Coopersale Hall School

Coopersale Hall School was founded in 1989. It has flourished and developed to become a thriving and successful school. It aims to provide a high standard of education for boys and girls from the age of 2½ to 11 in a happy, secure and well-disciplined environment. All pupils are expected to remain with the school until the age of 11, when they leave us fully-prepared for their new senior schools. It does not prepare pupils for 7+ or 8+ examinations.

Children are taught in small, well-resourced classes by dedicated and professional staff, who aim to encourage each child to realise his/her full potential within a challenging curriculum.

Although emphasis is placed upon the core subjects, the school works to equip the pupils well beyond the basic requirements of the National Curriculum. Traditional academic strengths will always be valued at Coopersale Hall, but pupils will also be taught to appreciate and become involved in a wide variety of expressive and performing subjects such as Art, Music and Sport. The school's role is not only to teach but to inspire the children at it.

Virtual schooling system

The school has introduced a new internet-based learning system, in which pupils will be able to talk to teachers, download class work and have their exercises graded remotely.

The school’s principal said: “This system means that it is far easier for pupils and teachers to keep in touch when pupils are not able to attend school.

“We have a wide mix of children at the school and sometimes pupils have to be away for a few of weeks over term time. This system sits very well with their time and needs.”

“I must stress that this is no substitute for classroom teaching, it is really a new way of using technology to help children to learn."

Celebrity use

In August 2011 it was reported that Rod Stewart's son Alistair would start school in Essex via videolink. The 66-year-old singer was keen for the five year old, his son with wife Penny Lancaster-Stewart, to have a British education even though he was about to embark on a two-year concert residency at Las Vegas' Caesar's Palace hotel and casino.

So Alistair became one of the first pupils to trial a new internet-based distance learning system at the £2,335-a-year Coopersale Hall School in Epping, Essex.

Despite being based 5,000 miles away with his parents and six-month-old brother Aiden, Alistair was able to sit in on lessons at the educational establishment, download class work, discuss it with a teacher and have it marked.

References

• Rod Stewart's son gets video teacher, London Evening Standard, 26 August 2011, http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/showbiz/rod-stewarts-son-gets-video-teacher-6437120.html
• Rod Stewart's lad taught in U.S. via videolink from Essex, Sun, 26 August 2011, http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3775607/Rod-Stewarts-son-will-start-new-school-year-at-his-Essex-primary-via-video-link-from-US.html

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