Punching Above Their Weight

Small independent schools can still give larger rivals a run for their money in terms of academic results, facilities and individuality. Madeleine Silver finds out how they manage to hold their own

- Madeleine Silver

I think people are often put off by the word “small”,’ admits Leweston’s new headmaster John Paget-Tomlinson, where the senior-school tally sits at only 202, ‘but the massive advantage is the attention that can be given—dare I say lavished—on individuals. Having worked in a school of nearly 1,000, I’ve seen that a child can get completely lost in the grey middle. I think that, more than anything else, parents want their children to be known and valued as individuals.’

For the mother of identical twin girls who started at the Dorset school last term, the modest headcount has added prominence. ‘In a small environment, everybody gets to know them as individuals rather than just as “the twins”,’ says Anne-Louise Bellis. ‘The beauty is that, as parents, you know the whole cohort and the children do as well.’

Having looked at a smorgasbord of sprawling public schools, mother of three daughters Simone Truett and her husband settled on Heathfield in Berkshire, which has 191 girls on the register. ‘The fact that it’s a small school was one of the main draws. Often schools promise to cater for your child’s individual needs, but it’s logistically impossible, even with the best will in the world,’ says Mrs Truett. ‘Heathfield seemed the best prepared to be in loco parentis. We love the fact that the headmistress, Marina Gardiner Legge, maintains that, if we call at any time, she absolutely knows who our child is and what’s going on.’