LD: Hello Sebastian! A lot our parents from the website will be getting their children ready to start school in September after the summer holidays. With this in mind, what tips you can give them to prepare their children for nursery?
SH: The biggest challenge nursery staff have is how much independence a child has when they initially start, for example are they potty trained, are they ready to be away from their parents, can they navigate around the school with some relative independence on their own going from A to B. As parent, you have to look at your child first and foremost and ask yourself if your child is ready to be away from the home situation. On most occasions, parents will say “yes” and a morning session can work well. Others will be less sure and say “kind of” - their child may not be totally potty trained and will then need to look at the nursery in question and its requirements for this.
If a parent feels their child is not ready, but feels pressured to start in September because the child’s age is right, then I think they should stop and fundamentally look at the child’s maturity and ask themselves if is it essential they start in September or whether it would be better to start in January, and discuss these options with the Head.
Potty training has been in the news recently where it has been highlighted that teachers are having to stop educating children because of time out taking children to the bathroom. What are your views on this?
That is true, but depends on the nursery. If a nursery is clear in its literature about what it wants or what is appropriate when a boy or girl joins them, then they should be geared up for any eventuality. If a nursery states they will accept children who are only potty trained but take in children who are not, that is not the fault of the children, but the nursery and its policy.
When would you recommend parents put their child's name down and start viewing nurseries?
I think many nursery schools are oversubscribed, so the sooner the better, certainly within the first 2-3 months perhaps whereby the parent can get a sense of what the pressures and places are early on.
Are there any assessments or tests the child has to take prior to starting with you?
No, not in our nursery; as long as they are potty trained for us, that is all we would require.
What is the staff ratio in your nursery setting?
This varies, but for us we probably have around 30/40 children in a nursery setting, obviously not all at one time, that would be split between a morning and an afternoon session.For under 3’s it is 1 teacher to every 4 children. All of our nurseries are multi rooms, with a multi space and smaller rooms within them.
Is there an automatic entrance into your pre-prep, and do you prepare the children for this?
Yes, there is automatic entry. We work with children with a view of the curriculum being introduced into reception. In our nursery this works well because our staff know exactly what our curriculum is going to be, but within the independent sector, there is a degree of flexibility in terms of what is taught at different times within that school.
For parents it’s worth them looking at whether the nursery has a pre-prep attached to it, and therefore whether it will prepare their child for that transition. In terms of the transfer into pre-prep, our staff will be assessing children in the last year of nursery on a very gentle, low-key basis.
Children from external nurseries have a different process to ours whereby we invite them in on a particular morning for a group session of activities.
What are you looking for at these sessions for children from external nurseries?
We look at the child’s social interaction with others. We do not do any testing. They will be invited to attend for perhaps an hour or an hour and half, during which they will be interacting in groups of maybe 5 or 10 others whilst we watch them at play. We receive a report from the nursery school and based on that, an offer is made or not. I am aware, however, that other schools have a more stringent entry process.
The entry process can make parents very anxious which can sometimes transfer to the child, but ultimately every parent wants to make sure their child is happy. What are your thoughts on this?
Yes I agree, and absolutely endorse this, and encourage parents to also recognise academic success is not as important than the child’s happiness ultimately.
What skills do you believe are essential for a child growing into a young adult and entering the working world?
A pupil, as a young adult in 10 or 20 years time, will need to be adaptable as much as anything else. He or she must be a good communicator and work well in a team. Lots of jobs that currently exist will no longer exist, and the idea of someone having a life-long career in one job will become less common.
Has the Eaton Square group taken this into consideration it its teaching?
Yes, we continue to look at those communication skills and working in groups and being adaptable, at the same time, we still need to continue with a good education that we know works, but looking ahead as well.
The change in use of technology means we also have to look at how much time our children spend on their phones, with their iPads etc.
Studies of early years education suggest children are losing the ability to communicate and read people and that they are finding it much more difficult to communicate because they are not used to it.
How many children do you invite externally into the pre-prep?
We take about 35%.
And then going from your pre-prep to your prep?
It is expected the children will go through from the pre-prep to the prep. We are not a stand-alone prep, so within Eaton Square as a group, one can join a nursery at two and a half years and by the time that child is 18, they would have gone all the way through the Eaton Square group, unlike schools which have pre-preps that finish at the end of Year 2 or Year 3 when they have to make a jump, so we are not preparing them for 7+ or 8+. Our preparation for transfer comes in Year 5 into Year 6 for the 10+ or 11+ when they have to prepare for their 13+ exit or 11+ exit if that’s what they want.
Are you still preparing pupils even though they have the opportunity to stay on?
Yes, because we provide a choice for parents. If a child wants to move to another school, you want to be able to give them the choice to do just that or stay.
Do you find there are any particular trends, for example, boys and girls going off to boarding schools more or hoping to stay in London day schools?
It depends where you are really. Within Eaton Square there was an increase in boys leaving at 13+ and going into boarding schools.
Boarding is fantastic, and also I think because there are few strong boys schools within London, the alternative is to go to a boarding school. In the last year or so, we as well as Fulham prep are opening senior schools and providing more choice, which may impact the number of pupils going to boarding schools.
Is there anything you would like to add about the new location of the school?
It’s exciting; pupils can join at Year 7 or Year 9. We are a coed school based in Mayfair, and in fact there are no other senior schools in Mayfair.
We have very good transport links, and the vast majority of pupils come to school on their own. We currently have Year 7, Year 8 and Year 9. From September we will be going up to Year 10. In September 2018 we will have 160 pupils on roll.
It’s a school that provides a very strong education and has a mixed ability group, which is very important.
There are very high-powered schools in London and few with mixed ability. And that is something we pride ourselves on being.
What sports facilities do you have?
We use Green Park for recreational activities at lunch time currently and go to Hyde Park for ballgames. We also use nearby sports centres for all sports which one would usually play there (swimming, gymnastics, badminton, squash, fencing, basketball, etc), in addition to having our own sports grounds in Acton, which pupils use twice a week, and our boat house on Fulham Reach.
Sebastian, thank you for taking the time to talk with me.
Comments