Good Schools Guide
Friday 16th January 2026
Welcome to the Barrow Hills Bulletin, your weekly newsletter with a snapshot of life at School.
Message From the Head
Dear Parents,
As the African proverb reminds us, “The young can run faster, but the old know the road.” With that in mind, we are delighted that our Pre-prep Grandparents’ Day is returning on 12th February, bringing a welcome sense of generational connection. The day will include a sing-along, tea and cake, and open classrooms. If grandparents are not available, we are very happy to welcome an aunt, uncle, or other important grown up. We are also reaching out once again to our local care home, where there are some wonderful older folk, often without nearby family, who greatly enjoy joining us and contributing to our wider sense of community cohesion.
On the subject of cohesion, we successfully navigated our busiest day of 2026 so far on Thursday. This included an external science competition and a robotics competition, both at Charterhouse, a theatre visit, and hockey fixtures – all running alongside the normal timetable. I’m not entirely sure how we managed it, but somehow it all worked.
Continuing the energy into Monday, we will be hosting a research visit from the Korean Ministry of Education, with 100 of their top teachers (along with four interpreters) coming to Barrow Hills and King Edwards Witley to look at excellence in UK digital education. In addition, we will be fielding a small collegiate team to a separate event at Google HQ in London to explore further cutting-edge collaborations with our local university partners. It feels a little like one of Mr P’s maths problems, but we will figure out the logistics!
The main thing, however, is that we continue to aim high with our community and educational ambition. On that note – stop press – the Barrow Hills Year 6 squad beat 20 other teams to win the Charterhouse VEX Robotics Competition!
Warm regards,
Mr Towers, Head
