Prince’s Gardens Preparatory School offers a real-world learning environment, with small class sizes, dazzling facilities and a two-acre secret garden; an almost unheard of attraction in a central London school.
Everything about Prince’s Gardens is designed to make those first steps on the learning journey packed full of wonder, excitement, challenge and variety. Inside the building there are purpose-built spaces filled with natural light, combining modern technology with the best features of a spacious, traditional Prep school. Outside, children have space to explore, learn, relax, or just let off steam. And the staff, of course, have the expert knowledge, enthusiasm and understanding to know what makes young pupils tick.
Talk to Alison Melrose, Prince’s Gardens Headmistress, and what comes across is a palpable air of energy. Of course, the school is ambitious for its pupils – academic excellence remains a high priority with the goal of achieving success at 11+ and finding the right school for each child. But a Prince’s Gardens education is about so much more than academic excellence.
Prince’s Gardens is focusing on ensuring its pupils are learning skills for the future; thinking more broadly about the skill sets they need, emotional intelligence, working in a group, developing creativity and adaptability and having a growth mindset.
The motto at Price’s Gardens is Prepared, for everything.
It sounds like a big ask, but the key is in ensuring that even the youngest children start acquiring the tools that will help them deal with failure, rise to challenges and embrace new ways of working.
Facilities include generously proportioned classrooms with direct access to a purpose-built outdoor learning space. Beyond this is the school’s two-acre secret garden – enclosed, hidden and completely unexpected.
Of course, there are the green spaces of Hyde Park, just a short walk away, where children do everything from launching model boats to explore floating and sinking, to using pinecones to learn about sequences, working collaboratively or developing independent learning skills.
With the abundance of museums on the school’s doorstep, the real-world is not just the children’s playground, but also their classroom. These museums make a universe of knowledge available, bringing topics to life in an inspirational and exciting way. There is nothing like being able to pack a trip to a museum into a school day with such ease, triggering a huge outpouring of creativity for the pupils.
“There’s no other school in the country that can take advantage of the museums in the way we can,” says Alison Melrose.
Take the much-loved children’s book We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. Why stop at reading the book when you can go on your very own bear hunt – with real bears – courtesy of the Natural History Museum? The children come to school dressed as explorers, complete with binoculars. After they have read the story, they head off to the museum where they count how many bears have black and brown fur, learn about where they live and think about what food they eat. They order them by height and even make tally charts to show what they have learned.
The goal is to create learners with a natural curiosity for the world around them, taking place in a fast-paced and engaging curriculum. While nobody can predict how the world will look when these pupils join the workplace, the education the school delivers ensures that they are – as the school motto states – prepared for everything.
You can find more information on Prince’s Gardens Preparatory School by visiting their website. Contact admissions@princesgardensprep.co.uk or call them 020 7591 4620 for more information.
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