With children?s mental health now in the spotlight, some schools are increasingly turning away from a traditional learning model to offer something a little different, writes Elizabeth Ivens
Often dubbed ?hothouse? schools, highly academic schools have long been celebrated for helping generations of children to achieve the highest exam results. But many heads, even in London where thousands of children have long competed for places at the most academically rigorous schools, now believe that a more relaxed approach can work just as well. From abolishing entrance examinations to introducing more creative and practical cross-curricular work and a move away from traditional exams, schools are frequently looking at different paths for their students. Schools themselves have sometimes referred to this new approach as ?greenhouse rather than hothouse?. Hilary Phillips, Head at all-girls? prep Hanford in Dorset, a proponent of the ?greenhouse style?, explained: ?With a hothouse, you have a target, you know where you?re going and you know what you?ve to do to get there and you measure how far along you are in getting to that target. But with the greenhouse style, it?s more a case of looking at what you?ve got and working out how to make the best of that child. ?It?s much easier for a school to be a hothouse, because their pupils are all much of a muchness, and are all working towards the same target.? In London, Suzie Longstaff was Head at one of the capital?s highly competitive sch...