School Profile – Eaton House Schools

Eaton House Schools have long been a popular choice for families of boys and girls aged three to thirteen, with an enviable academic track record and a supportive pastoral care system. The single-sex group of schools, which has two separate sites for boys and girls sitting side by side overlooking Clapham Common and a boys’ site in Belgravia, believes that by creating a happy and nurturing environment for children, they will flourish academically as well as become well-rounded individuals.

Testament to this is the schools’ recent investment in a new Head of Wellbeing, Paula Kearney, who joined at a rather fortuitous time in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, although her arrival had long been planned for by the school in order to ensure that its wellbeing provision matches its gold standard in education.

Paula explains, “Eaton House Schools are well-known for being academically secure and high performing. What sets us apart is our investment in wellbeing.”
The pastoral care has always been strong, but Principal Luchie Cawood is taking this further, cementing wellbeing into all aspects of the school community and formalising it as an important and vital part of the schools’ DNA. In fact, it extends beyond the wellbeing of the children to the staff, parents and alumni too.

Eaton House Schools have launched a wellbeing hub on the website which offers practical advice on how to cope with common challenges, such as not sleeping, and anxiety. It also publishes a wellbeing e-book each term for parents including mindfulness activities they can do with their children. In addition, Paula runs webinars giving parents the tools to help their children manage stress and worry, and she plans to run more face-to- face events in future.

Some of the more common causes of stress she sees amongst children are pres- sures around secondary school assess- ments, comparison with peers, social me- dia and problems in their friendship circles.

She says, “If a child is upset because they’ve fallen out with a friend, they experience a range of different emotions such as rejection, so I would work with them to build up their resilience. My aim is to help the students build a skill set that will help them manage their own emotions as well as identify others’ needs and help them too, making them feel more secure and self- assured. All this is part of growing up.”

Indeed, Eaton House Schools believe that children blossom at different stages in their lives which is why the schools in the group are non-selective. Its aim is to guide children to understand their natural abilities and find their passions by offering them a robust educational curriculum as well as 30 clubs to engage a wide variety of interests. Coupled with its wellbeing provision, students grow to be confident and mature individuals.

Pupils successfully graduate on to prestigious schools such as Westminster, St Paul’s, Dulwich College and Eton for the boys, and St Paul’s Girls’ School, Wycombe Abbey, Godolphin & Latymer, Downe House and James Allen’s Girls’ School for the girls.

It’s clear that their formula works. Happy children are successful children not just in their school lives but well into the future.