A set of three outstanding inspection reports has come as music to the ears of Prestfelde Headmaster Mark Groome. The Independent Schools Inspectorate, who visited Shrewsbury at the end of the school's 80th year, showered praise on the Early Years section, the Boarding provision and the co-educational preparatory school as a whole. Said Mr. Groome, “Prestfelde is a school which has long had a wonderful reputation well beyond the town. Part of my day-to-day job is beating the drum, but perhaps I can be forgiven on this occasion for blowing the school’s trumpet.”
Mr Groome said that such blanket commendation boosted the staff and was just reward for all the day-to-day work and the strategic planning required at any successful establishment. “It’s very rare to be given a universal judgement of ‘outstanding’ across the board, “he said. “I believe that these represent one of the best sets of reviews in the country. Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector has written to congratulate Prestfelde on its exemplary reports. She also bestowed on us the title of ‘Outstanding Provider’ status.”
Like a golden thread through the reports, the epithet ‘outstanding’ appears in paragraph after paragraph, and it is used to describe the Early Years provision, the overall educational experience, the excellent relationship between staff and pupils, the foundations laid in literacy and numeracy, the general quality of learning and achievement as evidenced in a significant proportion of lessons. Prestfelde also provides outstanding provision for moral development, quality of pastoral care, medical care available to pupils – and quality of leadership throughout the school.
As the school battles on through the recent Arctic challenge, Mr Groome made it clear that he is looking ahead, and that he intends to strengthen the school’s position. “Yes, we have taken an opportunity to extend New Year celebrations by a week or so,” he said, “but nobody here is resting on his or her laurels.’ We are one of 550 or so independent schools nationwide, and like the others we know that only sustained application and a continued level of development can continue to provide the very best education. We are determined that Prestfelde will stay in the premier league of Prep schools.”
Said Mr. Groome, "We will continue working to ensure that each boy and girl is helped to achieve the best possible outcomes in Common Entrance and Scholarship examinations, setting a wonderful platform from which to launch into their GCSEs, A levels courses and beyond. But at the same time, we will aim to ensure that all our teaching is fun, engaging and inspiring, with lessons being designed as a genuinely educational experience rather than simply a tool of examination preparation.”
The report confirmed that topics for young pupils had indeed opened up the curriculum and aided learning.
“One particularly good example,’ it said, ‘ was seen on the Year 4 ‘Smartie maths challenge day’ when pupils made tally charts, drew bar graphs, explored symmetrical patterns, and wrote instructions for making smartie lollies before baking and sharing their treats with parents. Much of the work in geography and history reinforces pupils’ experience of literacy, and science complements mathematics. Facilities such as the garden outside Little Prestfelde classrooms extend the curriculum, offering pupils greater opportunities. In this attractive part of the school, pupils grow vegetables and flowers, create wall mosaics and plant up hollowed out tree trunks.’
This enlightened approach starts even earlier, as the school sets out deliberately to expand impressionable three-year-old minds.
“Lessons in the Forest school (set in Prestfelde’s 30 acre site) encourage pupils to work collaboratively, take personal responsibility and set clear expectations for themselves,” says the report.
The document goes on, “Pupils experience a sense of wonder in many ways, such as the vast sense of space and beauty around them, the sense of adventure and discovery in the activities experienced ... and the ‘anticipation of creating a piece of individual creativity in art.’
It underlined the virtue of visits associated with a good variety of subject areas, the cricket tour to South Africa, the welcoming of a guest author, provision of a wind instrument workshop, and soccer sessions run by Shrewsbury Town FC.
“We aim to find something to inspire every child,” says Mr Groome. “Our determination to develop the child’s soul is something which has been clearly acknowledged by the Independent Schools Inspectorate.”
“Reports like these give us the confidence to be yet more self-critical, and then, we hope, to raise our standards still further.”
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Mon 1st Feb 2010
