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Highclare School
2019 SUMMER ISSUE
At Highclare we believe in providing an extensive pre-school experience that prepares the boys and girls for school and for academic success. Exams and homework are still way in the distant future, but it is important at this age to set strong foundations, nurture a child’s natural curiosity and develop a lifelong love of learning. It is more important than ever to get the educational basics right but what can parents do to give their kids the best possible start in life? One super-effective thing is to get children learning as early as possible in a warm, happy environment where they can thrive. The Educational Endowment Foundation’s Toolkit[1] research supports the assertion that a highfunctioning early years foundation stage can advance a child’s education by up to five months in any one year. This is a big impact: it is saying that, in a good setting, a boy or girl could learn in five months what it would take ten months to do in less effective places. Our size allows for a place where every pupil is known, and every pupil is valued. Pre-prep children (rising three ‘Cygnets’ and rising four ‘Swans’) who are on their first steps of their educational journey are taught by fully qualified teachers with the support of qualified teaching assistants and key workers in a 1:4 (Cygnets) or 1:8 (Swans) ratio. Teachers extend a child’s learning throughout the week via well-planned
teacher and child initiated experiences using individual interest as a catalyst in well-resourced and caring pastoral environments. We follow the EYFS curriculum and have a focus on English and maths via specialist sessions on phonics and numeracy. In addition to this the curriculum is enhanced by regular sessions on modern foreign languages, music and dance – all provided by subject specialists. What really helps is that the flexible approach we adopt ensures each child receives individual attention, with the curriculum tailored to their needs. In addition to this, and in order to help parents support the learning process as much as possible, we maintain an ‘open door’ policy. We have an engaged parent community and provide parental workshops on phonics, maths, reading and pastoral care. The Highclare philosophy of educating the whole person starts in Pre-prep, nurturing the emotional and spiritual intelligence as well as the academic. Coupled with exceptional pastoral care, this enables us to unlock each pupil’s potential at every step of their journey through school life. It all adds up to a very effective package that will pay dividends for a lifetime. In the spirit of nourishing a child’s all-round awareness of living a happy and fulfilled life, our boys and girls are ‘powered’ by a healthy eating food policy delivered by our chefs who cook meals on location and who can cater for most dietary requirements.
there for every step of your child’s educational journey. In Reception class our teachers, again supported by fully qualified teaching assistants, help the boys and girls to frequently exceed the foundation stage early learning goals. We believe in adopting a more formal approach to the curriculum in numeracy and literacy in this year group and also provide specialist teaching in PE, music and modern foreign languages. We use baseline assessment to track the progress made by the boys and girls and, in a class that we aim to be no larger than 22 children, achieve impressive value added. Co-curricular work is enhanced through access to the resources of the Preparatory School and we offer a rich and varied extra-curriculum programme to give everyone the chance to find their niche and enjoy that ‘spark’ of success, belonging and motivation. We believe in providing a high quality educational journey for the children and will do all that we can to give them a great start in life. We do participate in the government’s Early Education Entitlement (EEE) Funding scheme for three and four year olds and will be offering 30 supported hours to eligible[2] parents from September 2019. Please contact Admissions (admissions@highclareschool.co.uk) if you would like to discuss enrolling your child(ren) in our pre-prep settings. We look forward to welcoming you to our superb early-years. [1] Teaching and learning toolkit summary, Educational Endowment Foundation. [2] Subject to government eligibility criteria and Highclare’s own admissions criteria. Full details available from Admissions.
Highclare’s all-through offering means we are
Sleepover in Aid of Young Minds
our expectations would have been surpassed. It was tremendous fun from the beginning to the end.
A fantastic summer term charity sleepover event at Highclare Preparatory School raised an incredible £1,100. As well as raising a huge amount of money for the charity Young Minds, the children had a brilliant time. Here is a report by Charlotte Batey, J6, on her experience.
We were lucky from the start with the weather as, after weeks of rain, we had beautiful sunshine all day and into the long summer evening so we were able to stay outside. We played games on the field with the teachers and, in groups, were able to enjoy a fabulous campfire toasting marshmallows and drinking hot chocolate.
Friday 28th June was an exceptional day for Highclare Preparatory School. Thanks to the great organisational skills of our teachers, we held the first EVER at school sleepover….yes actually in school, yes, actually OVERNIGHT!!!
Later in the evening when we were all feeling sleepy we snuggled down in our beds and watched films. After lights out we had some chance for chatting until the teachers decided it was time to actually go to sleep (I’m not sure who was more tired, them or us!) The next morning Rob the Chef made us all breakfast and we gobbled it up before we were packed up at 10am. Everyone had a brilliant time and it will be one of my best memories of my time at Highclare.
It was organised to raise money for our school charity Young Minds. None of us knew what to expect or what might happen but even if we had known,
We brought our own bedding (a few of us had a blow-up bed but we were so excited we didn’t notice the hard floor!) and then we set ourselves up, girls upstairs in J5/6 and MFL classroom and the boys were in the hall. We had a special fish and chip supper from the local chippy with ketchup and pop, but we were already quite full from eating all the sweets and crisps from the terrific tuckshop.