Figure 1.--Gardening is a popular activity at many prep schools. The children are encouraged to plant gardens in the Spring and often there are competitions as to who produces the best garden. The children often make rather ecletic choices as to what plants they choose. |
Prep schools encourage their children to participate in a wide range of activities. One headmaster explained to us that helping children to learn the "creative use of leisure" was an important part of the prep school experience, a sentiment echoed at many schools.
A Gloucestershire school tells parents that "We are very much aware of the need to help boys learn to use their free time wisely and creatively." One boy explained to us, "You are expected to find something constructive to do, it is a famous staff saying." Many schools promote activities to ensure every child will find some sphere of school life in which he or she can excell. This is not simply a symphathetic approach or an effort to assist the children learn to use their leisure, it is in fact a vital element of the school program.
Prep schools encourage their children to participate in a wide range of activities. One headmaster explained to us that helping children to learn the "creative use of leisure" was an important part of the prep school experience, a sentiment echoed at many schools.
A Gloucestershire school tells parents that "We are very much aware of the need to help boys learn to use their free time wisely and creatively." One boy explained to us, "You are expected to find something constructive to do, it is a famous staff saying." Many schools promote activities to ensure every child will find some sphere of school life in which he or she can excell. This is not simply a symphathetic approach or an effort to assist the children learn to use their leisure, it is in fact a vital element of the school program.
A child who succeeds in one area, be it academic or non-academic, is much more likely to confidently approach other areas, even those in which he mat not be inately gifted. The Downs in Worcester tells paraents, "We feel strongly that every child should be able to find some activity in the life of the school in which heor she can play a leading part ...." Maidwell Hall in Northamptonshire expalins that, "Every child is good at something, and
success in some activity which mzy at first be relatively insignificnt, often profuces the confidence necessary for successin life." As Clifton in Avon explains to parents, "For many boys, a sense of achievement is not easily gained in the classroom or on the playing
field, and, in the belief that a feeling of success breeds self confidence, the activities in which a boy may participate are spread as wide arange as possible. The vast majority of children are relatively average children in abilities. The superior results achieved by the schools with such children is one of the impressive aspects of the schools. Part of the schools' success is this area is the care given to ensuring that each child succeeds in some area to give him the confidence to pursue other activities.
This concern with providing children a wide range of acrivities is one of the major changes that have occurred at British prep schools over the past generation. One headmaster described the "pervassive purposeless" at his old school. The headmaster at Winterfold House described his old school, which is probably an accurate description of most English prep schools a generation ago:
How callow and narrow were we products of the 1950s and 60s by comparison, but then the schools we went to were fundamentally different. One does not remember being unhappy, and one probably received an excellent formal education. No, the impression one is left with as the years roll away, is the frinding tedium of much of it, and the feeling that precious time and opportunity were going to waste .... Spare time was clearly an embarassment to the establishment, and little attempt was made to fill it in any way constructively. The problem was solved by hearding us all into the church as long as possible, to make sure of satisfying our spiritual needs, while the physical ones were fulfilled by endless walks in the lanes around the school. One remembers too simply hanging about in the passages in the evening waiting for the bed bill to ring.
The many prep school offering a wide range of both academic and non-academic activities is a far cry from the situation as most modern schools where the children appear to energetially confronting both their academic and non-academic activities. We can not really remember visiting one school where the children were "hanging about in the passages" awaiting the bed bell. Instead the children we saw seem to partticularly enjoy the free time before bed, using it when an activity or club was not scheduled for a wide range of activities from visiting with friends, playing board games, practing instruments, or even a little extra studying.
Schools vary considerably on the emphasis given to leisure activities, but most make a wide range of structured activities available to the children. Usually the children are asked to choose one or two activities or clubs to pursue each term. Some of these activities are traditional seasonal events (such as conkers) others seem to come and go depending on the passing interests of the children. Sometimes they may be modern-high tech activities (computer games) others are more traditional and decidely low-tech such as marbles.
We noticed quite a wide range of different activities underway at the many different schools we visited. Some were virtually universal. Many were widely shared, and a few were specific to individual schhols. This simuilarity is of course because the shared interests of children of this age group. The differences ofte represent the interests and abilities of the staff which at most school is a relatively small group of individuals.
