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- Grimsdell's Good School Guide Report 2025
We are pleased to share the updated Good Schools Guide review for Grimsdell, Mill Hill Pre-Prep.
The review reads extremely well and underlines recent improvements at Grimsdell Pupils and staff can be rightly proud of the report.
Highlights
Overview
Some highlights from the Good Schools' guide visit includes:
"On the day of our visit the sunny entrance hall embodied the creative curriculum, where all learning is connected and immersive. Once through the door, we were in no doubt as to the theme for the term: the Tower of London loomed large, a jolly post box and a larger-than-life-size Paddington Bear greeted us. The London theme unites the whole school across all subjects and activities."
"A happy and kind beginning to the all-through journey of a Mill Hill education. New focus on selection and academics, to feed the Mill Hill foundation from the bottom up, does not detract from nurturing ethos. Connected, immersive and fun curriculum with an emphasis on the outdoors means children don’t even realise they are learning at all."
Academic
The report recognises how, as Mr Dobson reflects, “The creative curriculum is a huge part of what we do,” says the report. “It inspires a love of learning which prepares boys and girls for the next stage of education, and for life – collaboration, empathy, critical thinking and technology are essential skills.”
Early years provision is described as “heaven for little eco-warriors.” Nursery children spend “half of every day, whatever the weather, outside in forest school.” Inspectors observed pupils “excited to harvest, and later cut up and cook, potatoes, carrots and onions, all grown from seed,” while others were “experimenting with pipes and scoops alongside a water wall resembling a mini Pompidou Centre.”
Indoors, classrooms are “beautifully designed ‘free flow’ spaces that look more like something from a Skandi showroom than a school.” Parents, the report notes, “happily perceive a more structured, more academic focus: phonics and maths are prioritised.”
Whole-school Task Time is praised for “bringing the whole school together: in groups of 10, across year groups, children immerse themselves in an activity of their choice – music, outdoor learning or woodwork, the latter with real little saws and screwdrivers.”
Pastoral
The report recognises Grimsdell’s strong pastoral ethos, rooted in its nurturing environment within Winterstoke House on Wills Grove—described by parents as “an enclave of calm away from the mania of the Ridgeway.” Daily routines, such as the civilised morning handover with a handshake or fist pump, set a positive tone for the day.
It also highlights how Pastoral and SEND needs are addressed sensitively, with early intervention ensuring that “even the slightest wobble is noticed and nipped in the bud.” Support is available through play and speech therapists, school counsellors, and a caring school nurse, whose presence is a reassuring constant. Peer support is embedded: playground buddies in high-vis jackets help children feel included, and every nursery child is paired with a Year 2 buddy. Initiatives such as older pupils listening to younger ones read reflect a culture of care.
It recognises how The Grimsdell Way, a set of values prioritising kindness in all its forms is centeral to this. Even the youngest pupils embrace sharing and caring, creating a community where wellbeing and empathy are integral to school life.
