Suffolk – arguably the best place to bring up a family!

Amanda Childs, Head of Ipswich Prep School, believes families should not hesitate to look East

Suffolk has always been a great place to raise a family. It’s a county of stunning countryside, beautiful woodlands, far-reaching views, big skies and a wonderful heritage coast. Long known as a cultural hub with both the Aldeburgh and Latitude festivals hosted here, and many actors, authors and artists choosing to call it home, it has also developed as a tech hub with BT’s global research centre based in Ipswich and Cambridge’s ‘Silicon Fen’ nearby. It was absolutely the best choice for my family when I was looking for a great school to lead and a brilliant place to live, 12 years ago. We love it so much, we have stayed, Suffolk really can offer the best of everything, either on our doorstep or just a short journey away.

In moving from London, we saw remarkable value for money in Suffolk. Its picture-postcard villages and small towns offer great choice, attracting both those willing to make a slightly longer journey to work and those needing to be near a station with a fast London connection. And now, with so many people continuing to work from home, the possibility of a stunning view from the ‘office’ and space to unwind in.

As a relocator from London myself, it’s been really interesting in recent months to see a surge in enquiries from young families suddenly rethinking their choice of location and revisiting their choice of school. The local housing market is benefiting from families looking for a roomier office/home base, whilst not compromising on the quality of schooling for their children. I can absolutely see why Suffolk is on their shortlist.

In my conversations with relocators, there are a number of factors that I see consistently featuring on parent checklists:

No pressure

Before becoming Head at Ipswich Prep I was Deputy Head of Alleyn’s Junior School, south London, and really loved teaching in, and helping to lead, one of the top London schools. But there’s a big difference between the London school market and the wider country, largely based around lack of supply and increasing demand in London. With so many senior schools oversubscribed, a pressure-cooker feeling develops, and this feeds down to the junior schools, measured by parents on their ability to ‘get a pupil in‘ to the best senior schools, and in turn to the children. That’s something we actively discourage at Ipswich Prep and not something I wanted for my own children.

We feed into Ipswich School, the top independent school in Suffolk, and in the top 150 secondary schools nationwide (as voted by parents and ranked by results). You might imagine therefore that the assessment for Ipswich School creates pressure for our Year 6 pupils. Absolutely not. One of the many things we have introduced at the Prep in recent years, is an early offer system in Year 5 designed to take away this pressure. It makes such a difference in terms of keeping the joy in learning for its own sake rather than for tests, and it helps boost self-esteem and overall wellbeing rather than diminishing it with a whole raft of possible rejections.That doesn’t mean to say that we ‘take our foot off the pedal’, if anything, we can help the children develop even further as we know that happy children learn better.

Curricular breath

The recent shifts in working patterns and practices have made us all re-evaluate the ways we do things. Certainly at Ipswich Prep we’ve changed from being relatively camera shy to blossoming video stars – reading stories, acting out history lessons and turning the kitchen into science laboratories, all live. We’ve further upscaled our communication and reimagined our lesson plans. Even in lockdown, the children are provided with outstanding teaching across the breadth of curriculum, with an excellent balance of live lessons and ones which are videoed to allow families some flexibility.

It’s also made parents appreciate the 21st century skills that their children will require: the softer skills of collaboration, cross-disciplinary processes and creative thinking. More than ever, it’s made my team appreciate the value in independence within education; our children do not sit the SATS and this sees our children benefit from an expansive, exploratory and exciting curriculum.At the same time, we care deeply for each individual’s good mental health, supporting the children to understand this is a big part of developing a love of learning that will last a lifetime.

Co-curricular breadth

Lockdown has made our relocating families appreciate the benefits of the outdoors, of their connections and of learning new things. Outdoor learning and the wider curriculum form a significant part of what we do here at the Prep. We believe that the best time to expand horizons and try new things is in childhood. That is why co-curricular forms an integral part of our timetable and why we have such a diverse range of activities available, Butterfly Club – check, Skiing Club- check – if there is interest in an activity we will make it happen. Whilst being outside, the children can further develop those important skills they can eventually take to the workplace.

Whenever I am asked if a family should relocate to Suffolk, I always answer with a resounding ‘yes’.

This article first appeared in John Catt's Preparatory Schools 2021, which you can view here: