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Our View
This exciting new school from the Dukes Education stable opened in September 2023, bucking the trend for super-sizing with just 107 pupils currently on the roll meaning that every pupil really does receive bespoke attention. ‘In a small school we can know every child and their strengths, maximise their passions while looking at the individual’s areas for growth and maximising that growth,’ says head Susan Brooks. Its prime location overlooking Clapham Common is top-notch too, as is the wellbeing provision, with mindfulness lessons and one-to-one counselling sessions all part of the school’s mental fitness programme.
Where?
The school moved into two newly renovated Grade II-listed Victorian mansion buildings - Hollywood and Broadoak - right across the road from Clapham Common and minutes from Clapham South Tube station and myriad bus routes in April 2024. There’s a small sports ground at the front of Hollywood, where there is also a standalone square-shaped library, and pupils have lessons in both Hollywood and Broadoak. Sport is done off-site in various locations, including on the common, at a local gym and at Spencer playing fields in Wandsworth. Most pupils come either on foot or by public transport.
Head
Head Susan Brooks took up the top spot in September 2023. Working closely with group principal Suzie Longstaff and fellow LPS Mayfair, Hybrid and Sixth head, Adrian Rainbow, Mrs Brooks, a softly spoken Australian, was a core member of LPS Clapham’s founding team and has plenty of experience leading a new school like this one; in 2019, she was appointed founding head of Northwood Senior School (which formed the nucleus of LPS Clapham), following a stint as deputy head (academic) at Broomwood Hall. A huge advocate of forward-thinking, innovative and experiential teaching and learning, she is not a fan of purely exam-focused education preferring instead to ‘prepare kids for life by teaching them in a way that marries up different education systems, teaching and learning practices alongside good exam grades’. This translates into integrated learning across certain subject, so, if the topic is the Industrial Revolution, in English pupils will study Dickens, if it’s the Silk Road, they’ll act out events in drama. This helps them learn at a deeper level seeing connections and getting immersed in a topic. It ‘removes the barriers to learning’, says Mrs Brooks. ‘Excited learning is the magic. Kids love it.’
Admissions
The school is non-selective but is looking for pupils who will fit in with and contribute to the community. Entry points are 11+ and 13+ and around half of pupils come from prep schools and half from the state sector. Pupils from Dukes prep schools get priority places. Discovery days are held in November and January and are run a bit like an escape room experience testing teamwork and a bit of maths and science, as well as giving prospective pupils a taste of what learning is like at the school.
Academics and destinations
The curriculum has the same breadth you’d find at any large independent school, with a focus on STEM but with, as mentioned, more integrative learning, so they’ll study the same play in English and drama, and use equations learned in science in their maths lessons to reinforce the learning. Separate sciences are taught the whole way through, with an additional lesson called How Science Works to allow for experiments in the state-of-the-art labs on the top floor of Hollywood.
The number of GCSEs a pupil takes will vary from eight to 10, depending on their extracurricular activities and what they want to go on to do. They offer business studies, PE and psychology among the more traditional options. A language isn’t compulsory; French and Spanish are taught in Years 7 and 8 and in Year 9 pupils can choose to keep one. The first GCSE cohort sits their exams this summer and a couple are carrying on to join London Park School Sixth, while others have scholarships to Royal Russell School, Alleyn's and Emanuel. Some are heading for BTECS and one has an offer from Kingston Art College.
Beyond sixth form, the Dukes family offers excellent links with A-list services that can open up opportunities, including a US-university advisory firm and an Oxbridge-applications company.
Co-curricular
The school’s footprint limits its on-site sport but London’s facilities are its campus – from Clapham Common’s wide-open spaces to the velodrome in nearby Herne Hill. Sport is played across multiple sites and pupils team up with LPS Mayfair and LPS Hybrid, which allows for larger teams. Traditional sports such as netball, hockey, football and rugby are offered alongside more alternative activities such as rock climbing and ultimate frisbee. The school wants pupils to be exposed to a full array of physical activities to help them build a fitness habit for life.
The arts are similarly championed. At GCSE, pupils can do photography, sculpture, fine art, fashion, textiles, print making, painting and drawing. Soon to be added to the list will be digital arts. DT is amazing too and is an essential part of the curriculum from day one. ‘Teaching design, thinking and problem-solving techniques bring out the strengths of individuals and these skills extend to other subjects,’ says Mrs Brooks. We love the sound of the empathy unit (which has a link to Cambridge University) where pupils are set a project to make something for someone who is, say, visually impaired or has arthritis. Music is blossoming too; there’s a school choir and lots of different instruments are offered. The department also has computers for composing. Drama is thriving with rehearsals afoot for a whole school production of Oliver which will be performed at the nearby Hamilton House theatre. Pupils are even making all the costumes in textiles lessons. Keen thesps can do LAMDA club and there are a range of other clubs on offer – at the start of the year pupils are surveyed to ask them what they’d like.
Trips are exciting – visiting tall ships in Spain, learning about marine life in the Med, sailing off the Isle of Wight.
School community
Wellbeing is at the heart of LPS Clapham, and its bijou size means each individual is personally looked after by tutors, heads of year and the whole school community. A school counsellor also has termly one-to-one meetings with each pupil and the school dog, Hendrix, is always on call. Mrs Brooks is passionate about preventative mental health care to train pupils to deal with stress and anxiety before it occurs. From Year 7 they’re taught mindfulness and grounding techniques as well as learning the science of how emotions affect the body and the mind. ‘The aim is for the pupils to be mentally fit,’ says Mrs Brooks.
Vertical tutor groups meet twice a day and there are also tutor group lunches. ‘Vertical tutor groups work very well especially in a small school,’ says the head. ‘There are lots of cross-year friendships with older children mentoring younger ones.’
And finally....
There’s a real buzz around LPS Clapham, the way it does things a bit differently and offers pupils a holistic way of learning. Our Year 7 guides told us they love how friendly it is, with small class sizes and teachers who want to know what they think and want. We can’t wait to see it grow.