WHAT? WHERE?

A co-ed Pre-School and Pre-Prep, and two single sex Prep schools, all come under the Broomwood umbrella. They occupy three separate but neighbouring sites in leafy south-west London taking pupils from 3-13.

To explain, there’s Little Broomwood, the new co-ed Pre-School, which shares one of two large Victorian buildings with the co-ed Pre-Prep. Girls and boys then divide at Year 4 (but from 2024 it will be Year 3) and move into one of the two sites that are just down the road. With me? It has become simpler in the last year – once with different names, uniforms, timetables and cultures, the three sites are now being brought together under the ‘Broomwood’ name (the boys were Northcote Lodge and the girls Broomwood Hall) and in 2021 the school was taken over by Dukes Education, a group that owns 28 schools, many in SW London but also abroad.

So, lots of changes afoot but all for the better with a general modernising of the schools – out with natty red chino shorts for the boys and red cardi for the girls, and instead a smart navy plaid shorts or skirt. In with a mix of modern Oxford and Cambridge blues sports kit (why not get them accustomed to it?), out with old tartan carpets in the hallways and in with a new swishy wallpaper and light, bright pastels.

Wander around the Little Broomwood building ‘The Vicarage’ and you get a taste of what’s to come across the school, site, with soft pistachio greens, dusky salmon pink, open spaces and striking art installations including pieces by local artists hanging in the loos! You still hear the odd reference to the ‘Shell’ over at the boys school instead of ‘Year 4’, but it’s a modern education that’s on offer here (even if the libraries do look like a country house drawing room). By modern I mean integrating mental wellbeing into the curriculum as well as mixing boys with the girls for orchestra, co-ed sports matches, and academic and creative workshops, with more to come. Broomwood has a solid reputation for its destination schools and scholarships (21 last year) and while it is not selective at Pre-Prep, new recruits from Year 3 have an assessment day and interview. The pupils number 319 boys and 316 girls with average class sizes of 17-20 and it’s a three-acre site in all across the converted Victorian red brick town houses, playgrounds and sports pitches.

FACILITIES

The three sites all have their own facilities so children can spend most of the day in one place but there is some sharing for certain activities. Starting with the littlies, the Pre-Prep site and pre-school, Little Broomwood, has its own spacious outdoor play area and mini sports pitch that was new in 2022 (with obligatory mud kitchen!), as well as a multi-use hall for assemblies, meals, music and drama, plus there’s music rooms, and libraries in both buildings.

The girls’ prep definitely wins on the playground front with a gorgeously landscaped space that has some climbing equipment, table tennis tables and seating areas amidst the greenery in a bucolic setting that belies its urban location. They’ve also come up trumps with the best DT room (which the boys come over to use) and have undertaken projects like making their own house colours badges using the 3D printer. There’s also a spacious refurbished drama suite, a hall with pull out seating and rigging, a bright, light music suite, well-equipped cookery room (again used by the boys also) and a modern, bright art studio with floor-to-ceiling windows. The amphitheatre has recently had an upgrade and is used for outdoor assemblies and performances, then there’s three science rooms – a subject that’s given a good proportion of the classroom space on both sites.

Over at the boys’ school, the art room is also spacious with pleasingly paint-splattered tables and inspiring work on the walls. There’s a central sports pitch/playground and another one out front but neither has play equipment – it’s all about football, basketball or table tennis at break time. Or boys can head to the library for some serious country house vibes, relaxing with a book on the bay window seat. The IT suite is cool, spacious and well equipped and the Year 4 (soon to be Year 3) classrooms under the hall have been cleverly designed with a glass-roofed corridor giving them light and avoiding that smelly, dark prep school corridor feel. The music block is a cute brick cottage and hummed with the beat of drums when I arrived – a popular instrument here alongside sax and piano among many others.

SPORT

It’s not easy for a city school to excel in sport but Broomwood makes the most of its space with small-scale PE on astro playgrounds then games over the road on the common or beyond at Tooting Bec Athletics Track or King George’s Park for extra netball, rugby and football. The outcomes are testament, with five sports scholarships awarded this year and triumph in football for the boys and hockey and netball for the girls in the Brighton Pelican Cup, a County champs title in cricket and sports tours to Malaga for the netballers or Sri Lanka for the cricketers. It’s not all about the sporting crowd though – every child will get a chance to play in matches and for swimmers there’s a weekly squad session at a local pool from Year 3. Unusual for a city school again – Broomwood organises its own cricket festival using the grounds at Wellington College and introduced a football one last year, holding it at Epsom College.

MUSIC & DRAMA

With orchestras across the schools, choirs and 75% of children taking instrumental lessons here, music isn’t to be sniffed at – the Pre-Prep kids have two lessons a week learning theory as well as singing, and while smaller concerts are in the school halls, the bigger events happen at the grand St Luke’s Church near Little Broomwood.

There are copious chances to perform – the boys have a ‘soirée’ every half term which is much talked about among the musicians, then there’s recitals, rock bands, and the ever-popular inter-house music competition. Three drama scholarships were awarded to Broomwood students last year and it shows – the Pre-Prep has form and year group shows as well as poetry recitals and theatre trips while further up the school there’s multiple musicals each year, a drama trip to New York and LAMDA exam opportunities.

ACADEMICS

There’s no streaming until Year 5 and only in maths, but Reception children are divided by birthday into two classes to give the younger ones more support where needed; then after that pupils can be divided into ability groups for classroom activities.

Latin starts in Year 6. At the boys school Mr Smith, the Latin teacher, is a favourite among the pupils and credited with creating a love amongst pupils for the language. Passionate linguists can combine Latin with both Spanish and French if they wish or drop it in favour of ‘Core Skills’ which is a chance for extra support in English and Maths.

There’s a nurturing and fun vibe here with pupils at ease around campus but the focus is undoubtedly academic and more often walls are decorated with plaques of scholarships and achievements than daubed with pupils’ work – you’re most definitely here to get into a good school, though with 58 destinations achieved in the past between the girls and boys, there’s plenty of choice.

While many go from Broomwood to traditional public schools like Marlborough, Wellington, Bradfield and Dulwich, it also faces the usual prep school challenge of retaining the Year 7 and 8s and not losing them to independents, grammars and state schools after Year 6 (around a third leave at this point every year). Because most are tested at this point, there’s also the knack of finding them something enriching and motivating to do without the goal of exams at the end. The approach is to keep them busy with a broad-based curriculum, life skills and wellbeing and the concept of EPQ style projects to boost research, collaboration and presentation skills. Forget 13+, they’re already coaching the kids in what employers will be looking for.

LITTLIES AND PRE-PREP

The day I visited, a sports teacher was delivering her PE lesson at the Pre-Prep, likewise drama and French teachers will come across and teach the littlies too. By the end of the Pre-Prep, children will be familiar with a few of the Prep teachers, classrooms and the older pupils thanks to house competitions and events. They will also have a buddy from Year 8 when they join the Prep in Year 3 – instant playground kudos.

WRAPAROUND CARE

‘Early waiters’ can arrive from 7.45am though there are plans afoot to bring in a breakfast club for earlier drop-offs. Everyone else comes at 8am-8.30am for an 8.30-8.50am start. The Pre-Prep day finishes at 3-3.30pm with clubs offered til 4.45pm then an external provider, Junior Adventures Group, which the school has a longstanding relationship with, comes in to offer care on site until 6pm. They also run kids camps at the site over the summer, which is handy for working parents as many of the Broomwood lot are. Over at the Prep, lessons finish at 4pm, then there’s prep (they do their homework at school – result) until 5.20pm or clubs up til 6.20pm.

EXTRA-CURRICULAR

There are clubs a-plenty here as well as the opportunity to try out various sports as part of PE alongside the music, drama and art provision. The boys and girls both have an above-average success rate with karate thanks to the leadership of the deceptively named Sensei Lavender, who gets them efficiently up to black belt ability. There’s also the quirky – shooting is available at the boys school (in the hall with pellet guns), then there’s flamenco dancing, coding, digital art, golf, knitting, fencing and chocolate club among the 50+ options delivered on site and mostly by in-house staff.

THE HEADS

There’s a head for each of the three sites, with the boys’ Head, Kevin Doble (above), overseeing Broomwood as a whole. With a long career in education he has the air of a stately head but with enough dry wit and approachability to not be too formidable for the boys. Louisa McCafferty (below) is in her third year as Head of the girls and interim Pre-Prep head while Caron Mackay is on maternity. Like Kevin, her drive is for a more joined up co-ed environment and overturning the view of the school as a traditional Prep.

Through residentials, orchestras, sports day, off-timetable days every term and trips, the plan from both Heads is for a joined-up approach but with a single sex focus, with the belief that the support and approach that girls and boys need can be different in the classroom. It very much feels like they’re on the same page with the increased co-operation between the schools and joined up thinking, something that can only be a benefit to both as they share expertise and good practice, coupled with the huge investment coming in across the sites over the coming years.

PASTORAL CARE

The school counsellor is on hand to help kids through tough times though the tutor is the first port of call – a form teacher who checks in with pupils daily to follow their progress and liaise with parents and teachers. There’s also – in a hangover from the trad Prep days – the school matrons, though not, mercifully of the Mallory Towers variety.

SEND

Broomwood considers itself an inclusive school but with a busy schedule and long days it stipulates that its students need to be able to thrive in this environment. There are kids with above and below average ability and those with SEND needs and there’s one-to-one support available for kids who need it, small group work and assistance in class too. At the boys’, Lyra the golden Labrador is the resident learning support pet, though she didn’t make an appearance when I visited – but hopefully another resource that’s also going to be shared with the girls.

MOBILE PHONE POLICY

Children in the older years who walk to school are allowed a phone but it is handed in on arrival.

FEES

Little Broomwood is paid by session, but costs £3,000 if you opt for five mornings and £5,250 if you do five full days. The Pre-Prep is £6,600 a term and the Prep a heady £8,100, which puts it above St Paul’s Juniors, Putney High but in line with the likes of Pembridge Hall.

QUIRKS

Year 8 comes with its benefits – there’s a ‘Year 8 stairs’ in the girls Prep which offers a shortcut when you’re running late and everyone gets a role across the school in this year group. There are also copious school trips after the exams including Thorpe Park, the V&A, camping and a water park. Meanwhile in Year 6 for both the boys and girls, as the culmination of their first year of being taught cookery, pupils prepare a three-course meal for their parents with canapés to start.

With 70% of the children living locally and many coming to school by bike or scooter, there’s encouragement to keep up the green commute with a weekly award of the ‘Golden Lock’, a shiny golden bike lock that’s left on a chosen pupil’s bike or scooter each week.

WORD ON THE GROUND

The parents love the school and are super engaged whether that’s through PTA or coming in to deliver career talks – everything from Michelin-starred chefs, and media pros to the obligatory lawyers and bankers. Parents are often in and out of school, notably for parent’s evening – Zoom has been banned!

Some of the old school feel pervades, especially in the boys school, but in a charming rather than out-of-touch way. A gong is rung by the head boy to announce the start of prep and only him and his prefects can use the school’s front steps – something to aspire to. You still hear ‘Shell’ and ‘Remove’ bandied about by the older boys and then there’s matron of course.

The old school values pervade in a good way too with politeness – every door was held open for me when I wandered around both schools and there was plenty of eye contact and ‘hellos’. Independence is encouraged and the early development of organisational and life skills – at the boys’ there’s an award for the best kept prep diary each week.

THE MUDDY VERDICT

A buzzy and successful Prep school that’s going in the right direction with an education that manages to bridge the best of both worlds with its mixed single sex and co-ed approach.

GOOD FOR: Bright kids who are joiners and willing to give anything a go.

NOT FOR: It’s a busy week here – as the boys head put it, it’s about ‘breathlessness and breadth’ so it’s unlikely to suit pupils who can’t keep up with the pace or need more support beyond a weekly SEN catch-up.

DARE TO DISAGREE? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below or see it for yourself – the next Broomwood Open Mornings (9am-11am) are: 28 Feb 2024 (Pre Prep) and 1 Mar 2024 (Prep) – see this page for details. Bespoke tours also available.

There are also small group tours every other Friday morning between 9am-10.30am of Little Broomwood or Broomwood Pre-Prep (3-7 years old), though visitors can request to also see the Prep afterwards.

Little Broomwood & Broomwood Pre-Prep, 192 Ramsden Rd, SW12 8RQ;
Broomwood Prep – Boys, 26 Bolingbroke Grove, SW11 6EL;
Broomwood Prep- Girls, 68-74 Nightingale Lane, SW12 8NR;
tel. 0208 682 8830; broomwood.com

Broomwood Pre-School, Pre-Prep & Prep Schools

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