Foreword
The right choice for you
Pauline Edgar - Principal, Queenswood
As a parent, I know that choosing a school for your son or daughter is one of the toughest and most important decisions you may be faced with and increasingly parents are turning towards the independent sector for their children’s education. Gone are the days when a private education was the exclusive domain of the rich and famous and when parents were not included in what occurred within the classroom or boarding house of their child’s school. Parents place value on a first class education, giving their child as many opportunities as possible: you want the best for your child and are investing in his or her future.
With so many excellent schools in our area – as can been seen in the pages of this comprehensive publication – we are spoilt for choice: pre-preparatory, preparatory, senior, day, boarding, single-sex, co-educational and a whole range of additional options are available. Prospectuses, websites and league tables are all influencing factors in your initial research, as are recommendations from friends and your child’s current school. According to recent research, the most likely influence in a family’s final decision to choose one school above another is the school’s ethos: parents assess how closely the school shares the same ethos and values as the family. Many independent schools are selective in their intake and a mutually beneficial matching process between the school and a possible new pupil will be in place: the school seeks pupils who will benefit from the type of education on offer and who, in turn, will make a valuable contribution to the life and success of the school.
‘Value’ has many definitions! Each school will wish to ‘value’ your child as an individual and this is right and proper; your son or daughter will be appreciated as a ‘valuable’ member of the school community. But what of ‘value-for-money’ and ‘value-added’? These are concepts which should assist you when reducing your long list of possible schools to a manageable short list. When making your judgement you should consider what the fees cover, for example, meals, books, equipment. Value-added is defined by the Department for Education and Skills as “The progress that schools help individuals to make relative to their different starting points.” In January 2006 the DfES published a league table of participating senior schools with regard to their GCSE results and the value-added factor and more information about this can be seen by visiting the website www.dfes.gov.uk. Whether you are influenced by league tables or not, these are available and you may wish to view them at some point.
As well as the diverse collection of schools presented within this excellent publication, the services of The Independent Schools Council (London & the South East) is of much value and can be found at www.isc.co.uk or by telephoning 0870 3435363.
I wish you every success in your search for the right school for your child.
Pauline Edgar
Principal, Queenswood