Hill House International has a new Headmaster

[Out2pasture]

With the recent damning Ofsted report, it will be interesting to watch this school re-organize.

The interim headmaster had a mixed reputation (putting it politely) from his previous appointments. He left his preceding school abruptly too.

Oh no how very disappointing.
Initially I thought Ofsted was just being very picky. Being an optimistic type I hoped it could sort itself quickly. But if the intrim has left after 1 month that's not a good sign.

JP58
Do you mean the new head who joined on 12th October has now resigned?! If so, I wonder if the job was just too big or if the owners were uncooperative?

Gosh, that poor school! I really hope they manage to find some good management to take over. It would be such a pity if it closed!

A pity and a challenge to encorporate the large student body into a very tight market.

the HH website has changed the headmaster info back to the original (pre October 2015 notice)

Wow.

Let's just hope they can recover. Problems aside, the school offers such a unique education to such a large number of children.

I read reports on another failing school and that one took 2 years to get to 'satisfactory'. Hopefully HH will be able to show enough improvement each time that they can too!

Actually, Nicholas Allen gave a year's notice before retiring from Newton Prep! He is a man of strong personality but an excellent Headmaster and educator - he was, after all, Chair of IAPS, the Independent Prep. School's association. For him to leave HH at such short notice says, I suspect, a lot more about the governenance of HH than it does about Mr. Allen. HH has always had a reputation for eccentricity - we looked at it when choosing a school for DS some 22 years ago and decided we didn't want him spending a good part of his day marching around Knightsbridge. Presumably part of the eccentricity was the Townsend family deciding not to join the afore said IAPS but to got heir own sweet way. Had they joined, they would have been inspected regularly bt ISI (independent Schools Inspectorate) which, although no less demanding, and roghtly so - has a slightly different outlook from Ofsted.

Yes, he gave notice, but the arrival of that notice was quite abrupt. He was not expected to leave and, as can be seen by seeking a further headship, was not heading for a planned retirement.

Many parents voted with their feet and left NewtonPrep, especially when he dismantled the learning support unit.

The change in the school under the new head is remarkable, the mood happier, and the numbers buoyant again.

Well, there are two ways of looking at that - When NA arrived he said he would stay 7 years and infact, he stayed 5. During those years, he took a school whose numbers had dropped to the point where, lovely and quirky though it was, was in trouble, to a the point where it was thriving. Some childen were removed because of the change of style and reduction in size of the Learning Support Unit. He was not everyone's cup of tea, I agree, but he left the school, with numbers up,particulalry in Years 7 & 8, and in a much better state than he found it.
I beleive the now not so new head - in her third year - is very popular with the parents.

I would put money on the new head having left because he had problems dealing with Mr. Richard Townend, the owner and former head. He is an extremely difficult man to get along with.

I have checked and Nicholas Allen went to Newton Prep in 2006, aged 53. He retired in 2013 at the usual retirement age of 60, having given a year's notice. Called into service again in October 2015 to try to help Hill House.

Nicholas Allen was quite a marmite figure at Newton Prep. We had issues (linked to his approach on dyslexia) and we were far from the only ones. Several well respected members of staff left in the early days, some of whom moved to senior positions elsewhere, where they have done very well.

I think it is very wrong to suggest that Newton was failing prior to his arrival. DS' year (year 6 when NA arrived) achieved 5 places at Westminster, 2 at KCL and 2 at Eton, plus lots of Latymer, Alleyns, Dulwich, City and so on. All in a school that was barely a decade old. We loved that the school managed a difficult balance of happy children and solid academic achievement, and feel those early days were important in fostering a love of learning in our DC. Hill House was also a school that seemed to produce happy children. I don't think too much should be read into NA not staying. Given how pressured some of the alternative schools can be, I really hope they solve their problems.

FWIW I hear good things about the current Newton Prep head.

www.standard.co.uk/news/londoners-diary/londoners-diary-prince-charles-s-old-prep-school-loses-its-head-a3128126.html

My eldest child spent 7 happy years at HH and gained a place at a successful London girls day school. The education at HH is very traditional and arguably outdated compared to other schools. However, the school appears to bring out the best in each child and my dd developed learning and revision techniques at HH that have remained with her throughout her secondary years. Dd is currently waiting to hear whether she has been offered a place at Oxford.

There are issues with the school, in particular around lack of space and at times the teaching could be patchy, but the same could be said about other London schools where outdoor space is limited.

It is notable that the ofsted inspectors that produced the 2015 report have been largely discredited.

HH is not a disastrous school and they manage to get the children into some of the best schools in the country.

"the school appears to bring out the best in each child"

The thing that would bother me is that the inspectors found that the school simply did not know if that was the case. They didn't know enough about the pupils' learning.

This inspection report has not been discredited.

It also did not attempt to criticise the curriculum of the taking of a 'traditional' approach per se. It was however very concerned that the curriculum/approach taken was carried out in such a substandard way.

The school might not be 'disastrous' but it is not reaching the standards achieved by other preps in the area. And if it were a state school, could well be facing special measures. And yes, state schools in special measures still produce some individual pupils who do very well indeed (whether because or in spite of the school). But every school should also be doing considerably better for all their pupils. Starting with knowing how each is doing.

The whole saga is extraordinary. Knowing the school it can only be that the Townends were just not prepared to change their ways. Turkeys voting for Christmas? A very large school it is tough on the parents who will desperately be trying to jump ship or keep the ship afloat for long enough to get their children on to secondary school. Clearly there were dirty tricks going on behind the scene to smear the reputations of the Ofsted officials. Not fun whether private or public sector but I suspect that if this was a state school something would have been done before now.

A friend had her DC at this school a few years ago - she was shocked by how much tutoring went on ....by the teachers of the school. The restaurant at Peter Jones was like an extension classroom after school and that is where a lot of her friends collected their DC from after their tutoring sessions. And these tutoring session began very early - yr2 onwards...!

She was not surprised by the Ofsted report.

For balance, I have another friend who had her DDs go through the school and was very happy....but she too reported the extra sessions parents paid for on Saturday mornings (with the staff) for 11+ prep.

I can easily imagine the Townends being an eccentric family very set in their ways and unwilling to change, which is clearly idiocy given how dire the situation is looking! Does anyone know how soon OFSTD are required to re-inspect?

Lon123
"Clearly the were dirty tricks going on behind the scenes to smear the reputations of the Ofsted officials" you know one of them is now in prison for child porn offences!?

Admittedly my views are based on anecdotal stories so by no means definitive, but it seems that the Townends are increasingly becoming the issue at HH. The school has always been reluctant to have extensive parental interactions. This coupled with the lack of any governance board means the senior management faces no accountability at all. Families accepted this quid pro quo in the past but now that the school is under critical scrutiny, the lack of communication is becoming an increasingly burning topic. With the second weak report and abrupt resignation of the new HM, parents are hesitant to give the family the benefit of the doubt for much longer.

The school has been steadily losing some of its shine since the founder's death. While the now senior Townend was a steady hand, the next generation of Townends are rather weak. Apparently, one of the sons has been reluctantly hoisted back in to the Second Master role and does not inspire much confidence in parents and students.

For now the school is coasting along as its huge and 1000+ children are not going to find new places overnight. The family seems fine with the status quo and has limited motivation to change their ways as they know that given their location, there will always be children joining so even the departure of a few doesn't bother them too much.

Lets watch this space for sure...

London Chillaxer interesting! But surely the Townends must see that they could be shut down if they don't change their ways?

EmbroideryQueen one would hope so! But never underestimate the propensity for arrogant complacency in these situations. What might seem obvious to us is sometimes not registered by those living in ivory towers. There is a reason why in the corporate world, private companies fail after the passing of the founding generation - more often than not, succession issues are the culprit.

Any resident/ passer-by around the various sites of HH can testify to the chaos of the school drop-offs and pick-ups. Its the only school that does not bother to have staff acting as marshalls to facilitate traffic flow and assist parents dropping off or picking up the children.

The Townends seem to believe that they can continue to hang on to the coat tails of their past glories. The school still talks about the fact that Prince Charles went to school there and there have been not-so-subtle planted stories in the media about how the school was good enough for the royals so any criticism is unfounded. Though I am a fan of the royal family :), I do wonder what relevance is it for children today if the Prince went there 50 years ago??!!

What passed off as 'eccentricity and quirkiness' earlier is increasingly seen as incompetence and having a don't care attitude.

I doubt the family will change. The best advice for them would be to take a back seat in school management (they are sole shareholders anyway) and have a proper external supervision of the school. The fact that the one external HM they did finally hire left after barely a month says it all really.

Hill house is hardly a failing school!! Look at the results! My son went there about 6 years ago, it's a great school, lovely teachers. Think the Colonels kids should spend some cash to get it up to OFSTED perhaps over zealous standards, then opt out.

"My son went there about 6 years ago"

That's not completely relevant though. This inspection report was last year, not 2010..

"It's a great school, lovely teachers"

Nobody is saying that the teachers are not lovely. The problem is that their own comments to OFSTED showed that they do not feel well supported, and inspectors also found that they did not seem to know how each pupil was doing, and consequently they simply did not know at any stage in the school if pupils were indeed achieving their potential.

"Look at the results!!"

Which are not what they were. If you are a London family, you're much more likely to look to Newton Prep or one of the Thomas schools these days for reliable transfer to the boarding and day schools with the more academic reputations. I can see there would be an enduring attraction for then peripatetic families who was a taste of a 'traditional' British school whilst they're in London.