Progressive primary schools in or near London?

[PurdeyHJ]

Hi! We're moving to London from NYC. Would love to find some progressive co-ed primary schools in London - for example Reggio-emilia-inspired. Does anything like that exist? We're considering areas such as Dulwich and Muswell Hill but pretty flexible.

I have no idea what Reggio means but if you want to find out more about Dulwich I suggest going to the East Dulwich Forum

www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/

There are a couple of Montessori schools you might like. (A couple in all of London)

But I've never heard of any Reggio schools in the UK.

Basically there are very few alternative schools in the UK. None state and only a handful of private.

And most Montessori 'schools' are actually pre-schools.

www.montessori.org.uk/msa/find_a_school?sq_content_src=%2BdXJsPWh0dHAlM0ElMkYlMkZhZG1pbi5tb250ZXNzb3JpLm9yZy51ayUyRnNjaG9vbHMlMkZzZWFyY2glMkZpbmRleC5waHAlM0ZyZXN1bHRzJTNEMSUyNmFnZV9zdGFydCUzRDYlMjZhZ2VfZmluaXNoJTNEMTImYWxsPTE%3D

I'm not familiar with Reggio-Emilla, but there are a number of progressive primary schools in and around London. If you are just looking for primary then there are many options, including a number of Montessori schools.

If you are looking for a longer term solution (i.e. from 3 to 16/18) then the options are a bit more restricted and you will most probably be looking at the private sector.
In London I believe there is the King Alfred School in the north.
The two most obvious ones outside of London are Bedales and Frensham Heights - they are both to the south of London in Surrey and Hampshire.
There's also St Christophers in Letworth this is quite far out of London to the North West. These three schools all share a fairly similar philosophy, although their day to day approaches do vary.

Note - I've limited this to progressive rather than purely alternative - i.e. schools with a child centred approach but broadly mainstream so no Steiner.

Hope this give some useful pointers.

You could ask on MN Local too, but progressive schools aren't v popular here, and all would be fee-paying, so you'd need to contact each school individually to enquire/apply. All schools in the capital are likely to have long waiting lists, so make your enquiries ASAP.

Yes Bedales has Dunannie and Dunhurst prepress and prep schools which are definitely progressive. A friend moved her DC their from a more conventional school and is so happy with it.
You might also want to look at Hampton Court House in Hampton which is much closer to London. It gets mixed reviews and in the past has had bad press, but a friend's children were not only happy there, they did really well academically and became lovely, quirky, independent minded, kind and confident individuals.

Not a great help, sorry, but in case it jogs someone else's memory - sure I read on here not too long ago about a primary school in Peckham that was v progressive. Possibly built next to a playground and the kids spent a lot of their lessons in the playground/outside rather than in the classrooms. Assuming it must be private as the classes were v small, or maybe it was a new free school. Wish I could remember more about it, hope somebody can...

Ah! And as soon as I posted, I remembered the name. It's this place:

www.smallacresschool.org/about.html

No personal experience of it obviously, but might poss be of interest to OP?

Funnily enough, the only reason I've come across the Reggio Emilia approach is that my son's (state) primary was big on it. I think Montessori was pretty much assimilated into early years education in the state sector, so rarely gets a mention.

Things might be different post-Gove, perhaps a teacher could confirm?

thelondonacornschool.co.uk/
Educate small school in Kingston
King Alfred's North London

In Crouch End, next to Muswell Hill, there's a Rudolf Steiner school. I don't know anyone with children there, but I know someone who liked it when she was considering moving back here www.rudolfsteiner.london.sch.uk/

Rosemary Works School on the Hackney/Islington border is a lovely, progressive primary school:

rosemaryworks.com

I think the Kingston one is called Educare. I have also heard interesting things about Hampton Court House and Unicorn School in Kew is supposed to be quite child centred. (Both of those are few paying unfortunately). There is a Steiner school out near Heathrow somewhere I think too?

Another shout out for Rosemary Works, N1.

The ethos of the nursery is heavily based upon Reggio-emilia principles, in addition they have also introduced Forest School concepts into the curriculam to.

It is highly likely that these methods carry on into the primary school.

It is a very impressive set-up.

You may also like Dallington (right at the bottom of Islington).