Senior School Head Teachers’ Perceptions
This is the third of three chapters in which I discuss and analyse the results of the interviews carried out for this research. This study specifically sought the views and perceptions of current prep school key stakeholders with regards to benefits of and threats to, such establishments. The chapters have each taken a stratum of the data and analysed it in terms of the views of a particular group of respondents. Chapter 6 explored the views of prep school parents and chapter 7 explored the views of prep school Heads. This chapter will now look at the views of senior school heads.
Prep schools, albeit the standalone type, cannot be viewed in isolation; they are educating children who will move on to senior schools to continue their education (at either 11 or 13 years of age). For this reason, included in the key stakeholders group, were Heads of senior schools. The specific schools chosen were from among those attended by pupils at the chosen prep schools (see Chapter 5). Most pupils who leave prep schools, attend senior schools which either take pupils at 11 years old (Year 7), at 13 years old (Year 9) or which have an intake at both stages. Due to the nature of this research it was the latter two types of senior school which were approached for their contributions to this study. Two schools from each region were co-educational and one from each was boys only. The schools were selected by considering the senior schools to which the pupils of the selected prep schools transferred (identified from school websites). Schools which received pupils from all four of the prep schools within each region were then considered and the final choice was made through convenience sampling.
In total six Heads of these senior schools were interviewed; three from each of the pre-identified two regions (Greater London and Rest of England). These interviews were conducted at the schools and all interviews were recorded and transcribed in the same manner as the interview with the Heads of the prep schools. The senior school Heads were posed similar questions to those asked
of the previous stakeholders, covering the following areas: • Benefits of prep schools educating pupils to the end of Year 8 • Clients of such prep school
• Competitors of such prep schools
• Benefits of such prep school pupil, over and above other schools • Current issues facing this type of school
• The future for this type of school
Again, these were solely used for guidance and conversations took their own directions where I guided but did not control, the discussion. As with the prep school Heads, the senior school Heads were very forthcoming and happy to discuss the above issues at length.
This chapter, as before, will be subdivided by the questions/theme (where suitable). However due to the nature of the responses, two of the questions will be combined i.e. the benefits of a prep school and the quality of a prep school pupil. In previous chapters these have elicited similar responses to each other but there were still enough distinctions to warrant them being treated separately, this is not the case in this chapter and so they will be dealt with together. In addition, responses to the question about competitors will not be discussed as this raised no new information.
The views and perceptions of these stakeholders were coded and analysed and the discussion below compares and contrasts the views of these stakeholders and makes comparisons with the views expressed in the previous two chapters.
There emerged from discussion with the senior school heads a distinction between types of prep schools; their differences in nature acknowledged. A further departure from previous comments is the view expressed by senior school heads regarding the academic strengths of prep schools, or more precisely, the argument that such a benefit does not exist.
Responses of senior school heads
The respondents are comprised of six senior school Heads.
It is perhaps understandable that the responses of senior school Heads and prep school Heads may be conflicting as each will have their own interests in mind and many of the senior school Heads interviewed took pupils at 11 as well as 13 and therefore prep school were in essence a form of competition.
Prep school benefits
Even more than with previous stakeholders, this question was interlinked with the responses to “What does the prep school pupil (who attends a school which educates pupils to the end of Year 8) have over and above others?” and so these two questions will be addressed here together.
The opening response by a Greater London school Head was “it depends on the prep school!” This was the first time that a distinction of this type had been made by any respondent. It may be because the Heads of senior schools are in the position of interacting with several different schools on an ongoing basis and are better placed to notice such things. I am surprised however, that parents did not make such a comment, given that at least some of them had considered other prep schools prior to their final choice. It may be that their responses reflected the general benefits of prep schools and not the specific benefits of their current school or due to the fact that they are not in a position to judge/observe other prep schools’ outputs.
Some are better than others. You learn very quickly which schools you want to foster a relationship with and which you would rather discourage. Like anything, they come in all shapes and sizes and are of varying standards. You also need to consider their strengths, some of the smaller preps are great for pupils who need that intimacy, but you are unlikely to have sporting excellence in a child from that type of school. “Horses for courses” really! (SR2)
This type of view was supported by some of the others to a certain extent although all of the other Heads were also willing to offer some general benefits
which they thought applied to all prep schools and their pupils. These views were in line with those held by the parents and prep school Heads, namely a breadth of knowledge which included the mention of a Classics background, greater grounding in French, greater sporting excellence, a greater likelihood of playing two or three musical instruments, and “usually but not always, a greater grasp of the 3 Rs so they are ready to tackle the expectations of GCSEs”. In contrast, one Head expressed a lack of literacy ability from pupils moving from prep schools and would rather they join at 11 so as to iron out these issues as soon as possible. Again, this highlights the diversity of views being expressed. Another commented on the more mature approach to work and greater independence of learning. In both regions, again in line with parental and prep school Heads’ beliefs was the mention of better leadership skills and greater confidence.
Any child who joins us at 13, no matter where they have come from are the same for the first few days. They are the “newbies” and have all the usual fears and anxieties, but the prep school child adjusts far more quickly. Their confidence grows (or surfaces) and they are away (SL1).
Of key interest here however was a view expressed by three of the Heads across both regions which was the concept that they believed prep schools did not produce academically more able pupils.
From our tracking data, it is clear that pupils who join us at 11 perform better in GCSEs than those who join at 13 - the majority of which are from prep schools (SL2).
Whilst another agreed with this view, he added that he felt prep schools were socially of benefit to pupils, but academically, the benefit was doubtful. This view is only expressed by four of my respondents and as already mentioned, the sample size is too small to make any generalisations, let alone relying on the views of only four respondents. However, if this view is found to be a more commonly-held belief, it could have an effect on the section of the prep school clientele looking for excellence of results and not the holistic aspect of the prep school education/ethos.
If this is indeed the case, then it is not surprising that prep school Heads did not mention this as it would not reflect positively on them or their schools, or perhaps they are unaware of such information. From the sample interviewed within this research there is a clear disparity between the views of the senior school heads and those of the client parents of prep schools with regard to the academic effects of prep schools. However it has to be acknowledged that the measure of academic excellence of the prep school tends to be its success in getting pupils into their chosen senior schools and not the results achieved two or three years later at GCSE. GCSE success or otherwise tends to be attributed to the senior school. It would be worth investigating why this difference in achievement at GCSE might be the case, especially as when the syllabuses of the GCSE and Common Entrance for languages and maths are compared, they cover extremely similar topics and to a similar depth. So in essence, the pupils in prep schools will cover much of the work again in their senior schools. Perhaps it is the case they switch off and become disinterested.
These above views are of added significance given the following comment of one Head:
Year 7 is often a wasted year in senior schools as the pupils take a long time to adjust to their new surroundings and expectations as they are not really mature enough to cope with the change. Everything academic is really put on the back burner (SL1).
This view was supported in the literature which suggested a dip in motivation and attainment in the first two years in secondary schools. The National Middle Schools’ Forum (NMSF) a noticeable decline in pupils’ learning behaviour in Years 7 and 8 in a two-tier system (National Middle Schools’ Forum, 2002), however this drop did not appear when children stayed on in middle schools (Gillard, 2011).
So we have senior school Heads stating that they would rather pupils join at 11 as they perform better at GCSE than those who join them at 13, we have prep Heads saying that the Common Entrance examination in some subjects is
too demanding and covers the majority of the GCSE syllabus anyway (i.e. pupils need to cover it by 13) and another Head saying that Year 7 in a senior school is wasted time for pupils as their developmental stage is not sufficient to make the needed transition at that stage. Given this diversity of views they may be explainable in a number of ways although again this will need further investigation. The extent of the prep school syllabus and the restrictions of Common Entrance examination (of which more later), has potentially some effect on this. Alternatively, perhaps, timetabling has something to do with it; all the extras offered by a prep school which contributes to the holistic experiences and to moulding and developing the social benefits may come at a cost - that of academic teaching time. One Head, in response to this question said
Benefits of a prep school? To supply the senior schools which start at 13. Without them we are stuffed! (SL1)
This is but one view and certainly said with a smile. The other senior school Heads have shown that they value prep schools slightly more than this Head indicates, but it may be that this is the harsh truth. In contrast to this one view and far more in line with the Heads of preps and the parents of prep school pupils, were the comments about the excellent facilities, the range of opportunities (both in and out of the classroom), “a first class academic education” and “wonderful manners and behaviour”.
So it can be seen that whilst many of the benefits of the prep school and of their pupils given by the senior school Heads have echoed those discussed in previous chapters, a distinction between different prep schools has also been introduced. This distinction is twofold: first, the quality of individual prep schools and perhaps any specialisms they may have. Second, the difference between the schools that predominantly feed senior schools that only take at 13 and the schools which feed a mixture of those that take at both 11 and 13 and those that take at 13. Whilst these distinctions were not explicitly made, the differences were apparent from the nature of some of the responses.
doubt in the academic excellence associated with prep schools. This was purportedly backed by statistical, tracking data comparing GCSE results which it was claimed showed that those joining a school at 11 did better in these exams than those joining at 13. This tracking data was only referred to by one of the Heads, although the benefits of joining at 11 as opposed to 13 were espoused by other Heads too. It was not possible to find such statistical data for independent schools in the literature to support or discard this claim even though one of the Heads stated that he had such evidence for his school. However, when data surrounding state middle schools is considered, research has suggested that there is no benefit at GCSE of having joined a school at 11 or 13; any benefits of a three-tier compared with a two-tier system were no longer evident (Jesson, 1999; Wyatt, 2012). There are a number of reasons why this could be the case but further research would be beneficial so that prep schools can use the reasons to inform their teaching and future.
Prep school clients
The main view of the senior school Heads with regard to the nature of the prep school client were: those wanting entry to a certain type of senior school i.e. the schools that take at 13 only. This is of particular interest as it was not a view expressed by the prep school heads themselves, however has certainly emerged from an analysis of the data in this research and is discussed further in Chapter 9. Secondly was an expression of customers who were seeking “a solid start”/ “good foundation”/ “the best”. In addition to these two views, a couple of the senior school Heads also made reference to “traditional values” and a smaller environment, as had previous respondents. Overall, no new type of perceived client was identified by this set of stakeholders. The emphasis tended to be on those seeking a good start in the educational stakes or those looking to move to a particular type of senior school.
Issues facing prep schools
In line with responses from other stakeholders, the in this section Heads identified the economy as being a current issue facing the prep school although their explanations as to why that was the case differed.
As with the parent key stakeholders and the prep Heads, the senior Heads raised the view that “other schools” were a potential threat to the prep school. Similar issues emerged as discussed in the previous chapters with the concept of parents preferring to choose a school which enabled their children to be educated from 4 to 18 being raised. The senior Heads also supported the views previously voiced that retention of girls at 11 was difficult in some areas due to the traditional nature of girls transferring at 11 to girls only schools. The Heads also acknowledged that some boys can be lost at this stage too to either good local Maintained sector schools or to other independent schools:
There is a feeling of the market being snatched by some senior schools who are doing everything they can to attract pupils at 11 instead of 13 (SL1).
Another Head, this time from the Rest of England (rural), added to this by suggesting that more and more senior schools are likely to move towards this age range as it fits the two tier system better and allows for greater ease of movement between the sectors (independent and maintained). He felt that given the length of the recession parents are concerned about committing themselves to private education and committing to 13 was more of a risk than to 11. If they were in a position to continue to afford private education then they could embark on the next stage from 11 to 16, more smoothly and at a more convenient transition point for their child(ren).
This view is contradicted however by a Greater London Head who said that “we would rather go co-ed than drop the entry age to 11.” He said that his staff would not want to teach the younger children as they valued and much preferred exploring their subjects with older more enquiring minds, the school’s facilities would not be suited for younger pupils and that the 5 year
group age span was more homogeneous than a 7 year age span. From a financial perspective he also felt that by recruiting pupils for Year 9, they would have been in the school too short a time to consider leaving for the sixth form, so by not having a Year 7 and 8, they were guaranteeing their sixth form numbers. It seems that there are two distinct thoughts on this which may well impact on the future of the prep school, but again supports the emerging theory of two types of prep school clients. i.e. those wanting a holistic education compared with those “buying a future”.
A relatively new theme when considering other schools though was a reference to boarding schools by Heads. It is interesting that whilst some of the prep School Heads interviewed did have boarders, only one had commented on it, and that was in passing as a benefit. Four of the Heads thought that the decline in boarding would be a problem for prep schools as this would not only lose them pupils but also that boarding fees were where a good profit margin was made so this would be an extra loss. However, this reference to a decline in boarding seems to be rather out-dated. The latest literature has indicated that boarding seems to have seen a resurgence, albeit a small one and following a different pattern from before. This idea was first mooted after the success of the Harry Potter books and films with children wanting the same experiences as the book characters. Even though the books and films have long been released the number of boarders have held steady at about 68,000 over the last 10 years (Moriarty, 2013). Whilst Harry Potter in itself is unlikely to be totally responsible for the gradual growth in boarding, given the explanation of parents and their need to work, it is conceivable that the combination of the two has had an impact on boarding. The change in