Fulham School A GSG School

What The Good Schools Guide says

Heads

Since September 2022, Rebecca (Bex) Tear MA PGCE (also executive head), previously head of Badminton School in Bristol where she spent 10 years. Since her degree in chemistry from Exeter, she has worked in a range of schools in both the state and independent sectors and continued a journey of lifelong learning, with a master’s in educational leadership in 2012 and, more recently, a postgrad diploma in entrepreneurship from the Judd Business School in Cambridge. She has served as a school governor and still inspects schools for ISI.

Head of prep since 2023, Edward Fielding previously head of primary at Nord Anglia in Hong Kong.

Entrance

Main entry in reception based on date of registration – the earlier the better. Either offered a definite, reserve or waiting list place. Non-selective, aim for balance of genders, birth dates and also give priority to siblings as long as it’s felt they’ll thrive. Was taking in four forms in each pre-prep year during building works, now back up to five.

All new reception children visited by pre-prep team who speak to keyworker to assess strengths and areas of need. Where child has learning needs, will involve SENCo to see if can make it work – have had children with visual impairment, specific learning difficulties (normally diagnosed at ages 7-9). If needs (like ASD) make environment uncomfortable for pupil, school will work with parents to find an alternative setting where they can flourish.

Smaller intake in years 3 (15 pupils), 7 (25) and 9 (15) – some occasional places available in other years. Mostly automatic entrance to prep and senior school from pre-prep, though will sit assessment.

Largely local intake – nurseries (including its own new one), pre-preps and preps as well as state schools. About 30 per cent from ‘all over the world’.

Sixth form opened in September 2021, with students following the IB programme. Entrance via three papers in chosen IB subjects (chosen from school’s list), plus interview with head.

Exit

Small numbers to eg Ken Prep at end of year 2 but most carry on until at least year 6 (when 45 leave) or year 8 (35 departures) - so parents looking for a change of scene at 7+ or 8+ are on their own. Instead, thoughtful transition from pre-prep to prep with numerous opportunities to get acquainted for the children to visit the prep school, including full day of lessons in June.

Latest results

School won't release 2022 results. First GCSEs were taken in summer 2020; first sixth form started in autumn that year, working towards IB.

Teaching and learning

Parents see the school as occupying the middle ground - a relatively unselective place where pupils can be themselves. If you like the approach, great, but accept that it won’t be for everyone. ‘School is very honest that it’s for some children and not others,’ says parent. Air also allowed into the curriculum by way of themes that work their way through every subject – an approach that’s a much touted feature of many schools, according to previous head, but frequently not done terribly well. Links to philosophy of Inspired, the new education group owner of the school, which extols benefits of ‘lateral thinking, comprehension and innovative application of skills and concepts’. Could range from getting each senior year group to create or make something (anything from a party to a play or charity initiative) to a whole-school teaching initiative, where members of staff filter a theme through their own subject. It’s also – like other London schools – tapping into the current vogue for building young entrepreneurs, with initiatives like Perfect Pitch - a competition where teams present their business ideas to a panel of judges.

Goals are ‘simple’ says the school – it’s all about diversity of outcome, with children’s achievements celebrated in context. Lowish class sizes (18 in pre-prep and prep, normal max of 22 in senior school) undoubtedly help, ditto the pupil–teacher ratios, best of all for seniors – just three to one (compared with eight and six to one in prep and pre-prep respectively). Senior ratio will change as school expands.

Lessons are big on interactivity, delivered by what parent described as ‘sensational’ teachers (some stalwarts with decades of experience). In pre-prep, child might be singled out for score of 3/10 in spelling that – for them – is exceptional. Displays don’t seek to backspace the mistakes. One year 1 pupil’s cheeky picture of a big cat was labelled, ‘A lion can eat a persn’ (sic).

Key in these youngest years is fluid differentiation – no setting – with children moving to different groups for literacy and numeracy and TAs used tactically from year 1, going where they’re most needed, adding spot of challenge here, a dollop of support there (while there’s no official labelling or comparison, children here as so often have a very clear idea about their strengths).

Form teachers (impressively large number of men on the staff) cover much of the ground, but school stresses number of specialist teachers employed (they reckon a school USP). Music, dance and French (from reception); ICT, art and sport from year 1. Science, taught in the lab, big on experiments but low on Bunsen burners (come in at prep stage). Plenty of (chaperoned) movement between lesson venues sows seeds of later independence. Prep adds additional subjects (such as Latin – from year 5) and – from year 5 – specialists in everything.
Between years 5 and 8, some pupils stay on, others prepare to leave and new pupils join. School’s solution is for everyone to follow the same curriculum, syllabus broadly aligned with Common Entrance and sets (and CE scholarship group) introduced in year 7. Exams become more formal (taken in the school hall from year 5). ‘Don’t go from zero to 100 but ease their way. The pace they go in year 3 isn’t the same as year 5 or year 7 – it’s like building a muscle, not throwing into the deep end but allowing them to swim up there,’ says parent.

Parents stressed the particular magic that goes into the 11+ and Common Entrance process. Somehow it’s detoxed, they say, so that children genuinely seem to approach exams as a step up rather than a mountain to climb. ‘Haven’t seen my child or friends exhibit any sense of stress or anxiety,’ thought one parent.

Emphatically not a testing, testing and more testing regime (though for all the laid-back vibe, tutoring remains rife, according to parents). Instead, plenty of opportunities for original thinking and attractive addition of gentle humour. To hear year 7s confidently debating the proposition ‘Are we born evil?’ with a fine line in semantics – one point was dismissed as an opinion, and thus invalid - was an eye opener. Plenty of fun, too. We enjoyed watching some of the younger prep pupils, delighted to be creating a marble run out of cardboard boxes and sellotape.

While numbers going on to senior school are currently small (children who’ve had almost a decade’s worth of the school by year 8 understandably want fresh horizons), parents think it can only grow in popularity. ‘Having a senior school that’s co-ed and middle of the road and caters for a wider range… [makes it] a fantastic option,’ says parent. ‘There’s a huge need, particularly in this part of London because there just aren’t that many options.’

Expectations in senior school are that everyone will take six core subjects at GCSE (English lit and lang, maths, and three sciences) plus four options, including French, Spanish and Latin, art and design, computer science and drama but currently not music or PE. School does its best to be infinitely adaptable. Flexible approach to subjects – if children really aren’t keen, potential to drop a subject. Tracking and progress designed to pinpoint where student is and what might be capable of achieving (will soon be compatible with pre-prep and prep tracking system).

Learning support and SEN

There are regular reports and meetings, not so much to pick holes but fill any gaps, while much-praised SEN team offers one-to-one lessons (extra charge, maximum two a week) with dedicated SEN team (two in pre-prep, working four and two days respectively). Also sessions with external OT and SALT who work across other schools.

The arts and extracurricular

Drama and music felt to be most popular synapse boosters and first-class throughout. Lots of choirs (separate for boys and girls) orchestras and ensembles – even a percussion club and school of rock band, while pre-prep pupils enjoy timetabled lessons that include a weekly singalong for each year group together and, from year 2, are introduced to recorder, violin and ukulele. Chamber choir much praised – singing is ‘amazing’, says parent (an understatement, if final prep rehearsals for Lion King on day of visit were anything to go by). Around 170 pupils take individual music lessons in school (many more outside), achieving up to grade 7.

Residential visits start in year 4 with trip to Flatford Mill learning (among other things) to set humane mammal traps. Also annual ski trip, assorted sports tours (year 5 football – boys and girls – to Gothenburg). All teachers are involved in running lunchtime and after-school clubs (others bought in at extra cost). Prep pupils are encouraged to choose at least one club each term - homework to hair braiding, jewellery making to mini engineers. Seniors have music ensembles, comedy improvisation, science clubs, debating, coding, singing groups, with DofE offered from year 9. Generally good though parents occasionally question value for money. ‘Child’s end-of-term karate display consisted of standing up, lifting leg in the air and bowing,’ says one.

Sport

Improved sports facilities at King’s House sports ground in Chiswick have significantly reduced travel time. ‘Encourages every pupil to do something, whether they’re good at it or not,’ says a parent. And teachers know how to raise flagging spirits after a bad result. ‘We lost the semi-finals at football and the teacher got us food from Tesco. They have this way of making people happy,’ says prep pupil. Team games dominate until year 10, when there’s switch to more individual activities e.g. life-saving, badminton, aerobics. Lots of tours – co-ed football tour to Gothenburg, year 5 rugby in Cornwall, prep and senior girls’ netball to Marbella, annual ski trip. Currently just doesn’t have the critical mass to field the numbers and standard of teams that some parents would like to see – in which case tend to move either for bigger co-eds or selective single-sex schools. However, as school grows, team choice – and results – both expected to be bigger and better, girls’ sports already upweighted.

Ethos and heritage

Surprisingly young: started only in 1996 with a single class by Jane Emmett (still a governor). In 2014, snapped up by Inspired, an international education group which boasts ‘64 premium schools, 45,000 students, five continents’ but has managed to keep this school’s identity miraculously intact. Now on four sites with decent amount of outdoor space – latest is the new sixth form campus. Formerly Fulham Prep, but the new name reflects the school’s growth.

Pre-prep on Fulham High Street is a recently renovated 1860s building housing reception over two floors and extending in approximate horseshoe shape out into the playground. It’s comfortable, cosy and listed (top floor roof buttresses have welcome padding to protect taller visitors). Second, more modern, and recently renovated, building with four floors accommodates remaining year groups and includes hall with warm lighting, specialist teaching rooms and music room.

Outdoor spaces – more and prettier than you’d think – are attractively hidden round corners: outdoor play areas for reception, artificial grass, pirate ship playground, Astro, plus delightfully unmanicured garden with crops tended to by children (and ex-goldfish tended to by heron).

Closer to west Kensington is the prep school, currently also housing senior school pupils and occupying about an acre. Outside it’s slightly on the bare side, though not necessarily the school’s fault. There’s a token tree - lovingly tended and looks it – and they have recently added a new green surfacing on the playground. Nice touches include water fountains and the odd eccentricity – an old red phone box that’s ‘just decorative or used as base for hide and seek,’ says pupil.

Inside, school has been built up ‘into the eaves’. Stairs – ‘too many,’ says pupil – can get congested, though breaktime noise was well within acceptable limits. Year 9s and 10s currently share premises on top floor with bright, white classrooms, a small shared common room (tour guides slightly embarrassed by cheerful clutter of dumped bags) and thoughtful touches including a notice board with ‘Gratitude corner’ in printed letters above a blank space (we assume a TBC rather than deficit in thankfulness). Library (with mezzanine treehouse reading space), theatre, science lab, art studio, dance and fitness studio are among the areas recently improved and there’s a new music block.

Pastoral care, inclusivity and discipline

School previously had its three Cs - consideration, commitment and courtesy – known by heart by all pupils. Now developed into the Fulham ‘core’ with input from pupils, designed to (among other things) teach the value of failure; it crops up in initiatives like ‘Failsafe’ – get your mistakes in early – and as an enterprise goal. Staff won’t always leap in to rescue initiatives that aren’t working but will encourage children to talk through process and help themselves, an approach that brought recent fashion show, entirely pupil-led initiative, back from the brink. Perhaps accounts for moderate rather than febrile competitive spirit between houses, thought older pupils, reaching apogee on sports day.

Bullying swiftly dealt with, felt parents. One rare incident was posted into the worry box and ‘never mentioned again’. School counsellor also on hand, daily meetings with tutor good at flagging up and resolving many of the routine issues.

When things do go right, they’re made much of – big and small. Celebration assemblies recognise everything from top academic prizes to lining up awards in pre-prep so low hoverers as well as high fliers get their moment in the sun. But the biggest lure, we reckon, is decision to let year 11s wear own clothes – bound to be a sure-fire winner.

Prep school food was only area felt to be letting the (buttered) side down though one parent reckoned children are just too fussy. Strenuous efforts now made and children vote with their tokens – if like their grub, post smiley face disc by way of acknowledgement – and there’s also a wizard wheeze where all lunch waste is weighed and logged by house. ‘Brilliant at encouraging people to eat everything on their plate,’ says pupil.

Pupils and parents

Still traditional – more working dads than mums but dual incomes now far more common, says school. Many parents are from the immediate area and paint an idyllic picture of informal out-of-school socialising in local parks. Happy, relaxed vibe. ‘Have made some lifelong friendships,’ says one. At senior level, smaller cohort felt by one parent to be ‘ideal for those who can excel in small group rather than get lost’. Parents all praise the natural charm of pupils and desire to answer questions (not deliver pre-rehearsed response). ‘Sweet and not robotic,’ says parent, ‘just happy little children, never fails to astound me how normal they are – hold the door open without being told but still chatting with their mates, might have a finger up their nose – it’s a real school.’ Co-ed but with girls still in the minority – though for most parents it’s not an issue, particularly with more girls starting to join in years 7 onwards.

Money matters

Sibling discount of 10 per cent. No bursaries or financial support currently offered – ‘programme under development’.

The last word

A warm, popular and well-led school that reaps high praise from its predominantly local parents. Evolution into all-through school is being carefully managed (separate senior school premises – and a few more girls – will undoubtedly help) and could pay off for early adopters. But for prep parents seeking success at 11+ and 13+ - the biggest customers of the lot - it’s reassuringly business as usual.

Special Education Needs

As a non-selective school for 4+ entry, we have a few children who prove to be dyslexic or dyspraxic. Should this be suspected, we request that the child has a full educational assessment with an educational psychologist. If necessary, we can then provide some 1 to 1 support, no more than two half hour lessons per week, for which a charge is made. This programme is supervised by our SENCO together with our part-time dyslexia specialists. We also have the services of a paediatric physiotherapist who spends one day a week in school to help children who are known to have dyspraxic type difficulties. We are an academic school and prefer, where possible, to limit the number of special needs children in any one year. 09-09

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