Figure 1.-- The tone and atmosphere of preparatory schools vary significantly from school to school. Some schools continue to have quite strict, formal approaches. Most schools are now much more informal. This applies both to the classroom as wll as a range of school rules. |
The tone and atmosphere of preparatory schools vary significantly from school to school. Some schools continue to have quite strict, formal approaches. At one school, for example, children had to stop and stand against the wall when adults passed in the halls. Several schools restrict conversation during meals. The number of schools which such strict discipline has declined sharply in recent years. Most schools are now much more informal. Most make a point of stressing their efforts to create a happy,' comportable atmosphere to allay the concerns of parents worried about boarding for young children. The headmaster at Prestfelde describes why he chose the school to both work and raise his children: "One of the reasons was certainly space: separated buildings and spacious grounds meant that there was no feeling of being cramped in or not having freedom to play. Then the relationship between staff and boys seemed right: there was no feeling of large men shouting at small boys, or of not caring them, or caring only for the successful in work or games, nor that the school ceased at four or five o'clock. It was a school where people lived, and day boys, also, could stay long an be part of whatever was going on. The school had its own Chapel too, a centre where boys could feel that religion was not apart from life."
