New School Planned Near Cambridge

[Definition]

I am part of a group planning to open a very small new 11–16 school near Cambridge. It is based on this logic. In the government's most recent Progress 8 tables, eight of the ten highest-progress schools in England teach a knowledge-rich curriculum strictly. We know this gets results. But children are not only minds to be trained. Adolescents and teenagers have a developmental need to spend undirected time together: time to talk, make, play and become themselves, away from adult direction and away from screens. Our school will offer both: rigorous teaching in the mornings, with occasional one-to-one work, until 2.20pm, and from 2.20pm to 6pm, free time to use the art room and garden, put on plays, practise music, read, run the school shop for charity, learn to cook, play games indoors and out, and spend time in their own designated nook.

We will teach a culturally rich curriculum and put families first. Fees will be at the lower end for Cambridge independent schools. We will have full days, no Saturdays, long holidays. Our active teaching style means that learning happens in the lessons, so no homework is required. Your child will come home having worked and played. It will not be a good fit for children who prioritise competitive sport, whose deepest interests lie in screens, who need every hour organised for them, or who will not take well to traditional, strict instruction. Otherwise, I would be very interested to hear comments about whether or not this school could meet the needs of some Cambridge parents.

I think there's probably already an oversupply of school places in Cambridge Independents.

How would you ramp up a school like this from scratch?

What kind of teaching expertise could you offer in such a small school?

Hello Weirdpig!

All or most Cambridge private schools choose to turn away some (or many) applicants (even where they have capacity to take them), so I don't think there is as such an oversupply.

The proposal is to begin with one English and Humanities teacher, one Maths and Science teacher and one Languages and Music teacher for 20-30 eleven year olds. The teaching staff would then ramp up proportionately each year as a new class joined. The curriculum is very carefully planned to ensure that the basics are rigorously covered.

I'd be surprised if people were willing to pay private fees to have the basics covered. We're paying for a lot more than the basics.

Do you think there are 20-30 private school applicants this year that were turned away from all of the private options in Cambridge? Are they the pupils you want?

Hi Weirdpig,

By basics, I really meant foundations - that is a better word. The first year involves teaching Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, the strongest possible basis for more advanced maths (lots of algebraic fractions), the French phonics that will mean they can develop a good accent and speaking ability, etc.

We are really looking for those twenty - thirty families who want THIS hybrid model of education - strict mornings and creative afternoons.

I live in Cambridge and my kids went to private.

there may be some parents who are happy with this but I wouldn’t be.

my dc at their prep were doing two languages by year 5 and had specialist music teachers plus many music groups - choir, orchestra and similar.

your ideas for the “free” time do not sound good and teenagers (and any young people for that matter) need supervision. Learning to cook is on the curriculum and I would expect to be a timetabled lesson, music practice needs a lot of sound proofed rooms which are very expensive to build, playing games is usually part of PE (rugby, football etc).

most Cambridge independents offer many extra curriculars including D of E, a whole raft of clubs, some offer cadet force or equivalent.

i agree that more needs to be offered beyond the curriculum but your ideas are not appropriate or enriching enough. My kids can read at home. They don’t need time to read at school. Equally they practice with me and we focus on scales/sightreading etc.

Algebraic fractions is higher level gcse. There is no particular need for them earlier than gcse and there are many other topics that would repay more depth.

people whose children are at Cambridge prep schools will not need french phonics as they will have been doing French since age5.

are you aiming at children who were in a state primary and are looking to transfer to indie for secondary?

Hi Octavia64!

Yes. It's not really for parents who prioritize facilities, or want their children at home learning under their guidance. It's more for those who want their children to learn what they need to at school and then have independent time to develop (while, of course, supervised) alongside others of their own age, and with creative opportunities provided. It's really an old fashioned boarding school model, just without the boarding.

The Leys offers this in Cambridge although admittedly they are largely boarding or what they call day boarding which is staying there until very late at night.

quite a few parents don’t go for the Leys because of the very long day.

you’d need to timetable the afternoons. It’s a great idea to let the kids choose but if there are only two music practice rooms they can’t all use them. Etc etc

Hi Octavia 64,

Yes, algebraic factions are part of GCSE. But they are also a very good way of identifying strengths and weaknesses in children's prior learning. This is because they involve all of equivalent fractions, common denominators, factorising and cancelling. They are way of practicing all the fundamentals. Siegler's work found fraction fluency at ten predicts maths attainment at sixteen better than almost any other measure.

With regard to French: I mean something more particular than "has done French before". Sound-spelling correspondence taught explicitly and drilled: which letter strings make which sounds, every time, until a child can look at a word they have never seen and say it correctly, and hear a word and write it. It's a great basis for future work, and not typically taught thoroughly by the English at any level.

Yes, the idea is, in a sense, the Leys' day boarding but more so. More intense teaching in the morning, and for undirected (not unsupervised) time to choose from enrichment activities in the afternoon.

Do you think this is a sound financial time for this enterprise given the sheer number of small independents going under.

It doesn’t sound like you have enough teachers - subject specialists are expensive but necessary.

Have you done proper market research? Have you got premises?

are you familiar with the market for independent education in Cambridge?

I think it is possible that what you are suggesting could work, premises would be problematic.

the most recent school that I know of to start in Cambridge is the heritage and they seem to have a similar ethos to your suggestions.

https://heritageschool.org.uk/our-school/the-school-day/

they are fairly popular but not generally with the people who send their kids to the preps.

Stiegler’s research has nothing to do with algebraic fractions.

What will you do for the child who doesn’t want to choose any of your options and just sit and do nothing 5 afternoons a week?

Fair correction on Stigler. I'd conflated Stigler and Hiebert's video-study work with Schmidt's curriculum analysis, which is where the depth-over-coverage argument actually comes from. The algebraic fractions heavy curriculum rests on mastery learning and Rosenshine, not on him.

I have kids at cambridge preps. This doesn’t sound far away from heritage. Bear in mind there is a huge component of neurodiversity in cambridge and like all the smaller schools you will get a lot of kids with (perhaps relatively mild but still real) neurodiversity. I am not alone in feeling I can teach my child a great deal of the extended curriculum provided they are happy and comfortable at school.

Right - what to do with a child who doesn’t want to choose any of the options and just sits and does nothing five afternoons a week is a key question. The first answer is that the school starts early and teaches very intensely, so that child will already have done more work than most, even in terms of classroom hours. The second is that doing nothing, around kids of the same age, with no screens, is a very healthy, and necessary, and neglected part of growing up. The third is that they will be gently guided towards what interests them.

I think Heritage is a great school. The difference is that the lesson time will be more intense, and the creative time more free.

lol you know your stuff I’ll give you that!

Are you an education specialist, Octavia64?

now retired was a teacher for twenty years at secondaries in and around Cambridge plus worked with the maths hub on various projects.

That's great! I'd love to meet with you sometime to hear more of your wisdom.

Have you looked into the costs of running a private school? 80% of fees income goes on salaries, this leaves 20% for rent, bills, equipment, business rates, marketing, insurance etc. The number of parent who are late paying or don’t pay fees is much higher than you would imagine too. Most set ups try to have another resource like a hall or football pitch they can rent out for income too.

You're right, a small non-selective school in Cambridge will get a significant number of neurodivergent children, and the model has to work for them or it doesn't work. Some of it helps: small classes, no homework, explicit routines, everything written down, no ambiguity about what's expected, and a quiet place in the afternoons for socially exhausted children to make their own choices. Some of it needs designing properly rather than assumed, such as sanctions that don't punish children for things they can't control and proper SEN provision rather than a line in a policy.
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Oh gosh yes. But most private schools need a lot of staff to maintain grounds, cater, provide marketing, keep in touch with old boys/girls, co-ordinate secretarial needs, run the chapel, maintain the archives... the list goes on. This will be a much leaner operation. But yes, defaulting payments is a big thing.

These guys are state but have set up recently. They specialise in autism but they may have useful experience to offer.

https://www.hopetreeschool.co.uk/school-history/

originally they were very small but have expanded quite a lot.