Our Philosophy

One of the principal benefits of private education lies in small class sizes. Understanding your child and knowing where they are on their educational journey is an integral element of their academic progress. As a school that values and delivers not only the broad curricular experience that a prep school has to offer, but also the high academic attainment that we know Barrow Hills children achieve means we involve the parents as well as the children in this experience.  As parents, you can rely on the teachers to give you balanced and objective assessments of progress, potential and what needs to be done at each important key stage in their learning.

A key part of the assessment process is external testing.  At the beginning of every academic year, children from Years 3 to 8 take externally set tests in Mathematics, English, spelling and reading.  In addition, in the key educational areas Years 3, 5 and 7 the children undertake tests in Verbal Reasoning, Non-Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning. Children in Pre Prep do also take the tests, but at other points in the year.

At the start of each term a series of reviews take place where staff meet to discuss every child individually in respect of their progress, attainment and future targets.  This forms the first stage of a tracking and monitoring process of your child's academic progress which takes place from term to term during the academic year and is repeated in each successive year.

A short progress report is sent to parents at the end of the Autumn and Spring Terms these include an effort grade, an attainment mark and a target for each subject.  At the end of the Summer Term there is a full report, which includes a full comment on progress, attainment for the year and future targets for each subject.  Examination results also accompany the report of the relevant term.

Parents' Evenings play an important part in the process and are held close to half term in the Autumn and Spring Terms.  This provides an opportunity for parents and teachers to discuss their child's progress and areas for improvement or furtherance are highlighted.

For the child, knowing accurately where they are in their learning is an essential element of becoming a sophisticated learner.  By the end of Year 3 we expect our children to be active learners, willing to take certain risks in their learning by being happy to experiment and enjoy the process of enquiry.

By the end of Year 6 we expect our children to have formulated independent learning, to understand the processes they require to in order to advance their learning to the next stage.

During Year 8, we introduce the children to the need to become 'interdependent' learners as well.  These are learners who know how to work for themselves but also how to work within teams and access the relevant networks that will take them beyond just independence.

A key belief in the Barrow Hills approach to education is that we do not believe intelligence is necessarily fixed.  We work hard to empower our children to try, try and try again to build upon their ability resulting in significant improvements during their time at the school.

Any questions? Please feel free to contact me directly.

Russell Fisher, Director of Studies

russell.fisher@barrowhills.org.uk