Focus on St Christopher's The Hall – nurturing excellence

At St Christopher’s The Hall, a capital location and country-prep flavour create a setting where children succeed by running their own race

Arrive at St Christopher’s The Hall School and you feel you’ve left the capital behind. It is in that leafy quarter of Beckenham where handsome villas and a slower pace draw in families. Head Teacher Tom Carter was certainly struck by this when he took on the Head role in 2021, following 15 years teaching and leading at inner-London schools. “Here we have space,” he says. “And because it’s got a Kent postcode, it feels like it’s miles away but it’s so close to central London.” Indeed, fast rail connections mean you can be standing in Victoria Station in a little over half an hour.

Tom Carter says St Christopher’s The Hall is seen by many families as delivering the best of both worlds – the aspirations and opportunities of a London school, with the feel of a village setting. Many parents still walk their children to school here before heading off to work in The Smoke.

Focus on St Christopher's The Hall / Nurturing excellence — St Christopher’s The Hall Head Tom Carter with pupils – parents value the feel of a village setting and the proximity to central London

It’s an old school with an interesting back story. The handsome Georgian main building, originally owned by the Cator family, became a girls’ school – St Christopher’s – in 1893. Alumna included hallowed children’s author Enid Blyton, who became Head Girl around the start of WW1. The St Clare’s series is said to draw closely on her own happy school days in this very building. In 1926, St Christopher’s merged with nearby boys’ school The Hall to form a co-ed prep community.

It’s a school with a strong past but not stuck there. Last year, St Christopher’s The Hall joined St Dunstan’s Education Group, a move that brings added strength and a guaranteed place at St Dunstan’s Senior should families choose. But being part of the St Dunstan’s family is much more about a shared ethos and south-London roots. “It was about finding a partnership that felt genuinely aligned with our values and our vision for the future,” says Tom Carter.

Alongside expertise and resource sharing, benefits include more of that prized space that is such a notable feature of the school. Now, alongside the generous playing grounds and all-weather courts, pupils at St Chrisopher’s The Hall get access to the Old St Dunstonian’s Club pitches. “Serious space,” says Tom Carter. “It’s transformative for your sports curriculum when you’ve got properly laid out pitches at a prep school.”

“The recently installed Pre-Prep playground with trim trail and climbing frame means a happy soundtrack of imaginative play outside”

A new Head of Sport joined two years ago and had reinvigorated sports provision by the time those new pitches came into play. Now, there’s a popular blend, including football, netball, cricket and rugby. PE includes dance, swimming, athletics and fitness. There are fixtures and competitive opportunities for all levels, plus before and after-school clubs and training.

Tom Carter sees equality of opportunity as essential to the school’s sports offer. “Why can’t girls play rugby and why can’t boys play netball?” he says. These opportunities have been good for everyone – and transformative for some. “This year, we’ve had the most sports scholarships ever, with 12 in all.”

The opportunity-rich approach in sports is carried across the curriculum and with a clear purpose. “I want to make sure every child has the opportunity to run their own race.” He sees these vital formative years as the place to instil in children the mindset that they have the possibility to do everything. Last year’s ISI Inspection reflected the success of this can-do approach, awarding a rare Significant Strength in leadership of teaching and learning. Other areas highlighted included strong academic progress, the ambitious academic programme and pupils’ independence as learners – also the joyful school environment.

The curriculum here is stimulating, with extensive specialist provision in Modern Foreign Languages, Music, Drama and Art. The school’s 2016 extension added cool specialist classrooms and child-friendly group learning spaces. Display walls are testament to the good work going on here, with walls displaying colourful projects and artworks.

New sits surprisingly easily alongside old – thanks in part to a wholesale rethink of colour palettes and ambiance in the main building. Now the Georgian entry hall is bright and welcoming, with a delightful flower-trail mural winding up the main staircase (masterminded by the Head of Art). School values are written among those blooms to remind pupils of the ideas they live by every day.

The library is fabulous, with cosy chairs and nooks for books – it feels like it belongs to pupils. Even the Head’s office is a child-friendly zone, for Tom Carter’s open-door policy encourages children to stop by for a chat or biscuits and a game of Connect 4 if they have won a team award at the Friday Celebration Assembly. The Head’s office overlooks the recently installed Pre-Prep playground with trim trail and climbing frame (Prep pupils have their own trim trail), which means a happy soundtrack of imaginative play outside.

Having taught and led in a variety of settings, Tom Carter’s says hothousing is not the route to happy children or happy times in Year 6, so there’s no relentless slogging over past papers here. “It’s about delivering a skills-based curriculum. If you teach children well, they will be able to tackle those exams,” he says. No sets either – instead, individualised teaching delivers support and stretch so children can “run their own race” and succeed.

As an English teacher, he’s spent a lot of time with the children working on that cornerstone of 11+ testing – comprehension. “You want to give them that freedom, that love of words,” he says. “I’ll say, ‘so what do you think we did in today’s lesson?’ And they’ll say, ‘we were just chatting about books’. And I’ll say, ‘that is what comprehension is’.”

Effort is recognised here, but individual prizegiving has been replaced by Character Counter prizes, celebrating school values such as independence and integrity. And children earn them on behalf of their school House. “We want to build good people,” says Tom Carter.

Speaking to the impressively articulate Head Pupil and Deputy Head Pupil (elected on pupil votes), it’s clear that this approach of doing your best for the team means a lot to pupils. . There is also a highly active School Council here, giving children agency and the understanding that they have a voice in decision-making.

The school has firm policies on phone use – Year 6 only, and for those who walk to school, with phones dropped in at Reception for the day. Staff have also done a lot of work with children and parents on e-safety. AI is employed as a teaching tool, but for thrilling endeavours such as exploring Tutankhamun’s Tomb remotely.

As an antithesis, the school recently introduced the Horizon Project. “It’s an enshrined hour – our mission against tech,” says Tom Carter. Here, pupils learn analogue skills – tying a tie, brewing a cup of tea, cutting bread, making a bed. They even (so 20th century) learn how to wire a plug. Sustainability initiatives and community work are also integral to a programme developed as a way of helping children to build attention, focus and practical skills, plus the confidence and empathy needed for future life.

Building resilience and character have always been important elements of education, but Tom Carter believes they have become critical. “Mental health is now a widespread concern. When I started teaching 25 years or so ago, it just wasn’t a thing. I think we’ve got such a big part to play in children’s formative years in making them feel good about themselves,” he says. “Today’s children have got a hard world to navigate through.”

St Christopher’s The Hall is doing its bit to for navigation with its highly focused approach to choosing the right senior school. Having that guaranteed place at St Dunstan’s in Year 7 – awarded in Year 5 – makes a big difference. It tends to be parents who need that reassurance. “We have the best of both worlds. But even though St Dunstan’s is a wonderful option, it may not be right for every pupil, and I’m very clear with parents that we’ve got to be actively choosing somewhere where their child will find success.”

“We’ve got such a big part to play in children’s formative years in making them feel good about themselves”

There are many senior success stories in academic, music, art and drama scholarships, alongside sports awards, in the past few years. Sitting on the border with Kent means some pupils head to that county’s state and grammar options, but the majority move on to London and Home Counties independents. Tom Carter says that shortlisting what’s going to work best for each child avoids testing and interview overload. And that, in turn, helps ensure the smooth transition that supports success in the next phase of school life.

This clear-eyed and compassionate approach reflects the wider philosophy at St Christopher’s The Hall – that of putting children front and centre and doing what’s best for them. For Tom Carter, that’s what the ‘Excellence, differently’ school mantra is all about. “We champion children. We want our children to do well – it’s about creating a positive environment where that happens.”