Pre-Prep Highly Commended by Muddy Stilettos in Best School Awards

Bishop’s Stortford College Pre-Prep has been highly commended in the ‘Best Experiential Learning’ category, in the Muddy Stilettos Best School Awards 2024.

The awards, which saw entries from hundreds of UK schools across 13 categories, were judged by a panel of headteachers, educational experts, and industry experts, who were looking for exceptional schools to demonstrate holistic, pastorally led, creative, and exciting education within their chosen category.

Within the ‘Best Experiential Learning’ category, our Pre-Prep showcased it’s ‘Write from the Start’ project, which has involved a full redesign of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum, to be innovative, engaging, skills based, and book led. The project has seen the emphasis being taken off using the word ‘writing’, and the expectation to write, and changed to celebrating communication.

Commenting on the project and the awards, Head of Bishop’s Stortford College Pre-Prep, Jo Wallace, said, “Our ‘Write from the Start’ project has focused on a deliberate plan to celebrate children’s communication anywhere other than in a book. This means there is an ethos in the Reception classroom that communication is more than writing in exercise books. It is fantastic that the project has been recognised by Muddy Stilettos as part of their Best School Awards 2024, and we are delighted to have been highly commended in the category.”

Wallace continues, “The positive impact of the project has been far reaching, with Reception children being happy learners who enthusiastically communicate through writing. Children also leave Reception with high levels of Literacy skills. In the last academic year (2022-2023), six children entered our Pre-Prep on track to reach their Early Learning Goal in writing. 34 ended the year having achieved their Early Learning Goal, with nine exceeding the goal.”

In our recent inspection, the Early Years Foundation Stage was noted to be a Significant Strength of the College and we are currently the only school to hold a significant strength for this provision.

Find out more about our Pre-Prep