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The Gower School offers a high-quality and broad curriculum in multi-age groups aimed at the development of the whole person – mind, body, heart, and soul. We teach academic and social skills, as well as life skills, to last a lifetime. It was wonderful for the school’s work to be rated as Outstanding and Excellent in every category following our most recent external inspection. We offer a broad curriculum in multi-age classrooms which aims to develop the whole person – their mind, body, heart, and soul. We teach academic, social, and other valuable skills to last a lifetime. Our goal is to make sure that our girls and boys are confident, happy all-rounders with a love of learning. Our primary school opened in September 2007 and educates children from Reception through to Year Six. It is situated in attractive, modern buildings in Barnsbury, Islington. The site was originally converted from a former journalists’ training college and was further enlarged with a roof extension and annex into the neighboring building in 2010. The school extension won the British Council’s ‘Best Teaching and Learning Environment (Independent School)’ Award in 2011. In 2016 we acquired further space in the annex which was turned into classrooms to host our ever-growing school. All areas of the school are resourced to the highest standard with a wide range of Montessori educational materials, as well as traditional learning activities and a wide range of ICT facilities. There is an emphasis on music and the arts and there are many high-quality performances and productions as part of everyday school life. Many children play a musical instrument and all children from Year One upwards participate in a weekly recorder lesson in small groups. We teach French to all our children as part of the school curriculum. Due to our connections with the City of London, the school has a high number of children who are either bilingual in French and English or who speak French as an additional language and we, therefore, offer classes at a higher level for native speakers. We offer a comprehensive range of out-of-school activities, both during term-time and in the school holidays. After school each day, there is a range of activities offered to each age group which operates until 6 pm. There is a well-attended theatre club, two school choirs, languages such as French and Mandarin Chinese, as well as a range of out-of-school sports activities, including swimming, archery, gymnastics, yoga, cricket, athletics, ballet, modern dance, and karate. There are plenty of opportunities for arts and crafts, such as the origami club. Older primary children enjoy journalism, coding, cookery, and science clubs. During the school holidays – for thirteen weeks of the year – we operate a Holiday Fun Club which is also open to children from outside the school. Each week has an educational theme and the children make the most of being in central London with trips to museums, galleries, and the theatre, as well as taking part in sporting activities. We encourage the children to focus on the greater community and build on our social responsibility by promoting awareness of the world through good citizenship to other children, our staff, and parents. We fundraise regularly, mostly but not exclusively, for children’s charities, incorporating this into the curriculum. We usually raise more than £10,000 each year. We aim to be the greenest school anywhere and our primary school site has been designed and built to be as sustainable as possible. We were finalists in the 2014 Independent Schools Association’s Green School of the Year Award. The school has received several awards for its approach to the environment. The classroom is fully equipped to teach using the Montessori method, working sequentially through materials. Children are also introduced to a broad range of knowledge through project work. The Foundation Stage follows the six areas of learning from the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum (the National Curriculum for Early Years pupils), as well as the Montessori method. Three mornings of the week there is a three-hour Montessori work cycle, followed by lunch and playtime in Grimaldi Park. On the other two days, the work cycle is in smaller intervals. The children also take part in ‘Show and Tell’ presentations, where they put together a little talk for their friends on a topic of their choice. In our Lower School, we have three classes for children aged five to seven years (parallel mixed Year One and Two groups). In line with the Montessori method, when children reach the Lower School they begin to use a ‘worklist’. Every morning, upon arrival, each child writes a list of tasks to work on during their three-hour work cycle. This list includes maths, writing, reading, language, and culture. Children work through their list in any order, working independently, with a friend, in a small group, or alongside their Key Person. Each child works their way through a broad curriculum, which includes spelling, grammar, comprehension, reading, maths, science, and culture, at their own pace. The Upper School covers pupils from Years Three to Six. In these classes, the holistic Montessori ethos is still the central guide. Autonomous research work is encouraged and supported as are numerous trips and visits off-site. However, as the children move into studying more abstract concepts, the need for Montessori equipment becomes less pronounced and a shift takes place towards a more traditional timetable with weekly spelling, times tables, and verbal/non-verbal reasoning. The Gower School Nursery Nursery 18 North Road +44 20 77002445 [email protected] View full school