Essex


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-where">WHAT? WHERE?</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="667" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2024/05/SJP0117-1.jpg" alt="Saint Nicholas School, Essex " class="wp-image-16949" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2024/05/SJP0117-1.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2024/05/SJP0117-1-800x534.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2024/05/SJP0117-1-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



<p>Sitting in 15 tranquil acres of beautiful green and wooded grounds on the outskirts of Old Harlow, you&#8217;d never guess co-educational Saint Nicholas School was a convenient 15 minutes from the M11. </p>



<p>Hillingdon House, the school&#8217;s striking main building, was initially built as a private hunting lodge and stables before being annexed during WWII to nurse wounded soldiers. Inside the Edwardian façade it’s homey, with polished wooden floors, huge fireplace, grand staircase and beautiful glassed doors. If you’re after a school that looks as good as its grades, you’re going to love it.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Not that this is the type of place to rest on its good-looking laurels, with plenty of exciting developments taking place in the last eighteen months, including the opening of Rocking Horse Nursery in a charming converted stable block, so children can now have the Saint Nicholas experience from as young as three months through to 16 years. Quite the educational journey. </p>



<p>There are currently 488 pupils (231 girls, 257 boys), meaning class sizes are around 20 – big enough for discussion and buzz, small enough for attention. Children study and play in age-appropriate bubbles, with Pre-school, Reception and Year 1 based in Margaret Jones Building, Years 2-5 in Jubilee House, which has a lovely library, while Middle and Upper&nbsp;School are spread across&nbsp;Hillingdon House and the Swire Building, home to the main art room, science labs, DT room, main ICT suite and history and geography classrooms. There&#8217;s plenty of interaction though, so every pupil feels part of the bigger picture. </p>



<p>Generally pupils come from a 15-mile catchment area, including Loughton, South Woodford, Bishop’s Stortford, Chelmsford and Chigwell, but enough come from further afield for it not to feel too local. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-facilities">FACILITIES </h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="667" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2024/05/SJP1805.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-16952" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2024/05/SJP1805.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2024/05/SJP1805-800x534.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2024/05/SJP1805-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



<p>An extensive tour revealed money has clearly been pumped into refurbishments and improvements over the last few years, from the wonderful wall art throughout to the sparkling modern library facilities in Lower School and an impressive drama, music and sports offering throughout.&nbsp;</p>



<p>There are three science rooms for biology, physics and chemistry, a large computer room (which looks like the kind of place you could hack into the Pentagon, all black chairs and big screens), and a vibrant DT suite with all kinds of complicated-looking equipment for shaping wood and metal.&nbsp;</p>



<p>What space the school has got is used to great effect, including the new nursery, an open-air heated swimming pool tucked away in a former kitchen garden and the conversion of an enormous outbuilding (seriously, it&#8217;s like an aircraft hanger) into an indoor sports hall also used for PTA and community events. </p>



<p>It’s all impressive stuff and the result leaves you with the impression that the school sits on way more than 15 acres. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-sport">SPORT </h2>



<p>All pupils get to take part in more sports than you can shake a hockey stick at, with the opportunity to be taught by external specialist coaches in cricket and tennis. There&#8217;s an enduring relationship with Tottenham Hotspur FC &#8211; pupils even get the chance to train at the team&#8217;s ground occasionally, which would make my footie-mad eight-year-old swoon. </p>



<p>While sports are a big deal here, a healthy sport-for-all mentality runs deep so even the most unathletic child can still reap the benefits. You’ll find multi-sports courts, predominantly used for netball and tennis, grassed football and rugby fields (the school has hosted ISA national footy games in the past), a great cricket pitch (apparently working from home parents can often be found watching matches on sunny days&#8230;) and a modern indoor sports hall with cricket nets. </p>



<p>The school’s netball teams are a force to be reckoned with, regularly adding silverware to the school&#8217;s already bulging trophy cabinet &#8211; in fact a new cup from a recent county win turned up during my tour promoting major grins all round. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-music-drama-amp-art">MUSIC, DRAMA &amp; ART</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="667" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2024/05/SJP0875-2.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-16950" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2024/05/SJP0875-2.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2024/05/SJP0875-2-800x534.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2024/05/SJP0875-2-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



<p>Specialist teachers dedicated to art, music, computing and languages are given the facilities to match, with a modern, airy theatre, DT room, and a fabulous art room with a kiln. </p>



<p>The big news is that the school has just appointed a Head of Music, Canadian-born Ms Cristin Casey who I had the pleasure of meeting just two weeks into the job. An enthusiastic force of nature, she&#8217;s already introducing all sorts of fun initiatives, from pupils taking part in Harlow&#8217;s Battle of the Bands to interpreting music inspired by BBC Radio 1&#8217;s Live Lounge. Her aim? For every pupil in the school to learn to play and enjoy music. The children clearly adored her in the class I dropped in on, so I predict great things for the school’s music output.</p>



<p>Art is as wildly creative as you’d hope it to be. I was particularly struck by the Upper School’s art room dominated by a long table and lined with still life sketches, fashion designs pinned to mannequins and a giant, vivid painting of Marie Antoinette figure eating cake against a fluorescent background. It&#8217;s clearly a space that gets the creative juices flowing. </p>



<p>The school’s lively drama and musical theatre productions are well-known in the local community (particularly at the old people’s homes who come to visit every year), with multiple shows throughout the year for all age groups. </p>



<p>And all-school productions such as <em>Oliver</em>, <em>Rock of all Ages</em> and a magical <em>A Midsommer’s Night’s Dream</em> performed open-air in the grounds, are a great chance for pupils to get involved in theatre (including lighting and costume design). </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-academics">THE ACADEMICS</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="667" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2024/05/SJP0999-2.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-16953" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2024/05/SJP0999-2.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2024/05/SJP0999-2-800x534.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2024/05/SJP0999-2-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



<p>Examination results over recent years have been consistently strong and have been rising year on year. In 2024 95% of pupils achieved five or more GCSE passes at grade 4-9, and 86% of pupils achieved five or more GCSE passes at grade 4-9, including English and maths. In addition, 91% of all grades achieved were at grade 4-9 and 39% of all grades achieved were grades 7-9, equivalent to A and A*.</p>



<p>The school was awarded &#8216;Excellent&#8217; across all areas in its January 2022 inspection (see the full ISI report <a href="https://www.saintnicholasschool.net/userfiles/snsmvc/documents/isi-inspection-report-jan-2022.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>), and it’s unsurprising that the vast majority of pupils are accepted into their first choice of Sixth Form, which include Bishop’s Stortford College, Felsted, Chelmsford College, Herts &amp; Essex and Bishop’s Stortford High School. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-head">THE HEAD</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="667" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2024/05/thumbnail__SJP1360.jpg" alt="Terry Ayers, head of Saint Nicholas School in Essex " class="wp-image-16983" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2024/05/thumbnail__SJP1360.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2024/05/thumbnail__SJP1360-800x534.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2024/05/thumbnail__SJP1360-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



<p>Warm and funny, Terence Ayres (Terry) was previously deputy headmaster at Saint Nicholas School, before returning to take up the top position two years ago following a stint as Headmaster at Thorpe House School, in Gerrards Cross, and then Leehurst Swan School in Salisbury. And he&#8217;s clearly making his mark. Over a cup of tea in his light airy office lined with footie memorabilia (think Bergkamp shirt, Thierry Henry boots) he spoke of his passion for both the arts ‘it’s one of the biggest exports in our country’ and outside learning &#8211; nothing makes him happier than looking out of the window and seeing classes making use of the grounds. </p>



<p>Since he rejoined the nursery has opened, the school&#8217;s GCSE offering expanded (think photography, religious studies, business studies and astronomy) and Forest School is now firmly embedded in the curriculum &#8211; apparently the school will be getting a new bespoke forest school area in summer ’24 and there’s also a big sports investment to come. Watch this space.&nbsp;</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="563" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2024/05/Forest-school-14.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-16957" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2024/05/Forest-school-14.jpeg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2024/05/Forest-school-14-800x450.jpeg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2024/05/Forest-school-14-768x432.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



<p>Ayers is clearly a hands on head (he even relocated his office to be opposite the Senior study space so he can be on hand for advice and support), who has created a family atmosphere and consequently he&#8217;s popular with pupils and staff. Regular fortnightly meetings with the school&#8217;s head girl and boy (both charming and eloquent when we met) and house heads has led to all kinds of fun initiatives being introduced including prefect Xmas pizza parties and all-school Easter egg hunts. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-pastoral">PASTORAL </h2>



<p>The overall impression I left with is that pupils are strongly supported from day one at this nurturing school. Form teachers play an important role in overseeing the pastoral care of the pupils within their form. Each year group has two form tutors who mentor them daily, alongside the pastoral leads. </p>



<p>A member of staff delivers intervention, such as one-to-ones, two days per week, and the school also has a link with a counsellor and play therapist who works with pupils whenever the need arises.</p>



<p>There’s also a wellbeing room for breaks and lunchtime, and a Butterfly Garden for reflection and contemplation which is a tranquil space built in memory of a Saint Nicholas pupil who had sadly passed away.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-littlies">LITTLIES</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="669" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2024/05/RHN-2.jpg" alt="Rocking Horse Nursery in Essex " class="wp-image-16954" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2024/05/RHN-2.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2024/05/RHN-2-800x535.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2024/05/RHN-2-768x514.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



<p>As mentioned previously, the Rocking Horse Nursery is a brilliant new addition to the school. Open year-round, it takes children aged from three months to three years, and is spread across three rooms in a light, airy converted farmhouse and stable block. I was impressed to discover that pretty much everything you could need/want for your child is provided, from eco-friendly nappies to buggies &#8211; babies and tots are taken out into the grounds for fresh air daily and there&#8217;s also a garden with mud kitchen, large sand pit and climbing frame. </p>



<p>My tour coincided with post-lunch nap time in Paddock room (18 months to two years) and every single tot was sound asleep on their mat, which they&#8217;re encouraged to fetch themselves as soon as they can in an early bid to boost independence. It was such a tranquil scene it made me stop in my tracks and reminisce about how long it used to take me to get one toddler down, let alone ten &#8211; clearly the friendly nursery staff have Mary Poppins skill levels. &nbsp;</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="667" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2024/05/SJP0712-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-16955" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2024/05/SJP0712-1.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2024/05/SJP0712-1-800x534.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2024/05/SJP0712-1-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



<p>Early Years (from 2½ years), Reception and Year 1 takes place in Margaret Jones House and classrooms are bright and colourful, with areas for activities from role play and creative arts to sensory exploration and computing. However it’s the walled outside area where littlies have won the jackpot, with a newly resurfaced play area complete with castle, sand pit, water play, mud kitchen, bikes and scooters. So. Much. Fun. </p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-wraparound-care">WRAPAROUND CARE</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1000" height="535" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2024/05/Buses-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-16956" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2024/05/Buses-1.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2024/05/Buses-1-800x428.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/essex/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2024/05/Buses-1-768x411.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>



<p>Saint Nicholas offers wraparound care from 7.30am to 6pm, and there&#8217;s Study Plus (4-6pm) for pupils in GCSE years. Its site is used by Barracudas during the Easter and Summer holidays – a great option for parents looking for childcare over the holidays. The school also has its own fleet of buses to pick up kids and drop them off again, meaning parents can swan around in their PJs for that big longer.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-quirks">QUIRKS</h2>



<p>Goats are an unusual (and much-loved) addition to the school. It&#8217;s also refreshingly eco-friendly, which isn&#8217;t a quirk exactly, but it&#8217;s certainly a bonus of attending this school &#8211; who wouldn&#8217;t want their child enrolled in eco club, helping on allotments, harvesting veg, planting flowers in the outside play areas and generally getting their hands dirty? </p>



<p><strong>ISI REPORT</strong></p>



<p>The school received ‘Excellent’ status
in all areas following its ISI inspection in January 2022. Read the full report
<strong><a href="https://www.saintnicholasschool.net/admissions/inspection-report/">here.</a></strong></p>



<p><strong>MOBILE PHONE POLICY</strong><strong></strong></p>



<p>No need for a family tracker app here, because mobile phones during the school day are strictly prohibited. All phones have to be handed over in the morning during registration and are returned at the end of the day.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-fees">FEES</h2>



<p>Fees per term are: Reception &amp; Years 1 &amp; 2 £3,838; Years 3, 4 &amp; 5 £4,219;<br>Year 6, 7 &amp; 8 £4,721; and Years 9, 10 &amp; 11 £5,148.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-muddy-verdict">THE MUDDY VERDICT</h2>



<p><strong>Good for:</strong> Parents looking for a fun, family-orientated, nurturing school, with outstanding pastoral care, great sporting facilities and gorgeous grounds, where children are allowed to be children. </p>



<p><strong>Not for:</strong> Although there is a play hard, work hard ethos at Saint Nicholas, its laidback family approach and relatively small numbers means that not all children will suit the small pond – some might need to dive bomb into a bigger, more competitive pool. </p>



<p><strong>Dare to disagree?! </strong>Be my guest. Their next Open Morning takes place on Saturday 5th Oct. From 9-10am visit their Nursery, Pre-School and Reception provision, then from 10am-12pm discover Year 1 through Year 11. <a href="https://www.saintnicholasschool.net/admissions/open-events-tour" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sign up here</a>.</p>



<p><em><a aria-label="St Nicholas School (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.saintnicholasschool.net/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Saint Nicholas School</a>, Hillingdon House, Hobbs Cross Road, Old Harlow, Essex, CM17 0NJ. Tel: <a aria-label="01279 429 910 (opens in a new tab)" href="tel:01279429910" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">01279 429 910</a>&nbsp;</em></p>


Saint Nicholas School, Harlow

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