In this week’s blog, Nick discusses the benefits of small schools:
We all like choice. Think of our summer holidays. Wouldn’t it be awful if every hotel was built to a kit? Some of us prefer a large chain hotel. A Marriot, say. A Hilton. Hotels where you can guarantee there’ll be an enormous breakfast buffet, a gym, and a pool. Others want a boutique hotel. Something hipper than the Marriot. Somewhere the staff know your children’s names. Somewhere less corporate, more personalised.
The same is true of schools. Some parents prefer a large prep. A school with 300 pupils. A school with big playing fields, selective sports teams, and, yes, a pool. Other parents see the advantages of boutique schools. A small school, where their daughter will be seen. A school where everybody knows her name. A school where their daughter doesn’t sit on the sidelines, but is part of every team, squad and performance, every time.
At C.H.P.S., we’re firmly in the latter camp. Boutique schools have five advantages that their larger peers simply cannot match:
- Individualised attention: Time in schools is like water in a desert. If you’re an art specialist, teaching 300 girls, how much individualised attention can you provide in a week? At C.H.P.S., a boutique school, teachers have time to support and challenge your daughter.
- Better Communication: At a large school, you might be lucky to get 10 minutes with the class teacher at Parents’ Evening; if you want to speak to the Head, you might need to wait a fortnight! At C.H.P.S., communication is personalised. For example, Parents’ Evening appointments are twenty minutes, and include your daughter giving a presentation that’s informed by her 1:1 coaching session with the class teacher.
- Participation: In a large school, difficult choices are unavoidable. Hiba is selected for the netball team, but she doesn’t have a speaking role in the play. She just isn’t a good enough actor. Whereas Sally has a big role in the play, but she never gets selected competitive sport. At C.H.P.S., every single girl gets to do everything, every time. Every girl is in the football team. The netball team. The swimming squad. Every girl is a member of the choir. Every girl has a speaking role in a school production. Every girl sings, dances and performs poetry at our Afternoon of Poetry, Music and Dance. Every girl gives a presentation, without notes, to a theatre full of parents, at our Year Six Celebration.
- Community: In a big school, Year Six don’t know the Year Three girls. At C.H.P.S., we’re a close-knit community, where pupils, teachers and parents truly know each other.
- Nimbler Teams: This advantage is a little more subtle, but just as real. If you work for a large corporate firm, you’ll know that change management is hard! The same is true of schools. At a big school, with staff of, say, fifty, there’s a lot of minds to change if you want to, for example, apply the science of learning.
At C.H.P.S., we have a nimble team. That’s why Ofsted judged us to be outstanding just 12 months after opening.
There’s a time in life when bigger may well be better. But when it comes to your daughter’s primary education, small is beautiful.
Nick Hitchen