Primary School

Our Primary School opened in September 2007 and educates children from Reception through to Form Six. It is situated in attractive, modern buildings in Barnsbury, Islington. The site was originally converted from a journalists’ training college and was further enlarged with a roof extension and annex into the neighbouring building in 2010. The school extension won the British Council’s ‘Best Teaching and Learning Environment (Independent School)’ Award in 2011. In 2016 we acquired further space in the annex which was turned into classrooms to host our ever growing school. In 2022 we acquired the entire former factory building on Cynthia Street, and now we operate over two buildings and four fully refurbished floors of learning spaces.

All areas of the school are resourced to the highest standard with Montessori educational materials, as well as traditional learning activities and modern ICT facilities.

There is an emphasis on music, drama, the arts and language as part of everyday school life. Many children play a musical instrument and all children from Year One upwards participate in a weekly recorder lesson in small groups.

We teach French to all our children as part of the school curriculum. Due to our connections with the City of London, the school has a high number of children who are either bilingual in French and English, or who speak French as an additional language and we therefore offer classes at a higher level for native speakers.

We offer a  range of out-of-school activities during term-time and in the school holidays. There is a Breakfast Club daily from 8am. After school each day we offer clubs to each age group which operate until 6pm. There is a well-attended theatre club, three school choirs, languages such as French and Mandarin Chinese, out-of-school sports activities including swimming, gymnastics, football, yoga, cricket, athletics, ballet, dance and karate. There are plenty of opportunities for arts and crafts, such as our origami or jewellery clubs. Older primary children enjoy coding, cookery, music appreciation, a competitive Debating Society and science clubs. You can see what is currently available here.

During the school holidays we operate a Holiday Fun Club which is open to children outside the school. Each week has an educational theme and the children take trips to London’s museums, galleries and theatres, as well as taking part in sporting activities. Please see the activity schedules for our next Holiday Fun Club.

We encourage the children to focus on social responsibility by promoting awareness of the world through good citizenship. Our community fundraises regularly for children’s charities, incorporating this into the curriculum. We usually raise in excess of £10,000 each year.

We aim to be a green school and our primary school has been designed to be as sustainable as possible. Our schools were finalists in the 2014 Independent Schools Association’s Green School of the Year Award. The school has received several awards for our approach to the environment.

The primary school keeps parents up-to-date with news and events with a weekly e-newsletter.