WHAT? WHERE?

Godstowe School is a girls’ day and boarding prep school in High Wycombe for girls 7-13, with pre-prep and nursery for girls and boys (3-7). A small cohort of 320 prep school girls (plus 26 in the nursery and 82 in the pre-prep), over 100 of whom board (both part and fulltime) make full use of the attractive, compact 12-acre site with its central grand Victorian red brick mansion house, outlying boarding houses and more modern additions.

Non-selective but academically a powerhouse, Godstowe is a school that oozes tradition – the boaters, cloaks and shaking hands with teachers at the end of the day, testament to Godstowe’s history as one of England’s first all-girls boarding prep school, established in 1900 (they recently found the first bank statement for the school from that year).

FACILITIES

Pupils are still reaping the rewards of large-scale investment over the last decade so your daughter’s interests are likely to be indulged. A 15-room music school with recital hall; the full-size sports hall with upstairs dance/ballet studio and function room was opened in 2013 by Gabby Logan (an ex-Godstowe parent no less), plus in 2017, Mary Berry (another ex-Godstowe parent) opened the pro Chef’s Kitchen. And in May 2019, Rebecca Adlington cut the ribbon on a spectacular 25m swimming pool.

For scientists, there are large, purpose-built labs for separate biology, chemistry and physics lessons, and girls get their Bunsen Burner licence at Year 5, so have established lab skills well ahead of the leap to secondary. STEAM is a focus for the head, Kate Bailey (more on that below) including microelectronics, and there is a newly refurbished computer suite for ICT, including office style ergonomic chairs, interactive whiteboard, large tables for collaborating and air con. The school celebrated its first computing scholarship in 2022 and had 20 girls reach the top 10% of last year’s national Bebras Computing Challenge. Having a dedicated head of ICT is clearly paying off.

SPORT

Godstowe is one of those schools that manages to put out A, B, C, D and sometimes even E teams and encourages participation as well as pushing for success.

Netball is the main sport, though swimming is also a big deal – every girl swims at least once a week from Reception, with a special academy for more serious swimmers run by the Wycombe District Swimming Club.

Cross country is well supported, and Godstowe is one of the few schools to offer lacrosse at prep school level. It starts with pop lacrosse and plastic sticks at Year 5 and the end goal is a two-week lacrosse tour to the US over Easter for the top Lacrosse players across Years 7&8. Among sports offered at lunchtime and after school clubs include judo, horse riding, ballet and biking. Football is on the up since the success of the Lionesses and is one of the most oversubscribed clubs on offer, plus this year has seen the introduction of football matches and tournaments from Year 3. In summer the lacrosse pitch becomes an athletics field, the four netball courts are used for tennis and there is also a cricket club.

CREATIVE ARTS

Music is clearly a strong card here – 80% of the children take individual music lessons each week, making it one of the highest take ups I’ve come across, with a third of those playing a second instrument. The music director is big on performing, and has had the Year 6 choir (that’s the whole year group) singing at venues as lofty as Liverpool Cathedral right down to entertaining local nursing home residents.

The art department is well-equipped, with two electric pottery wheels, a kiln and digital software. Art adorns nearly every wall around the school and the quality of ceramic work is striking. On the day I visited a small group of art scholars and other arty girls were finishing off projects while listening to music in their lunchbreak. There’s no dedicated drama studio, but the hall has staging, lighting and sound equipment for productions and recitals.

Godstowe also now offers it as a curriculum subject from Form I to the Upper Third. This is in addition to the annual major production for Year 5, where all girls are involved both onstage and behind the scenes (prop and set making & stagehand duties). There are also plans for more year group plays – the ‘Play in a Week’ is a highlight of the Year 8 post-exam schedule. Other girls do short sketches where parents are invited to watch.

ACADEMIC RESULTS

Last year 25% of the 39 scholarships awarded were purely academic – not too shabby! That of course leaves 75% of scholarships remaining for music, art, sport and ‘general’, reflecting Godstowe’s all rounder ethos. There’s also that first computing scholarship in 2022, to Rugby. Destination schools for scholars include Cheltenham Ladies College, nearby Wycombe Abbey, St Helen and St Katherine, also increasingly co-ed options including Marlborough, Stowe and Haileybury.

WRAP AROUND CARE

Boarding schools have an advantage with wrap around care as they have this provision already in place. At Godstowe, the extended school day runs from 7.30am to 6.30pm which can include supper with the boarders. The Enrichment curriculum runs during lunchtimes but also after school – 90 different clubs every week, so the girls can try their hand at everything from Chinese Mandarin to Horrible Histories, debating, film making or life coaching.

THE HEAD

Kate Bailey took the reins from Sophie Green in September 2022 having clocked up many years at Wetherby Prep in London before founding its sister school in New York. She has already made her mark, bringing new faces to the leadership team, while balancing that with the expertise of long-standing staff (it’s not uncommon here for teaching staff to rack up a decade or two). Friendly, bubbly and enthusiastic, you can imagine that students don’t shy away from chatting to her, but also don’t waste her time – she has an air of swift efficiency about her.

Having inherited a campus that has ticked the boxes on the big ticket items, Bailey’s focus for the next couple of years is to build on STEAM including robotics and coding, as well as the coaching and support of pupils and their parents (Positive Parenting workshops have been a big hit apparently), as well as encouraging pupils to have a greater voice, whether that’s over school food or sustainability on site or involvement in reaching out to local primary schools and a weekly food bank collection.

Increasing retention of pupils for Year 7 & 8 is also a priority. Apart from being rewarded with the lacrosse trip and post-exam play and expedition, girls who stay on get to do a skirt and dressmaking project in both years, culminating in a fashion show organised by the students, as well as the Godstowe Diploma for Year 6-8 which sees the girls work through a DofE-style bronze-to-gold structure that includes community, sporting and life skills challenges. It is recognised by winged badges that can be worn on the girls’ jumpers. There are also scholarships for internal candidates at Year 7 and a recently introduced schools fair to showcase Godstowe to its own families as a destination for Year 7-8.

LITTLIES

Pre-Prep children are catered for in the Early Years building (opened Sept 2015) with two bright, airy classrooms and an onsite kitchen and dining room, plus they have their own art studio, newly refurbished playground and their own library. It’s next to the ‘Little Godstowe’ nursery which is a bright and light play space with areas for art, music, reading and exploring and is heaving with the littlies’ impressive artwork.

It also has a lovely outdoor play area that looks out over the older play area. All-in-all a very sweet, gentle, enjoyable start to school life here. As I walked across the playground with head of prep-prep, Mrs Gillett, she was showered with hugs from the children.

BOARDING

In an already relatively small school, and a girl’s school at that, boarding is going to feel an intimate and homely experience. The vibe is relaxed with bright furnishings and (surprisingly) tidy but informal spaces plus smaller, quiet bedrooms for girls who don’t want to share with seven others. The boarders are very much their own community (a third of the prep school board) with socialising across year groups encouraged. Helped by the gap year students, a boarders’ video is made every weekend and played at assembly to show what they’ve been up to, and there’s a ‘boarder of the week’ for the girl who’s gone above and beyond. Roughly 20% of children board full time from Y3 onwards, but no surprise that flexi boarding is on the increase too.

QUIRKS

What’s quirky and what’s tradition? At Godstowe they combine. There are boaters for summer and cloaks for winter (dramatically worn in procession for the walk to the local church for the annual carol service), an old school hymn, and at the end of a lesson, pupils are encouraged to make eye contact with their teacher and shake hands or curtsey. Every girl has a twice-a-year interview with their form teacher to check-in with their progress and give them an opportunity to voice any concerns. A simple but clever idea.

The nascent scuba and triathlon clubs show a willingness to try new things as well as protect the traditional. Unusually for a girls’ only prep school, Godstowe holds its pupils until 13 rather than the usual 11.

And finally, not a quirk as such, but interesting to note – probably the most famous part of the Godstowe campus is the turret on the boarding houses, which was the inspiration for Enid Blyton’s Mallory Towers (the girls are much better behaved here though!).

TRANSPORT

Three morning buses, from Medmenham/Marlow; Amersham; and Gerrards Cross/Beaconsfield, and two return bus services, one at a normal time and one later, (both in the Beaconsfield direction).

FEES

Day fees are slightly higher than other girl’s day prep schools in the area, but boarding fees are lower than some elite competitors. Nursery and Pre-Prep £2,175 – £4,550 per term: Y3-8 £6,995 per term; boarding supplement £3,500 per term (flexi-boarding is £70/night for up to three nights per week).

WORD ON THE GROUND

Academically rigorous but also nurturing and inclusive – pastoral care is a big deal here (Wellbeing is actually in the curriculum as a subject plus there’s a newly introduced wellbeing hub with podcasts and workshops). On the day I visited the receptionist was patching up a grazed knee at one point and being a sympathetic ear to a girl letting off steam at another. Parents love the ‘no phones’ rule and the small, community feel. School lunches have also been improved following pupil feedback.

THE MUDDY VERDICT

Good for: Parents who loves the English prep school traditions will fall in love with Godstowe. The non-selective cohort and small class numbers will appeal to many. Sporty types will be in heaven though art, DT, music and drama are equally celebrated.

Not for: The relatively compact site might feel constraining to ‘big fish’ kids by the time they hit 13.

Want to see for yourself? There’s 360˚ virtual tour or register to visit in person on the next Open Morning on Wednesday 7 Feb 2024.

Godstowe Preparatory School, Shrubbery Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, HP13 6PR. Tel: (0)1494 529273.

Godstowe School, High Wycombe

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