Kitebrook Preparatory School A GSG School

What The Good Schools Guide says

Headmaster

Since January 2023, Bennjamyn Smith, previously co-head of Exupery International School in Riga. Canterbury Christ Church University for a degree in sports science and nursing and an MA in leadership and management. Five years in the army (de rigueur for a prep school head), becoming deputy head at Badminton School and then Redcliffe Prep.

Left Latvia shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in spring 2022 and arrived at Kitebrook as interim deputy that summer. Bumped up to acting head that September, he became permanent a term later. Not one to twiddle thumbs, he set about making lots of changes and now, with feet firmly under his pleasingly large, wooden desk, feels that, ‘The school is a happy place to work.’ First up? Leavers’ destinations, so often an early question from a prospective parent. ‘It was the first thing we did, hand-holding, managing expectations, liaising with senior schools,’ he tells us; parents we spoke to universally appreciate the new and improved programme. Has also introduced scholarships and headmaster’s awards, recognising and stretching talent – and, of course, enticing the most able to stay at Kitebrook until year 8, expanding senior school scholarship success.

‘Having had a military career, I know you need to bring the team with you,’ he says, describing the ‘outstanding’ recruits that he’s made to his staff. And he needs them: this is a man on a mission, rattling through what he’s done literally faster than we could take notes. ‘Project 25 finished a year ahead, so now we’re looking at Project 27,’ he explains. He’s shaken up ancient and modern language teaching, lengthened the school day, turned the old kitchen into a DT workshop, converted the library, developed a new science lab, introduced an international summer school (all these other goodies don’t come cheap, after all). Embracing school’s countryside roots: ‘Equine has taken off massively,’ he tells us, as has clay pigeon shooting. Walled garden now an allotment with produce given to the kitchen; whole school does an hour each of forest and farm school every week. Alpacas, pigs, sheep, goats are arriving soon: after all, ‘If Clarkson [a close neighbour, of course] can do it, why can’t we?’ Friday afternoons are dedicated to rural crafts, including leather work and dry-stone walling. ‘When parents pick them up on a Friday afternoon it’s a conversation starter,’ Mr Smith smiles.

Parents describe him as, ‘approachable’, ‘friendly’, ‘well-informed’ and ‘professional’. ‘He’s working hard to establish relationships with parents’, says one, ‘and all the assistant heads are very nice too.’

Entrance

Non-selective and first come, first served. Most join in nursery or reception but as families relocate or come out of village primaries, joiners are welcome in every year group depending on availability. Scholarships at year 7 cover academics, drama, field sports, music, sports and innovation (for big ideas and the technical ability to make them happen with coding, robotics, design etc); art from year 8.

Exit

The majority stay until 13+ and school continues to work on retention. No pattern to 11+ destinations (recently Wycombe Abbey, Cheltenham Ladies’ College, state secondaries); 13+ destinations becoming broader. Bloxham, Kingham Hill, Cheltenham College, Tudor Hall and St Edward’s are stalwarts, but new additions include Marlborough, Uppingham, Rugby, Stowe. Scholarships last year to Tudor Hall, Rugby, Uppingham and Headington including academic, art and drama.

Our view

This is English country life at its most bucolic: a year 2 trip to Daylesford Organic? Pretty nice, even by prep school standards. Our guides point out an area in the woods known as ‘blackberry heaven’ (Enid Blyton, eat your heart out – though actually, they’re not allowed to help themselves, ‘in case we get tummy aches’); ‘They often come back with sticks they have whittled,’ a mum tells us. Pupils thrilled by the impending arrival of more animals. ‘One of our Indian Runner ducks escaped recently; thankfully we found it,’ a wide-eyed year 4 tells us, reckoning that it’ll be harder to lose an alpaca. Tree-climbing, the ultimate mark of the country prep, taken seriously here: ‘You can’t climb beyond double-teacher height,’ pupils explain. ‘For the record,’ a boy tells us solemnly, ‘[tree-jumping] is strongly discouraged here.’

Early years based around the Cottage with their own little playground. Years 1 to 4 are in the Ark and years 5 and up in the main building. Classes of up to 15 and an unusually high ratio of staff to pupils, so everyone knows each other well. School is growing but will not go beyond 375.

Everyone takes Common Entrance at the end of year 8, and more competitive leavers’ destinations are going to mean more pre-tests in years 6 and 7, but learning is still really fun here. No setting until year 6. Latin and classical civilisation recently introduced to expose pupils to stories of ‘vengeful Greek gods and strange monsters’; science lessons involve pond dipping for frogs and newts. Oral English on timetable; years 4 upwards enter the Cicero Cup, an inter-school public speaking competition. We visited on year 5’s Evacuee Day, children completely charming in their pigtails and paisleys, corduroys and flat caps – not a million miles from their school uniform (green duffel coats, tweed blazers, Tattersall check shirts) or, we suspect, their weekend wardrobes. ‘We love living history here!’ one year 8 gushed, describing recent Medieval Day when he dressed as a monk and fired a crossbow.

Learning support team’s hub is a series of small, cosy cabins. With 14 per cent on the SEN register, school provides small group and one-to-one support with more focus on the latter, ‘an impactful session with lots of multisensory learning’. Primary need is dyslexia, but ADHD on the rise, as elsewhere. SLTs and OTs visit as needed and school has good relationship with education psychologist. Teachers have had executive functioning training to understand areas of cognition impacted by ADHD or autism. EAL specialist on staff for the occasional pupil who needs English support.

External speakers (recently doctors, politicians, business owners, a plastic surgeon) raise aspirations; annual tour of Magdalen College, Oxford, gives pupils a taste of where they might end up if they keep noses to desks. Endless praise and awards for every endeavour under the sun: badges available for adventures (‘If you go on three adventures, you get your badge,’ explains proud recipient, lapel laden with accolades), reading, maths, conduct and so on.

Sport an area of focus, having historically been the reason boys left early. Older years are currently girl-heavy, something Mr Smith is trying to address with improvements to boys’ sport and the internal scholarships; school feels that this will soon be a problem of the past. Sports pathways pick up whoever’s showing potential and gives them more training. No Astro, though pupils now use local senior school facilities weekly and school is at planning stages with installing its own. Pupils swim at local venues; reception swim weekly, years 1 to 4 for half the year and for older students there’s a swimming pathway for those who are keen. ‘Last year we were very strong in rugby,’ boys told us, pointing out the scrum machine. Jockey clubs from year 1 upwards, showjumping at the Unicorn Centre in Stow and something called horse vaulting, which is ‘like gymnastics on the back of a horse’. Under-11s recently won IAPS clay pigeon shooting.

Welcoming art studio hosts lessons and clubs; new DT space underway and our guide was keen to tell us about a windmill he’d recently made. Drama productions great fun – Treasure Island and Fiddler on the Roof in rehearsal when we visited. Boys a little underrepresented in music and drama, we thought: ‘LAMDA is bigger for the girls,’ one boy told us, ‘though we love the plays,’ added another, who’d played ‘Macbeth AND Romeo’. A big GSG high-five to the single chap in choir. Musicians were buzzing with success of recent Trust-wide concert at St Edward’s School in Oxford, where orchestra played Star Wars theme.

Active community links and outreach, particularly with local charities Cotswold Friends and the Rotary Club; hosting tea and singing for the elderly a highlight for all. Upcoming 5K fun run will raise money for those partners and should become a regular fixture. Inaugural community dog show was a howling success, with pups awarded biscuits for categories including ‘waggiest tail’; 90 per cent of pupils have dogs, school reckons.

Super selection of after-school clubs, most carrying an extra fee. ‘At STEM club we made ice-cream from milk, ice and salt,’ our guide told us; ‘we even could have eaten it but it wouldn’t have tasted very nice.’ Residentials, too: year 3 camp on site, years 4 and 5 go on UK activity weeks, seniors to Barcelona and Pompeii. Ski trip heavily oversubscribed. The ultimate trip, of course, is six weeks at Château de Sauveterre for the year 7s: ‘It’s okay if you don’t speak much French, you only have to say bonjour and then after that they’ll speak to you in English,’ pupils reassure us, though ‘we did learn lots of words by the end.’

Pupil wellbeing ambassadors, recruited by year 8s, spread the message on anti-bullying week, kindness and mental health awareness; school uses online Wellbeing Hub to train them. Site is a mobile-free zone and we didn’t see a hint of one during our visit. Pupils tell us, ‘Teachers give you as many warnings as they can, because they don’t want you to get into trouble.’ Gold coins awarded ‘for being good’, which can be exchanged for perks including Rubik’s cubes and Haribo at the tuck shop. Lunches delicious – pasta, roasts, fish and chips all popular – and pupils pleased that although they can’t go up for seconds, ‘you can ask for more with firsts’. Break-time snack – ‘a little something to keep us going, like a doughnut or a cookie’ – essential in such a busy and exciting day.

Always a hot destination for weekending Londoners, lockdown sent this area stratospheric, the glossy posse flocking from Notting Hill and LA to embark on a rural (but not uncomfortably so) lifestyle. Little girls rocking long skirts and wellies, cool as organic cucumbers, would not look out of place at the ultra-glam Wilderness festival nearby. Plenty of old-school, our-wellies-and-Labradors-are-actually-muddy types on the parent body, though newbies have arrived with different expectations of facilities and leavers’ destinations. An area which offers you a London lifestyle in picture-perfect surrounding – boxercise at Bamford, dips from Daylesford and skinny cappuccinos at Soho Farmhouse – has an increasingly sophisticated school option, too.

Boarders

Capacity of 65 and school hopes to grow that to 100, though currently numbers are smaller. Anything from ad hoc one-offs, great for parents who might find themselves late back from London, to weekly boarding. School accommodates full boarding for European pupils here on short-term immersion programmes. Dorms on the top floor of the main house; ‘Chef bakes a massive cake when it’s your birthday,’ pupils tell us.

Money matters

Fees have increased recently, even before VAT, but remain lower than other local or London options. Prep Schools Trust bursary programme starts in year 3 and a handful of families are on means-tested support.

The last word

A joyful school and, amazingly, the only full prep option within the ‘golden triangle’, a phrase coined and beloved by estate agents to describe this hallowed patch of the Cotswolds between Chipping Norton, Burford and Stow-on-the-Wold. As it stands, this is ‘not the right place for someone who’s very pushy or wants everything immaculate,’ parents reckon; but Mr Smith, energetic and ambitious, is working on it.

Special Education Needs