This is the independent feature on Kensington Prep School which appears in The Good Schools Guide.
The Good Schools Guide Review of Kensington Prep School, London, SW6 5PA
Our View
Housed in a former Marist convent on the corner of a busy junction of the Parsons Green neck of the Fulham Road, the school occupies a wonderful space. Wide corridors, Large windows, spacious high ceilinged classrooms, broad staircases - institutional but brightened with loud colourful murals of eg clowns and kites. A wonderful library in the former chapel, with stained glass windows and high beamed ceiling. Some sturdy oak tables softened by comfortable sofas and bean bags. A soulful place to work and read. The playground stretches into the distance complete with tennis courts, slides, colourful springy tarmac, and a snazzy bandstand where they hold popular summer concerts. When the whole school is out here it doesn’t look crowded, just a sea of bright colours (Mrs Lynch swiftly replaced the drab grey tunics with the cheerful electric blues and reds – 'I wanted it to be fun for them to get dressed in the morning?' she says, the pitch rising at the end of her sentence). At the ring of the bell all girls freeze in silence before filing obediently into their correct line ups. That’s what they’re like here. Law abiding and conscious of the school values. They couldn’t fail to be. They are prominently displayed throughout the school. The positive balanced with the negative, ‘Do listen, don’t interrupt.’ They sometimes trip up on this one. Our guides, a case in point, who were bubbling over in their desire to please and enthuse about their school.
A GDST with a difference. It stands alone so doesn’t benefit from the resources that come with having a senior school attached. No bursaries at all and fees are a bit higher than at other GDSTs. But the no nonsense high academic standards you would expect combined with affluent and demanding parents make this a one of London’s most competitive girls’ schools. ‘We are good at fast paced education,’ says head. Parents here feel hugely lucky if their daughter makes it through the assessments at three but we heard reports of a number of children getting tutoring further down the line because they want to ensure results. Our view is that this pressure doesn’t necessarily come from the inside. A number of parents here want a seamless transition to schools they regard as being the best and are not always prepared to accept it if they are told their daughter may not be up to it. Mrs Lynch does her best and the curriculum is broad. Lots of open homework and off piste whole school activities to stimulate thinking skills and collaborative team work through the year groups. ‘The big freeze’ had the whole school interpreting and creating. The result: swathes of tin foil around the school as well as a smashed mobile ‘phone. Lots of interdisciplinary projects using art, DT and photography. Thursday morning is ‘thinking time’: ‘what would it be like to have legs like jelly?’ There is whole afternoon dedicated to music and drama another to music and art. We saw innovative teaching. The younger children on all fours marching round the room barking numbers one to fifty. Computers everywhere and laptops widely used in every classroom. Year six create TV programmes as well as cook canapés - in addition to doing all the marketing and costing associated with the project.
Resident SENCo manages learning support which is part of the package until Key Stage two from when it’s organised on the same model as visiting music staff. Children may dip in and out or have more structured support over a period of several years. It may be just to boost their understanding of maths or to tackle a more serious problem like dyspraxia. However, only mild to moderate learning difficulties can realistically be accommodated here. Mrs Lynch abhors the label ‘gifted and talented’ – ‘they’re far too young...it implies there’s something rigid about who you are’. She infinitely prefers everyone to be stretched through lots of differentiation in class and the open ended activities they do so well here.
French from year one, ‘not mega’ says Mrs Lynch, ‘but you get your êtres and avoirs and more formal stuff at the top to help those who go on to do CE elsewhere.’ A relaxed taster of Latin in the final year. Class sizes of about twenty, maximum twenty three. Young, (almost entirely) female staff who tend to stay for a long time. Only two or three men, including the recently appointed and much praised head of music who has introduced a junior orchestra and won’t stand for any waiting lists for girls who want to learn an instrument – ‘we’ll just get more teachers’.
Parents largely local. The Caffè Nero opposite is bursting at eight am with yummy Fulham mummies sipping lattes and testing their pretty daughters on their timetables. Dads very present in the school too helping with reading and on the parents' committee, ‘we like to encourage that,’ says Mrs Lynch. Lots of clubs, football run by a Chelsea FC player, currently very popular but they can also do bridge, Mandarin, Spanish cookery and craft, lots of music as well as a host of others. School likes to keep a close eye to make sure girls don’t do too much. ‘Food amazing,’ gushed our guides. Mango and orange red smoothie caused great excitement as we were shown the bright yellow and green dining room in the bowels of the building. Lots of trips – including a choir tour to Belgium, trips to France, Cornwall and the Isle of Wight.
A vibrant place in every respect. Girls here are earnest and keen, immensely privileged with impeccable manners. A quirky eccentric – whether she is fiercely bright or not - could get lost here (school refutes this – ‘we are absolutely about inspiring quirky girls as much as the more conformist’) but a wonderful start for your robust all rounder.
Head
Since 2003, Mrs Prudence Lynch MA PGCE (mid fifties). Hails from Guernsey, studied pscyhology at St Andrew's before going to Goldsmiths to do her PGCE. She has two grown up sons and is a proud and committed grandmother. A zany, thoroughly modern head from her boldly stylish dress sense to her dropped vowels and upward inflection at the end of her sentences. She also brings a wealth of experience to the job. Previously head of juniors at Notting Hill & Ealing, a sister GDST establishment, via Colet Court where she initiated the SEN department, taught study skills, maths and ‘thinking’. A passion of hers – here she teaches philosophy for children which is ‘too wonderful for words’ where they discuss things like ‘is it helpful to have an unrealistic ambition?’ – or ‘is it ever right to kill someone?’ She relishes encouraging them to think and listen to each other. ‘Girls need to be as good as men at thinking up fresh ideas and taking risks. Spoon feeding is not going to solve a credit crunch no one has ever experienced before,’ she says. Keen to inject an element of risk to the very safe school she inherited. While she accepts that not every child can achieve anything they want, she firmly believes that it’s better to go for the thing you can nearly do rather than the thing you know you can do - otherwise what have you learnt? ‘I, too, am a risk taker,’ she says.
A touch scatty - efficient administration is not one of her strengths – something remarked on by parents - and she freely admits that she forgets things all the time, while hastening to add that there are enough efficient administrators around her to make sure the school doesn’t drop any balls. She is a head with something much more to offer, however: vision, a big heart and a huge sense of fun. 'I love playing,’ she says, as she shows us her latest acquisition – a black rag doll that sits - rather incongruously - among the array of toys and clutter on her desk. Determined to counter the intense pressure felt by parents here and elsewhere in the ‘ruthless’ London day school system – trying to ensure that the girls still have ‘dream time’ and still enjoy their childhood. How refreshing.
Entrance
At four plus - over two hundred applicants for forty four places. Put your daughter’s name down any time up to December prior to entry the following September. Assessments in January. Girls are seen in groups of five or six and assessed during play ‘with a heavily oversubscribed school like this one there isn’t an ideal fair way of doing it’. There is also an official entrance point at seven plus - register any time up to September the year ahead - but the number of places varies and there may be only as few as two. Occasional places do crop up - keep trying. The school expects most siblings to join the school but reserves the right to say no if it is felt to be in the child’s interest.
Exit
Almost all to where parents here consider to be ‘the top’ London girls' day schools – St Paul’s Girls, City of London, Godolphin & Latymer, Wimbledon High, Putney High and a few to the major girls’ boarding schools – Wycombe Abbey, Downe House and Cheltenham Ladies. Lots of scholarships – music as well as academic.