Muddy Stilettos Review - Bablake School

We were delighted to be reviewed by Muddy Stilettos recently, an awardwinning lifestyle platform who provide unique, independent and honest reviews of schools throughout the UK.

WHAT MUDDY STILETTOS SAY

An all-rounder co-ed school for pupils aged 3 - 18 years in Coventry with excellent academics and strong pastoral and SEND provision.

This co-ed, academically selective day school caters for 3 to 18 year olds at its site just outside the centre of Coventry. Since 1890 Bablake School has been based within this imposing Victorian building (fun claim to fame – a starring role in Nativity! starring Martin Freeman) but its history dates waaaay back to 1344 when land at ‘Babbelak’ was given by Edward II’s widow Queen Isabella to build Bablake Church, which included a college for teaching priests - making it one of the oldest schools in the world.

Co-educational since 1970, it has a 50/50 split of boys and girls with 720 pupils in the Senior School – just a stone’s throw from each other taught in separate buildings on the same 11 acre site. Class sizes throughout the School are between 18-20 and, though the School excels academically, the reputation locally is very much as an all-rounder.

FACILITIES

SPORT

Strong. Aside from the usual sports halls, tennis and netball courts and floodlight artificial pitches on site, there’s a natty 20 metre indoor swimming pool, with lessons held half termly as part of the curriculum, as well as sessions after school and at weekends. Senior students can learn how to life save as well as earn ASA swimming teacher qualifications.

There’s a dance studio here, along with a gym and a climbing wall, and Bablake also owns a sweet 50 acres of land around a mile off site used for games, rugby, cricket, football, rounders and athletics.

Cricket is a big sport here with two girls representing Warwickshire. There are boys’ and girls’ football teams, and the awards cabinet is groaning with trophies – most recently the girls scooping county hockey champions and the boys regional cricket winners.

A host of successful sportsmen and women studied here, with a roll call that includes 2018 BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year Kare Adenegan, Olympic hockey gold medallist Robert Clift, England rugby players John Egan, Geoff Evans and Shane Geraghty, Olympic gold show jumping medallist Nick Skelton and Warwickshire cricketers Paul Best, Jack Parsons and Dan Mousley among alumni. You get the idea!

CREATIVE ARTS

There’s a roomy 200-seat theatre which is used by both the Music and Drama Departments for regular concerts and performances. A strong emphasis is given to Music skills. There’s a separate block for English, Drama and Music, including the replete music tech room where pupils can use the like of Sibelius and GarageBand composition software on the latest iMacs; four music rooms where some smaller performances are held and two practice rooms.

There’s also a grand piano and even an organ if you want to pip the pipes. There are whole school clubs in woodwind, brass and strings, a whole school choir and orchestra and clubs for Senior big band, rock, samba, barbershop and swing. Some super-talented pupils are members of the National Youth Orchestra too.

DRAMA

Multiple performances a year in the Bablake Theatre which is used for leavers’ shows, nativities and the like. No LAMDA exams sat here but if they’re big into taking to the stage they’ll love the Bablake’s Got Talent annual performance.

ART

The Art department consists of five rooms with specialist equipment like kilns, screen printing and a darkroom. There’s the food tech suite which was recently refurbished and a shiny new library staffed by a full-time librarian, with great little booths and squishy armchairs.

SCHOOL

The Senior School boasts an impressive Design and Tech lab with some of the most passionate staff I’ve met – one even left his job designing state-of-the-art cars across the world to work here. There are eight 3D printers – which are put to good use on the extracurricular project of rebuilding a DeLorean (next up is the car from Ghostbusters and the A Team van), and in the Department there’s also a welding bay and plans for a water jet cutter and Formula 1 model car racing track.

CAD is standardised to the systems used by JLR and Aston Martin and in the pipeline there’s a tech and engineering suite to be created in the next year with the possibility of an engineering GCSE qualification. In the city of engineering, no surprise Leonard Lord – the man behind the Mini – was a former pupil. Science is taught in purpose-built labs based around a buzzy quadrangle and more recent buildings include a modern languages block where the French, German and Spanish first introduced in the Junior School are taught. Latin and Greek are offered as GCSEs too.

SIXTH FORM

The Sixth Form block was refurbished just before the Pandemic, and now houses around 200 students. Apprenticeships are popular too, with recent students going to Jaguar Land Rover and West Midlands Police. Some classes like Latin, Drama, Classical Civilisation, Music and Languages are shared with nearby King Henry’s and students tell me they enjoy the freedom of being able to hop between both sites. Lunch and free periods are usually spent in the recently-refurbished canteen, which according to the kids I spoke to serves “the best food in Cov” – you be the judge!

ACADEMICS

Nearly all pupils continue on to the Senior School from Bablake Junior, which last year saw a pleasing 74% of students receive A or A* GCSE grades. Engineering is offered at GSCE here and further up the School food chain there are strong ongoing relationships with the likes of Rolls Royce and Jaguar, where pupils are placed for Apprenticeships. A Level options here are largely traditional though and are taught well – 50% received A* or A grades with five this year holding offers for Oxford or Cambridge. All Bablake pupils gained places at University or on Higher Apprenticeships in 2022. Pupils tell me they enjoy the large extracurricular offering with 50 clubs available including Formula 1 in Schools, small scale modelling, Dungeons and Dragons (is any school complete without it?), listening skills and even a stock market club.

SEND

There’s strong SEND provision throughout the School with just over a quarter of students receiving extra support for dyslexia and dyspraxia. A big plus here is that there is no extra charge made for Learning Support. Five staff on hand to offer help inside and outside the classroom and support is provided individually or in small groups, usually outside the class, between one and four times a week. There’s also an autism support group that meets weekly.

PASTORAL CARE

The Pastoral Hub in a more private area of the School enables more children to be cared for at once. There are three full-time Designated Safeguarding members of staff, a trained nurse onsite working in its small medical centre and a counsellor providing CBT therapies available three days a week.

Bablake has a Christian Foundation, but care is also offered by the chaplain in the multi-faith room, where prayers for different religions take place on a daily basis. Students also tell me this area is used throughout the day for those needing some time out for themselves. There’s also an E-cadet scheme, the only one of its kind in the UK which empowers children to keep their friends safe online with sixth formers mentoring the younger children. There are also friendship clubs, drawing and talk groups along with 1:1 and peer support.

THE HEAD

Andrew Wright moved to Bablake School as Deputy Head in 2016 after carrying out the role as Assistant Head at John Hampden Grammar School in Buckinghamshire. He was promoted to Headmaster in 2019 – just in time for the Pandemic! He’s very calm and friendly but with an authoritative presence that no doubt helps keep the kids in check. Wright took over a school that needed to be, in his opinion, more ‘outward looking’ – you can see his progress on that front with the close working relationship with nearby King Henry’s, expanding entry outside the traditional Coventry, Warwickshire and Meriden areas and continuing to invest in pastoral care. He’s also introduced the Beyond Bablake programme which sees careers and life lessons delivered by parents and former pupils.

QUIRKS

Where do I start? Apart from Bablake’s claim to fame as a backdrop for Nativity! it’s been utilised by BBC series Back in Time for School, showing the Victorian period of education. It’s the second oldest school in the world founded by a woman; Queen Isabella, widow of Edward II, gave land for the building of the original St John’s (or Bablake) Church to train priests. The nearby building still stands to this day and concerts are held there on occasions, along with a yearly whole-school Christmas performance at Coventry Cathedral. And nothing more British than this – an automatic weather station is located on the School’s playing fields which is linked directly with the Met Office. Bigwigs there take the data on an hourly basis as part of its UK-wide observational network

WRAPAROUND CARE

Wraparound card is a free service in the Senior School from 7.40am until 5.45pm each day.

ISI REPORT

The most recent report judged Bablake School to be ‘Excellent’ in all categories including academic and personal development where the inspectors saw that pupils “achieve highly in a wide range of subject areas including outside the curriculum” as well as a “highly developed moral sense”.

MOBILE PHONE POLICY

Phones are allowed in the Senior School but not to be used during lesson time. Laptops aren’t allowed unless in Sixth Form but there are charging lockers for phones and computers.

TRANSPORT

The School is super accessible with minibus transport organised from Bedworth, Nuneaton, Hinckley, Solihull, Balsall Common, Warwick, Leamington, Kenilworth, Rugby, Lutterworth, Southam and Coventry Railway Station. Coventry bus station and train station is around 15 minutes away with a minibus shuttle service from the train station before and after school. The School is upping its eco credentials by offering a free park and ride from Holyhead Road.

FEES

Compared to some of its Warwickshire and Birmingham counterparts, costs are substantially lower, with Senior fees at £15,900.

WORD ON THE GROUND

Parents tell me they think the School is well-grounded and friendly and many chose it for their kids because of the impressive exam results and high standards. They like that they can drive directly onto the site to pick up their kids too – and the road outside is busy so you wouldn’t want to be hunting for a parking space there.

THE MUDDY VERDICT

GOOD FOR:

Fees here are among the lowest on our patch so if you’re looking for a quality academic school that’s good value then Bablake worth checking out. The School is a strong all-rounder and there’s an emphasis on pastoral and SEND provision for those who want more support. It’s a throughschool too which is a bonus if you’re not planning on moving your kids.

Not for:

If you’re looking for a school set in swathes of green space maybe keep searching. Bablake does have a lot of land to its name, but it’s a drive out to reach it. Those seeking extensive wraparound care too should bear in mind that 7.40am is the earliest you can leave your kids here.