yes, we are adding Yr 4, 5 & 6 to this building. We opened the prep school in September, though not as a traditional prep school. The Vale School at Elvaston place was earmarked to evolve into a prep school, growing organically. There are a number of children already there at pre-prep ages who will go on to grow into that.
So, you still have children over there?
Yes, but then we attained planning to change the use of 2 flats at the top of this building in Belgravia, which allows for up to 8 more rooms, and we realised we could have the prep school and the pre-prep school all on one site, allowing us to offer parents the opportunity to go from nursery to Yr 6 (11+) in one building.
That has been a bit of a mindset change for some parents who joined the school on the 7+ / 8+ ticket, which is what the school does very well indeed, so we’ve reassured parents and that option still remains, but now, they have the added option to go to 11+, and or then move to our sister school in Clapham taking them onto 13+ if wanted.
And you have a bus to take them?
Yes, that’s already in existence because traditionally boys from here went to the Manor to finish off their prep school age. It takes them in the morning and brings them back at the end of the day.
At what age do you accept children here now?
When they turn 3, and that's on a first come first served basis rather than by assessment. But places are limited and go very quickly. At the moment, we only accept 16 children.
Do they automatically go into reception?
Fairly automatically. If any learning difficulties are identified during that year, we will discuss this with the parent. We still remain an academically fast-paced school which most boys cope with well. Learning difficulties are usually not abundantly clear until Yr 2.
We are looking to update the school in the move via the development stage, to go back to something like it used to be in the 1930’s where one side of the building was pre-prep, and the other prep. We also have the capacity to open up another room for nursery, which could allow spaces to go up to possibly 24 with an outside area.
Will you still continue to get boys ready for the 7+ and 8+ exams?
Absolutely, yes.
A lot of schools are cutting out examples/intakes and certain age groups. What do you find is the biggest exit group that you have here?
As the prep school hasn’t been opened, the biggest exit group currently is Yr 3. However, there are a handful of boys who have decided to remain with us and enter Yr 4 in September. There are a number of parents lower down the school who have also indicated they will be staying with us into the prep.
Will you then change how you teach them academically?
No not really, because the boys all benefit from the development of exam technique, whether they are doing 7+ or 8+ or our own internal tests. They will all benefit what we call, “content teaching” within a framework of exam technique, for example, how you use your time, key things you need to look at when analysing a question.
One of the things we’re working on is developing what I call “Exam Mastery”, which is basically look at any question and tell me exactly what that question is asking you to do. If you can do that, your 99% there.
There will be some boys who do not operate at quite the pace we want them to, this is taken into account via our streaming.
And what about boys coming into the prep school at 7 and 8?
It will only be at 8+
And what tests do they have to sit?
The normal rigorous 8+ like everybody else. Maths, English, Verbal Reasoning, story writing and an activity too because we want to make sure the boy is of a good academic profile and that their character fits Into the school. We have thought about how we can make this a little bit more human, and that’s why we have brought in the activity morning. We do look at the academics and reports that comes to us, but we also look at potential.
Will you be having one class of Yr 4 coming in, or 2?
We will have two classes of Yr 4,( 16 boys).
The pre prep is reducing down to 3 classes, and then the prep school, which we are going to indicate from Yr 3 which is going to be part of the prep school, will be 2 classes. We still expect a class to go at 7+ which has been the traditional exit, especially to St Paul's and King's.
St Paul's in particular is a favourite with our parents, so we would still expect to lose a class.
What do you think about schools like St Paul's that are giving the exams earlier now than everybody else?
Well, they say they will adjust their expectations, but they are still only picking the best academic boys.
Last year I spoke to the headmistress of St Paul’s who explained that she wanted all exams finished earlier so that parents could enjoy their Christmas holiday.
This is great, but it does make the whole process extremely quick in terms of the amount of time we have to teach what is required to year 1 students.
And so is sports still taken at Battersea Park?
Yes, also the Queen Mother Leisure Centre, Hyde Park, we do 3.5 hours of sport a week.
Which is fantastic, because I know myself, boys need that.
They do, and they also have the option to do an hour on top of that at sports clubs, so they can if they wanted, do 8.5 hour of sport a week but 3.5 hours of that is built into the curriculum, 5 can be optional extra.
And what sports do you offer?
We offer rugby, football, cross county, hockey, tennis, swimming, dodge ball, gymnastics, cricket and then athletics.
From experience I know you have always given the boys a form of leadership or a goal to aim for a position of authority, whether that be going over to the Chelsea Pensioners and helping with the community or some form of leadership within the school Is that something you still do?
Yes, in fact we have expanded it. It’s not just the Yr 3s, but the kindergarten, Yr 1 and Yr 2.
They can be representatives on our Eco Council, and the school council, which is basically, the Parliament for the school. The boys who want to be part of that have to put a little mission statement together, give that to their class, and their class vote them in.
The staff decide the Yr 3 monitors, but everyone in Yr 3 has the opportunity to become one, and I believe they all relish the opportunity and rise to the challenge! We try match their talent to the monitor role, so there’s no misfit.
And you see that as a confidence boost?
Yes absolutely, they take their roles very seriously and even have job descriptions. They are very keen to do it right and be responsible, which is great to see.
It is really important, particularly as we don't know what jobs our children will have in the future, so having the opportunity to develop confidence and leadership skills is critical.
Yes we encourage them to be empowered and show initiative, which can be taken into school life but also after when they leave.
Some schools are introducing iPads for certain work - is that something you are doing here?
At the prep school they have tablets and virtual reality headsets. This school is having wi-fi fitted over the summer holidays, so we will bring those headsets and tablets here.
The headsets have proved invaluable because they allow the children to escape into a different world The 3D films that these headsets have are just completely immersive, so for the topic work, our science work, our story settings for example in English, are transformed allowing the children’s imaginations to run riot. They are good tools.
Testing is going that way as well, a lot of testing is doing on a computer and is adaptive, which for this age group is a little bit of a challenge because they see it as a game.
There are still pencil and paper tests, but some schools, for example Westminster, are using testing via screens with rapid feedback. I’ve recently appointed someone as a Director of Future Schools who will be focusing on liaising with our feeder schools ensuring we are dovetailing our curriculum to ensure we are preparing students for their next steps.
I have noticed that schools appear to be changing the testing yearly, which makes it difficult for parents to keep up.
Yes, absolutely, schools do publish on their websites the curriculum they are testing but in reality I see them go beyond this. I see boys who we thought would be successful not be and see other boys outperform them.
What about questions they are sometimes asked at interviews? It seems the questions can be very grown up for an 8 year old.
Yes, they are; they are very inference-based now. Gone are the days of open-ended questions. I do a workshop for parents for 7+ and 8+ where we talk about the process and timeline, so that they are completely up to speed with the process.
They assume it’s the school that does this when in fact it’s the parents' responsibility to go through the process of choosing and applying to schools. Though we write the reference and prepare the child, the rest is down to the parent.
Thank you for taking the time to talk to me, Huw
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