Little Voices Have Their Say

Building on the Montessori principles of choice, voice and independence, St. Nicholas Preparatory School is working hard to ensure democracy is a central part of its fabric, with the involvement of staff, pupils and parents.

Beginning with input from all of the school’s staff, a meeting on the first day of the academic year was held to discuss the school's strengths and weaknesses and shape a development plan. Following this, the pupils' ideas were gathered in a survey of 99 children from Year 3 to Year 6, exploring their own thoughts about the school.

An online opinion survey, managed through the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), asked a range of questions built around the five criteria of Every Child Matters; a national initiative to ensure the needs of children are respected.

With the results in, St Nicholas found itself to be doing well when benchmarked against other schools. It showed that most pupils think their teachers are friendly and a whopping 95% felt that their teachers really made a difference in helping them to learn. The vast majority of pupils additionally thought they were doing well and saw school as a safe environment.

Jill Aisher, Head Teacher, indicated that despite this result, the school is not resting on its laurels:

“Overall this was a very positive response from St. Nicholas pupils, but in a constant effort to improve, we asked 16 children from the School Council to conduct a survey of their class members on how the school can improve. This has highlighted 25 key points, which we are now beginning to work on.”

Other changes at St. Nicholas include using the words of staff to describe the school community in the prospectus and website, and having children welcome visitors and talk at the school's open days, describing St. Nicholas in their own words; an idea put forward by a pupil.

Mrs Aisher concluded: “Children's ideas are being turned into real improvements. Alongside that, their academic progress is being developed through targets and reflection, creating clarity and ambition for the children to work harder.”

St Nicholas Preparatory School is an independent co-educational day school for children aged 2 years 9 months -11 years with Montessori Nursery and Reception in Kensington, London. It has around 300 pupils and overlooks Hyde Park.