Preshil, why are government schools not like you?

[verylisa]

A colleague told me last night that her son completed secondary schooling at Preshil in Kew.

I had heard of Preshil as an experimental school but hadn't looked it up in any detail.

Now I have, and I'm pining. It's wonderful, beautiful, perfect, entirely in line with my own philosophy of learning. Eris would love it immediately for the lack of uniform

Comments

[miss_rynn]

I'm actually familiar with Preshil; it was around the corner from the school I went to (Carey Baptist Grammar School). Preshil (and other schools like it) seem to only really work well for kids who have the ability to self-motivate. There were a few kids from Carey who were struggling with the standard ciriculum and rules and such who were taken out and sent to Preshil instead. It worked well for some, and for others it was just another step towards dropping out entirely.

Prehil, more than most schools, really is dependent on the student rather than the teachers, as I understand it.

[bunnikins]

I was actually about to say just that; I knew several kids who went there, and for a lot of them - I'd say over half - it was a very expensive form of 'babysitting'. They basically did as little as possible, and since there's such an emphasis on student-led learning, learned nothing. Some had been good students at previous schools, too, and it was more that they had trouble believing no one would 'make them' do things, and wanted to see how long they'd be allowed to do nothing, so just kept doing nothing until they got used to it, and just coasted though the rest of the year.

The people I know who had a good experience with Preshil (and those who did had a *really* good experience) were, as you said, the more self-motivated ones. It also seemed to me that it worked a lot better for children who'd previously been home-schooled.

[angstslashhope]

Eris could sit for scholarship? They generally award them full or partial...