Early opportunities - junior school

Jenny Gwinn presents the benefits of the co-located junior school

I became Head of Chigwell Junior School in September 2004 and I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience so far! I was fortunate to take over an already successful junior school. Moreover, it was a junior school sharing in the wonderful community spirit of Chigwell School itself. My aim is simple: to nurture a caring, positive school where children can flourish happily both academically and socially.

My career began at Wycombe Abbey where I spent six happy years, four as head of PE and games, whilst pursuing my love of lacrosse as an England international. Following a short career break to settle in my two adopted, mixed-race children, I returned to teaching games and mathematics at Wellingborough School. During my 15 years there, culminating as Deputy Head of the junior school, I developed a real interest in the education of seven- to 13-year-olds. I refreshed my own depth of knowledge by taking an external degree, combining maths, education and computing. I feel privileged to have been offered the deputy headship and then the headship of Chigwell Junior School and I have not looked back since!

Chigwell School is an independent foundation offering education for both boys and girls between the ages of seven and 18. The school, located in the village of Chigwell, only ten miles from Central London, is set in its own beautiful 70-acre grounds. The junior school, of over 300 pupils, and the senior school share a single campus. They also share high academic standards, a huge range of extracurricular activities, a well-developed sense of pastoral care and a valued spiritual dimension. Chigwell is a school with a soul, where minds can grow from a sure start to a confident future.

Sharing a single campus is the key to the strength of Chigwell and to the majority of junior schools attached to senior schools. The benefits are profound, not least the advantage to parents of having only one school-run for a significant part of their family’s education!

Children usually enter the school at the start of KS2, and, right from the start, they have access to incredible facilities: science blocks, art, design and technology studios, a music school, ICT rooms and a theatre. All facilities were designed to take pupils through to A level. How can children fail to flourish academically when provided with such a stimulating environment? We share 70 acres of playing fields on site, together with a sports hall, gymnasium and swimming pool.
As you venture into each of these areas, the advantages for the pupils become evident. In the science block, the younger pupils have their own general science lab, while the 11-, 12- and 13-year-olds use labs designed for GCSE and A level work. The science club has the benefit of using the school’s telescope and its members are frequently inspired by the favourite experiments of the enthusiastic chemists, physicists and biologists who teach further up the school.

In the art and design centre, which frequently stages exhibitions of professional and pupil work, Junior school pupils can take advantage of the workshop with its high-tech equipment. They work alongside students studying for A level and can see the progression in work and techniques. The music school houses significant numbers of practice rooms. Pupils can be taught any instrument. They have the opportunity of developing their musical talents within their own peer range or may aspire to playing alongside sixth formers in one of the many musical groups such as the school chamber choir, the first orchestra and the swing band. From the start, all Chigwell pupils act in a real theatre. They thrive under the expert tuition of drama teachers who have experience in professional acting and the technical side of theatre.

It is the access to a genuinely wide range of subject specialists across the board that is of such value to the junior school, drawing pupils out to achieve their best. Seven-year-olds are taught by a French national and, as pupils move through the school, they have the opportunity to learn German, Spanish and Latin through access to staff from the senior school. The pupils share three ICT labs, one of which is situated in the junior school. In sport, pupils in the junior school can take advantage of the expert coaching available to all pupils from international and county netball, cricket and hockey players, not to mention football coaches. From such an advantageous start, many children achieve county standard and a few football academy status.

Whilst sharing expertise and facilities is a major advantage for junior schools on a single campus, the pastoral benefits are of equal importance. The children start very much in a primary/preparatory school environment with all the nurturing and care required for pupils of that age range. Pupils can move forward with increasing confidence. They are able to view the ‘other side’ from their own safe environment within the junior school. At 13 there is still, appropriately, some mystery, challenge and apprehension about moving on, but pupils are ready to take on board the new challenges, feeling more secure within the familiar environment and well-established friendship groups. The ease of liaison between the two schools for induction purposes is an added bonus. The pupils and their parents have none of the stress associated with making a change of school at 11 or of facing Common Entrance at 13. Their education is not unnecessarily disrupted by the need to prepare for external entrance examinations in Year 6 or Year 8. They do not waste valuable time doing practice test after practice test in these years. Additionally, the pupils benefit from entering a senior school where they will already know and be known by some of the staff and pupils.

Academic progress flows seamlessly, a crucial element in making a settled start in a new school. Most linked schools have a central database storing academic and pastoral information, invaluable when tracking pupil progress. It is a straightforward process for staff to initiate discussion should the need arise. Our tie with the senior school helps to enrich the quality of teaching and the lives of both staff and pupils. Junior schools are able to call upon a wider body of experience in the teaching and management of the school. There is a much greater flexibility of timetabling which enables the best use to be made of the abilities of staff, providing a high standard within a broad curriculum.

The larger body of staff usually allows a more sophisticated range of co-curricular activities to be made available at lunchtime or after school, as there is access to a greater depth of talent and interest. Sporting activities in our junior school include self-defence, gymnastics, dance and trampolining. There are choirs for all ages as well as other music groups, chess clubs, language clubs in French, Spanish, Russian and Greek, creative writing, a poetry group, nature walking, Adventure Service Challenge, lectures and the opportunity to join one of the biggest scout groups in Essex! Without the benefit of the senior school tie, it would be impossible to provide this range of activities in a small school.

Finally, one of the great advantages of being a linked school for parents, pupils and staff alike, is the opportunity to be part of a whole school ethos from seven to 18. It allows pupils to enjoy a stable, friendly and caring environment. This, in turn, allows pupils to be academically challenged, gives them a wider education and encourages them to contribute to society as a whole, both in school and in the wider community. It enables the school to provide a ‘complete package’, an integrated experience within a whole school framework.

Jenny Gwinn is Head of Chigwell Junior School.

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