Excelsior College

Excelsior College is a full time independent primary school located in Tottenham, North London. It’s a small intimate school with a distinct lack of hierarchy. Children, parents and staff are linked in a seamless family like environment in which the welfare, nurturing and education of the children is achieved. Walking through the door there is an immediate sense of welcoming warming contentment. All the children have their shoes off and are comfortable in their red or black socks. Children are at their tables, reclined on the floor in the reading corner or engaged on the computers in the home corner or at their tables. Learning independently is clearly part of this school’s ethos. This theme was also present in the periods of adult led activities. Children were presented with problems and challenged to find and propose their own solutions. All answers were explored, with pupils called upon to justify their proposals to the whole class who would be vigorous in their enquires. In promoting self determination questions were often made more complex and children invited to investigate and return with the answers for the following lesson. Interaction was calm but demanding and academically rigorous, competitive and loaded with high expectations. Adults were equally as interested in learning from children as the children were interested in learning from each other and their teacher.

 

 Talking to these children demonstrated there liveliness. They were articulate, polite and confident. Shaking hands was also a great leveller, I was met with a firm hand shake and confident eye contact. They were polite caring of each other and responsive. Exercise is very much part of this environment. Kinaesthetic exercise has been used in an extra effort to boost aspects of children’s learning. In exercising in the mornings the children not only get the oxygen moving through their brain they also develop stamina, flexibility and physical dexterity. These are sporting children who take part in netball, judo, swimming, football and tennis. Most children have also reached good levels in piano exams.