WHAT? WHERE?

Glendower Preparatory School sits elegantly in a residential area in Queen’s Gate, South Kensington, in two connected porticoed Victorian terraces. Long established as a top London girls’ day school (128 years and counting) Glendower been at its present home since 1947. Starting with just three pupils sharing a premises with hatters on Fulham Road, the current roll call of 288 girls from 3-11 years are taught in maximum class sizes of 18 in light, spacious classrooms, all brightly dotted with children’s artwork and projects.

Not unusually for a central London school, outdoor space is hard to find – a small courtyard and access to the private Stanhope Gardens square is the sum of it – but its proximity to the likes of the National History Museum, the Science Museum, the V&A and a much-utilised Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens is a fair trade off. The Little Glendower nursery, just launched in Sept 22 for rising 3 entry, is a smart addition. Well known traditionally for its academic prowess and in addition, more recently for its more rounded offering, Glendower has a selective intake into Reception at 4+ with 36 places across two classes up for grabs.

FACILITIES

/SPORT

Unsurprisingly given its location, sporting facilities are all offsite at Glendower, but one thing is for sure – sport is taken seriously here, with all girls from Y3-6 required to play in competitive fixtures. Netball and swimming are the two headline sports, with the U11 swimming team reaching the IAPS National championship finals five times and swimming taught to all girls every week from Year 2 onwards.

Sports played at Hyde Park include football, athletics and cricket, Battersea Park is the venue for tennis, with swimming taking place at Imperial College, Fulham Pool and the Queen Mother’s Sports Centre, though the school also offers weekly karate and gymnastics clubs for Years 3-6. As part of enrichment activities, the Chelsea Ballet School comes to Glendower on Tuesday evenings to run classes for the younger children. Lacrosse has just been introduced as an option, reflecting the head teacher’s desire to give the girls a go at a wide variety of sports.

/CREATIVE ARTS

A scan of the girls’ leaving scholarships for 2022 will tell you pretty quickly that music is well established at Glendower – music and academic scholarship numbers are virtually neck and neck lists, with just a smattering for sport and art by comparison. Facilities include a dedicated Music Room and practice suites. 58% of pupils learn an instrument at the school, which is fairly standard, but 31% of the girls learn more than one instrument, which is much higher than I usually find in a prep school – so the kids who are learning are loving it. Choir seems universally popular with Junior (Y3-4) and Senior (Y5-6) versions, plus an Invitation auditioned choir and a Year 2 Singing club. In addition, there are the usual various ensembles – chamber, woodwind and string as well as an orchestra which uses the multi- hall space for practices.

In terms of drama, all pupils have one lesson a week as part of the curriculum, with younger year groups utilising the newly opened Hawk-I space (a fully immersive room) and older pupils using a large hall in the Imperial College Student Union building. Every year group gets a chance to perform as they move up through the school with the usual nativity, Carol concerts and Christmas plays for nursery to Year 2, moving to a Year 3 ‘Silent Movie Project’ where they create and act in their own short films. Years 4 and 6 put on musicals and in Year 5 the girls, in small groups, devise their own Medieval miracle plays, making the decisions on costume, scenery and even stage combat. There’s also an extra-curricular drama club and LAMDA lessons and exams for those who want to stretch themselves further. Certainly the pupils I talked to feel like there’s a lot of drama on offer to them.

/GENERAL

The main bases are covered on site, with an on-site science lab, a variety of specialist subject rooms such as ICT and Art, and a new immersive learning room on the lower floor with interactive white walls, able to bring big visual subjects to life – fish swim around you learning about under the ocean, and the kids can tap and swipe and select features on the wall as if it’s a four sided computer. It’s pretty cool, actually.

ACADEMICS

No worries on this score– parents, just sit back and let it happen! Strong academics are the given here, with a storming roll call of next schools and scholarships – St Paul’s Girls’ and Godolphin & Latymer being top choices for day schools and Wycombe Abbey and Cheltenham Ladies’ for boarding. Music, drama and PE are taught by specialists from Reception upwards, with girls from Year 4 having specialists across the board. From Year 3 there’s access to the Science Lab and the coveted Bunsen Burner licenses – like many of the girls’ schools I visit, STEM is taken seriously here, and the pupils are highly engaged with it.

In terms of languages, French is taught twice weekly in the Prep School by a native French speaker, Mandarin from Year 4 and Latin and Spanish in Year 6. After the 11+ is out the way, Spanish is practised on a Madrid residential trip and there’s also a Spanish extra-curricular club. Homework at home is capped at just 30 minutes, which was a pleasant surprise and perhaps indicative of the head teacher’s desire not to overload the girls. The pupils I spoke to (from age 6 -11 years), were relaxed about their school work; they know they’ve been prepared well.

PASTORAL CARE

It feels quite homey here, which is rather lovely – I wasn’t expecting it. I guess the school buildings help, having once been private residences, but there’s fun and bustle which can only be of benefit to the girls. The school’s size is, of course, in its favour with pastoral care, with the girls all known to the teachers. However, beyond the pupil/teacher relationship, the pastoral scaffolding extends to access to counselling with a Mindset coach who comes in weekly for the children as well as, importantly, the staff. The school runs Yoga for the youngest as part of PHSE and Mindfulness workshops and in its ex-curricular offering is careful not have too many academic clubs, preferring the girls to relax and unwind. There’s also a worry box and a kindness wall in assembly to encourage expressing worries and ideas and celebrating good deeds and random acts of kindness.

LITTLIES

Brand new for Sept 2022, the nursery for rising three year old is the right mix of tasteful wooden toys and exuberant artworks from the children. The focus firmly on nature, with various ‘outdoor’ touches like a floor to ceiling forest mural, and ‘ivy’ hanging from the ceilings. Self-portraits of the kids and cotton wool cloud paintings adorn the walls. The nursery takes in 2 classes of 16 though be warned – booking into the nursery doesn’t guarantee places for Reception; a separate 4+ test will be required for entry. Little ones here learn music, dance, French and PE with specialist teachers and have yoga once a week too – there are plans to introduce Reception to yoga this year (2023) if possible.

SEND

This isn’t a school for those with complex SEND requirements though there’s provision for it with both an Early Years SENDCo teacher, plus a SENDCo for the rest of the school on hand to assess pupils who may need more support. Roughly 10% of pupils have some assistance at Glendower, mostly with dyslexia and dyscalculia. Lower down the school in Pre-Prep, there are weekly booster groups and one-to-one support during lessons. Glendower has a dedicated SEND room – on the day I visited, one of the pupils was having help with her working memory and how that impacted on her time management.

THE HEAD

Nina Kingsmill Moore hits the perfect note of being approachable and smiley for the kids and warmly professional with parents. She’s been head here since 2019, having previously been deputy head and Head of Pre Prep at leafy 60-acre Berkshire prep Lambrook for nine years. Under her tenure at Glendower the school has grown numbers, created the new Nursery, and pushed an outward looking agenda that has seen the school press forward with ambitious plans to secure funding to offer 7% of all school places to academically talented girls who couldn’t otherwise afford to come. Community, kindness, empowering the girls to think for themselves and avoiding a South Ken privileged ‘bubble’ are high on Kingsmill Moore’s list of priorities and I’d say she’s hitting her markers.

REPORTS

You can read the ISI reports here – judged excellent across the board in 2020.

WRAPAROUND CARE

It’s an either/or situation at Glendower – you can book in for Early Birds from 7.30-8.30am, or Late Owls until 6pm. Extra-curricular clubs run both before and after school – football in Hyde Park, for example, starts at 7.45am. Expect everything from chess to illustration, cookery to Confident Speakers club. No school buses as most children walk or are dropped off by parents.

QUIRKS

There are some sweet touches during the year, including the head teacher’s study becoming Santa’s grotto every December at the Christmas Bazaar. For the Year 3 Silent Movie project there’s an annual Starry Nightsevent where the girls dress up and walk down the red carpet (think the Oscars!) before their movies are premièred at the school which sounds like a lot of fun.

FEES

Quite punchy but not disproportionate based on competitor schools. Termly fees for Little Glendower are £6,995, and for Reception to Form 6 it’s £7450 per term – to include all stationery, lunches, snacks. Music lessons are £200 per term, which is standard.

MOBILE PHONE POLICY

No mobile phones for all pupils though after Half Term in the Spring Term, Year 6 girls can bring in their phones as they’re allowed to travel into school on their own with parent permission. Phones are handed in to the Main Office during the school day.

WORD ON THE GROUND

It feels like a happy school – my intel is that the pupils get along well, the teachers are invested, and there’s a lot of pride at being a Glendower pupil. Special mentions from the kids for librarian/drama teacher Miss Martin, English teacher Miss Strange (very approachable apparently!) Miss Jones in art /netball, Miss Broughton in maths and Mrs Samols whose lesson involving dancing on the tables with microphones has entered Glendower folklore.

Good news for fussy eaters here too – apparently the food is great. Bad news for legs – the school has many stairs, and is the main bugbear for pupils though parents are unlikely to care!

THE MUDDY VERDICT

Good for: If you’re looking for academic excellence without the pain of hot-housing, put this one on your visit list. The emphasis on kindness and community has huge appeal and the girls I met seemed confident and well-balanced.

Not for: The lack of onsite facilities here aren’t unusual for this part of London but won’t appeal to all. Sport is an integral part of school life here, so if you have a non-starter in that department, your child might be best suited elsewhere.

DARE TO DISAGREE?

Be my guest! Keep an eye on the website or contact the Registrar on admissions@glendowerprep.org for the next Open Day.

Glendower Preparatory School, 86/87 Queen’s Gate, London, SW75JX