C E L E B R AT I N G T H E V E R Y B E S T I N E D U C AT I O N
INDEPENDENT SCHOOL PARENT F R E E | P R E P E D I T I O N | S P R I N G 2 0 24 | i n d e p e n d e n t s c h o o l p a re n t .co m
A fresh approach
Traditional learning takes a new direction
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PARENTING How to tackle sibling conflict
HAVING IT ALL The merits of flexi-boarding
AT THE TOUCH OF THEIR FINGERTIPS Coding at Brighton Girls’ Prep THE NEXT GENERATION
Star alumni
PREP
PHOTOGRAPHY: ANDREW HASSON; BRIGHTON PICTURES
Pupils in every year group take part in regular beach cleans, learning the importance of taking care of nature
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independentschoolparent.com | SPRING 2024
PREP
BESIDE THE SEASIDE From art lessons and mindfulness sessions to caring for the environment, there’s much to be learned on the coast, says Ant Falkus, Head of Brighton College Prep in East Sussex
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SPRING 2024 | independentschoolparent.com
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PARENTING
In her new book, How to be the Grown-up, clinical psychologist Dr Martha Deiros Collado addresses honesty, attachment, boundaries, and daily parenting challenges. In this extract, she covers sibling conflict….
Conflict between siblings can offer children positive opportunities to learn how to resolve differences with others in the future
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independentschoolparent.com | SPRING 2024
PARENTING
Making peace P
art of building a relationship means experiencing conflict, and sibling relationships are fertile ground to learn skills for conflict resolution. Rather than thinking of conflict as ‘bad’, reframe conflict as part of the necessary learning process of being in relationships with others. Depending on whether you’re ‘conflict confident’ or ‘conflict avoidant’, you may find this useful or perhaps triggering. If you tend to avoid or distract from having a conflict with others, take a moment to be curious about why. Who told you conflict was bad, scary or dangerous? When you avoid speaking up about your needs, wants or wishes to avoid a conflict, does it bring you closer to the other person or further apart? Your thoughts and emotions will shape the responses you have when you witness conflict around your child.
Consider what the conflict is communicating: • Is it a bid for connection and affection (before they know how to do it another way)? • It is because of forced requests to share? (Do they need your protection?) • Is there a need for personal space? (Is being in the car for an hour too much?) • Are there basic unmet needs? (How can you pre-empt these in the future?) • Is it rivalry? (Due to winning or losing, or does one of them not want to compete?) • Is it a misunderstanding? (What communication skills are missing?) • Is it teasing and winding-up? (Is it bullying or the need for assertiveness skills?)
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PHOTOGRAPHY: FREEPIK
Assessing the root of conflict
SPRING 2024 | independentschoolparent.com
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A FRESH
approach
With children’s mental health now in the spotlight, some schools are increasingly turning away from a traditional learning model to offer something a little different, writes Elizabeth Ivens
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independentschoolparent.com | SPRING 2024
WELLBEING
FROM ABOLISHING entrance examinations to
introducing more creative, practical cross-curricular work SCHOOLS ARE FREQUENTLY LOOKING AT
DIFFERENT PATHS FOR THEIR STUDENTS
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ften dubbed “hothouse” schools, highly academic schools have long been celebrated for helping generations of children to achieve the highest exam results. But many heads, even in London where thousands of children have long competed for places at the most academically rigorous schools, now believe that a more relaxed approach can work just as well. From abolishing entrance examinations to introducing more creative and practical cross-curricular work and a move away from traditional exams, schools are frequently looking at different paths for their students. Schools themselves have sometimes referred to this new approach as “greenhouse rather than hothouse”.
Hilary Phillips, Head at all-girls’ prep Hanford in Dorset, a proponent of the “greenhouse style”, explained: “With a hothouse, you have a target, you know where you’re going and you know what you’ve to do to get there and you measure how far along you are in getting to that target. But with the greenhouse style, it’s more a case of looking at what you’ve got and working out how to make the best of that child. “It’s much easier for a school to be a hothouse, because their pupils are all much of a muchness, and are all working towards the same target.” In London, Suzie Longstaff was Head at one of the capital’s highly competitive schools – Putney High School GDST – for eight years and is now Principal of the new London Park Schools group. She believes this competition in the capital’s
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PHOTOGRAPHY: SHUTTERSTOCK/HALFPOINT
Adjusting targets
SPRING 2024 | independentschoolparent.com
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FLEXI-BOARDING
St Margaret’s Junior School provides flexiboarding both to build children’s resilience and provide families with added support
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independentschoolparent.com | SPRING 2024
FLEXI-BOARDING
BEST OF
both worlds
How do you know if flexi-boarding is right for your child? Emma Gray, Head at St Margaret’s Junior School in Hertfordshire outlines the many benefits ▲
SPRING 2024 | independentschoolparent.com
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AI
DATA
ready Head of Eagle House Prep School in Berkshire Ed Venables explains how the teaching staff are preparing pupils for an AI-dependent future
SPRING 2024 | independentschoolparent.com
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Eagle House Prep is committed to keeping children ahead of the curve when it comes to digital learning
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