Muddy Stilettos


<p>Looking for a school in London is like the education equivalent of the <em>Hunger Games</em>. Dads race from labour wards to put their newborns names down at the capital&#8217;s most prestigious schools. Dinner party chatter is intense and Senior School places are equally competitive. London is a fast-paced and diverse city, so finding the perfect school for your child can be a bewildering process. Pembridge Hall Head Sophie Banks is the voice of reason with insight into what parents should look for in a &#8216;good&#8217; school. </p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="800" height="1000" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/image.jpeg" alt="Sophie Banks, Pembridge Hall school" class="wp-image-102367" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/image.jpeg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/image-480x600.jpeg 480w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-makes-an-exceptional-urban-prep-school">What makes an exceptional urban prep school?</h3>



<p>Exceptional is where the pupils are really happy – only then can they be the best they can be. We don’t assess on entry and every girl is individual. We want them to establish self confidence, be academically aspirational and build skills across many areas of life. As for the urban part, London is our classroom, as it should be for any urban prep school. We can use museums and sites to enhance our learning. Our Y5 go every year to the Royal Courts of Justice where they undertake a Victorian mock trial and then enjoy a Q&amp;A with a judge.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-outdoor-space-can-be-limited-what-about-time-outside-and-sport">Outdoor space can be limited, what about time outside and sport?</h3>



<p>I started my career in a school that has 35 acres and now I&#8217;m in Notting Hill with no pitches or sports fields. But the girls don&#8217;t miss out. They go to Paddington Recreation Ground a short bus ride away for their sport. We&#8217;ve just increased to two full afternoons of Games for the girls as well as two sessions of gym and dance. It&#8217;s not just during sport – we also believe in outdoor learning and the importance of fresh air. We’ve always had access to Pembridge Square Gardens but Inspired Education has now enabled us access to another garden that enables us to take more than one year group to play. We pride ourselves on being a school that needs the girls to have wellies. We also go to Hyde Park Lookout Centre and Holland Park, so it&#8217;s not hard to be outside, as any prep school should be doing.&nbsp;</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-about-getting-out-into-the-community">What about getting out into the community?</h3>



<p>We can use local assets like the library on the corner of the square. We are proud of our collaboration with Time Givers charity which facilitates the girls volunteering in care homes and the local Nourish Hub. Keeping our girls grounded and teaching them the importance of giving time not just money to those in need.&nbsp;</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-is-there-time-to-sample-london-s-culture">Is there time to sample London&#8217;s culture?</h3>



<p>Our Year 6 girls use the Tabernacle Theatre for their production and every week we go to St Matthew&#8217;s Church for assemblies and concerts – and on numerous other occasions such as our upcoming carol service. We are lucky that there’s so much available to us, but of course we must manage how many trips and visits we do as there is still a curriculum to get through! &nbsp;</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="1000" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Untitled-design-2024-12-10T193805.565.jpg" alt="Pembridge Hall school" class="wp-image-102321" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Untitled-design-2024-12-10T193805.565.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Untitled-design-2024-12-10T193805.565-600x400.jpg 600w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Untitled-design-2024-12-10T193805.565-1000x667.jpg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tell-me-why-being-single-sex-is-the-best-way-to-educate-girls-in-your-view">Tell me why being single sex is the best way to educate girls in your view?</h3>



<p>There’s no right or wrong way to educate children, but they are different – girls and boys learn differently. I genuinely believe there’s a natural bias to different subject areas in co-ed schools resulting in boys subjects and girls subjects. That doesn’t happen here as our girls believe they can do anything. Our girls are building Goblin cars, playing tag Rugby and coding. Everyone is driven, focused and engaged and able to learn from a young age,&nbsp; which is a successful format – there&#8217;s so much research out there about the benefits of single sex environment for girls and the confidence and self belief it gives them.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-are-we-going-to-see-more-schools-go-co-ed">Are we going to see more schools go co-ed?</h3>



<p>The London single sex market is strong, particularly for girls. In London we’re not seeing schools switching to co-ed. The majority of our girls go on to girls&#8217; schools, though I do feel it’s a benefit to have interactions with boys as they move towards University age and all girls Senior Schools are making this happen.&nbsp;</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="1000" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Untitled-design-2024-12-10T193712.249.jpg" alt="Pembridge Hall school" class="wp-image-102322" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Untitled-design-2024-12-10T193712.249.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Untitled-design-2024-12-10T193712.249-600x400.jpg 600w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Untitled-design-2024-12-10T193712.249-1000x667.jpg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-do-you-prepare-your-girls-for-senior-school">How do you prepare your girls for senior school?</h3>



<p>About 20% of our girls will go to boarding schools like Wycombe Abbey, Downe House, St Mary’s Ascot and a smaller number mixed boarding. The rest are London day schools like Godolphin and Latymer, St Pauls, South Hampstead, NLCS or the Francis Hollands– our girls will go to the place that is right for them.  Each girl is an individual.&nbsp;</p>



<p>A big part of our role is preparing girls for the future in general. Our Girls of the Future project sees amazing female role models from our community create videos about how they got to where they are, which our girls watch in assembly. Being aspirational is one of our school values and we want our girls to have that drive and ambition. We’re also a Tooled Up school – a programme to help children, staff and parents with each stage of life – we use their preparation for Senior School programme, then have a post 11+ programme. That is focused on project based learning, independence of thought. As a school we are based on a senior school model where students move around classrooms and meet lots of different teachers. So they are fully prepared for that when they move on. We want our girls to be independent in their learning and love learning – that is our aim.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>In Year 6 our girls go off to France for a week and immerse in the language, visiting markets and a farm to actually use their years of French learning. That element of organisational independence is key to making the transition to Senior School, but our girls have already had to be organised which helps them – we get this feedback from Senior Schools – they&#8217;re hitting different deadlines and coping with a varied timetable. It’s not about parents doing it for them.&nbsp;&nbsp; </p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-about-preparing-students-for-teen-hood-and-a-co-ed-world">What about preparing students for teen-hood and a ‘co-ed’ world?</h3>



<p>We’re on the same square as Wetherby School and a sister school to Wetherby Prep and this is a relationship we’re continuing to grow. With initiatives like our interview prep day run by Oppidan, which sees our Year 6 girls and the boys from Wetherby Prep in mixed groups practicing assessment day scenarios. We have hosted events for the Year 3 boys from Wetherby School to use our Innovation Space alongside our girls. But it&#8217;s not really about the academic interaction but the social interaction. As a single sex school, we believe we have the best of both worlds and this is an area we are working hard to develop further.&nbsp;</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-s-in-and-what-s-out-at-pembridge-hall-nbsp">What’s in and what’s out at Pembridge Hall? &nbsp;</h3>



<p>We teach French as our main language but clubs cover more languages like Mandarin, Spanish and we are introducing Italian next term. We’re a really international school. Once exams are out of the way we dabble with Latin in Year 6. From an IT perspective we’re a Microsoft Showcase school, all girls have devices from Year 3 and in our Innovation Space they learn coding, robotics, and the green screen gets the girls excited. We teach Critical Thinking and Philosophy too, teaching the girls how to think.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-and-do-you-tackle-life-and-career-skills">And do you tackle life and career skills?</h3>



<p>We have our Thinking Enterprise and Design (TED) Week looking at entrepreneurship from Y3 – Y6. We collapse the timetable and give them one of the UN sustainability goals and they create a product linked to that goal. They research, market and design a product and then pitch it to a panel of our parents &#8211; who we fondly call the Dragons. Y6 get real money invested and then analyse their profit and loss following an in school sale. We want them to have a knowledge of what they enjoy about business building and discover their skills and expertise in that. &nbsp;</p>



<p>A Recording Studio is this year’s project to start Pembridge Podcasts and maybe Pembridge Radio &#8211; some girls do song writing lessons and we want a platform to share that exciting addition. It will also help the girls to be confident and aspirational. They can interview each other and find their voice. &nbsp;</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="1000" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Untitled-design-2024-12-10T193747.182.jpg" alt="Pembridge Hall school" class="wp-image-102323" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Untitled-design-2024-12-10T193747.182.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Untitled-design-2024-12-10T193747.182-600x400.jpg 600w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Untitled-design-2024-12-10T193747.182-1000x667.jpg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-is-there-an-advantage-for-a-prep-school-to-being-part-of-a-group">Is there an advantage for a prep school to being part of a group?</h3>



<p>It has been fascinating for me – we have been an Inspired Education school for a year. Huge investment is one thing, starting with makeover in our classrooms, but also the drive behind academic excellence and being aspirational. It’s a global group with 120 schools around the world and there’s global outlook so we have competitions between schools and engage with schools for best practice. I’m sure in time more interaction will come between school pupils.<em>&nbsp;</em></p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-are-you-seeing-more-london-preps-becoming-part-of-larger-groups">Are you seeing more London preps becoming part of larger groups? </h3>



<p>Yes definitely. Between Inspired Education and Dukes, you’ve got two major groups there but there are many others too. It&#8217;s tough times with VAT on school fees and the loss of charitable status. Prep schools are going to get stability through these groups or through joining with a Senior School. The saddest thing will be if lots of small independent prep schools close all that history and expertise goes. Although we all do the same job, we all have our own ways of doing it. </p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="1000" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Untitled-design-2024-12-10T193640.454.jpg" alt="Pembridge Hall school" class="wp-image-102324" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Untitled-design-2024-12-10T193640.454.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Untitled-design-2024-12-10T193640.454-600x400.jpg 600w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Untitled-design-2024-12-10T193640.454-1000x667.jpg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /></figure>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-do-you-know-which-prep-is-right-for-you-child">How do you know which prep is right for you child?</h3>



<p>It&#8217;s like buying a house, you know when you walk through the door if you like the feel of the place. There shouldn’t be a school out there that isn’t academically ambitious. We teach to the top in our classes and scaffold for those who need it. Parents visiting a school should look at the variety of<s> </s>opportunities&nbsp; that&#8217;s being offered and talk to the children about school life.&nbsp;</p>



<p>If the work isn’t challenging or on the flip side it’s too hard and a child is not supported enough, it is going to affect their happiness in school. Listen to the children and unpick their perception. And definitely look for engaged children and inspiring teaching as you go around. &nbsp;</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-would-you-hope-your-students-would-say-about-your-school-in-three-words">What would you hope your students would say about your school in three words?</h3>



<p>Happy is number one. If it’s a happy school the girls will thrive. I&#8217;d love them to say challenging, challenged academically, and also aspirational – encouraging them to be the best they can be.</p>



<p><strong><em>Want to hear more about the Pembridge approach? Check out our Muddy review of Pembridge Hall <a href="https://muddystilettos.co.uk/kids/school-reviews/pembridge-hall-preparatory-school-notting-hill/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>. </em></strong></p>


How to navigate London Prep schools – and what good looks like

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