Testimonials

St Katharine’s is the most wonderful welcoming and nurturing environment we could have wished for. The idyllic environs of the school are only the start, as what goes on inside those stone walls easily equals the beautiful setting. Our children, each with different personalities and needs, have been extremely well supported in their learning and development in a way tailor made for their abilities and are coming out the other end with strong foundations in the core curriculum subjects. The teachers are personable and caring and under the strong and capable leadership of Ms Jones are encouraged to use their strengths and passions to offer additional learning for the children; whether that be music, forest school, reading or physical activity. This passion is infectious and so easily caught by the children. There are a huge number of clubs offered for such a small school and the variety of visits and trips contributes to a vast breadth of experience. We have been part of the close-knit school community for the last 9 years and have loved it. I would highly recommend this school if you wanted to teach your children to be caring, resilient, responsible, confident, appreciative of the world around us, have a growth mindset towards their learning, a strong foundation to build on at secondary school and keen to achieve in a wide variety of disciplines.

Having seen the amazing experiences and platform this secret gem of a school offered our nieces and nephew; we moved out of London to educate our children in this magical environment. We have not been disappointed, the culture is truly unique, and the nurturing environment has the perfect balance of consistency yet a constant desire to evolve and provide new experiences for the children. The school are blessed with an outstanding Head and Deputy Head, who cascade their focus on the things that matter to all staff. You will find the children speaking with great admiration and love for all the staff, which is all you can ask for. By way of example, the teaching assistants I know are some of the individuals my children adore the most and will always remember as key in their school lives. When you describe a small school, with a forest school, set on the fringes of a forest, with a unique culture and outstanding staff, it sounds rather like a dream and for our family it has been just that.

Without going into too much personal detail, my son had had a very difficult time at his previous school (where his sibling had thrived by the way), my child was not doing as well as he might have done. It was a tough and unpopular decision I made to change schools in year 4 of primary school. Regardless of the possible reasons one should not change school, it was the best decision I have ever made, not only for the wellbeing of my child’s educational journey but for their overall development as a young person.

I was fortunate enough have the support of a wonderful Head and Deputy, who along with the whole school made the transition feel more like a release into possibilities, where my child immediately felt comfortable and less alone. More importantly, they didn’t feel ’stupid’ anymore. My child most definitely has learning difficulties but is most certainly NOT inarticulate and instead of being made to feel lesser than their schoolmates they now feel that it’s acceptable to struggle and that they aren’t alone. They were shown kindness, first and foremost, which has built their confidence to enabling them to be in school the child  I know them to be out of school and for them  to have respect and appreciation for knowledge and be thankful for those that teach.

I cannot express in words just how grateful I am to all that have helped in changing my child’s life in 2 short years at St Katharine’s.  It feels like they have been there forever, and I know that they will miss it enormously.