The Stewart Bilingual School

The school teaches both the National Curriculum of England and the programme of the French Education Nationale, from the first pre-school year to the end of the primary cycle, and has built a bespoke curriculum out of what it judges the strongest and most demanding parts of each. Pedagogical coordinators have the job of connecting the two curricula and keeping teaching plans coherent. Academic expectations are set in both, so that children can move on to an English, French, bilingual or international school as they choose. The school's predecessor, La Petite Ecole Francaise, was among the first primary schools in London to gain approval from the French Ministry of Education.

With 40 years of experience in bilingual education, the school provides a broad, lively and intellectually stimulating dual curriculum drawing on the strengths of both the French and British traditions, in a happy and caring environment.

The school emphasises the relationship between children and their teachers, and between children of different year groups, which it believes benefits both personal and academic development. It works to build each child's confidence and their capacity to work alone as much as in a group, and encourages them to be inquisitive, to think for themselves and to speak up in class in front of classmates and teachers. It takes a screen-free approach to education and describes its setting as homely and culturally vibrant.

Reading sessions are held weekly in the school library, where children meet a range of authors and texts that are then discussed in class. The Clarendon Road primary site is the school's main building, occupied since 2023, and the nursery works from separate premises in Cambridge Gardens. Lunch is cooked on site each day in the school's own kitchen. Nursery and Reception children attend a Forest School session one day a week.

Lunch is cooked on site each day in the school's own kitchen, and a sample menu is published. Every child is given fruit or vegetables as a mid-morning snack, provided by the school. Pupils get a twenty-minute break each half day plus forty-five minutes after lunch; nursery children nap after lunch while the rest have story time and then a long playtime, and lessons restart at 1.30 pm for all year groups.

After-school care, language support classes and clubs run from 4 pm to 6.30 pm, and Wednesday workshops from noon to 4 pm; daily after-school care or tutoring is available. Doors open at 8.30 am, lessons begin at 8.45 am for Years 2 to 6 and at 9 am for Year 1 and below, and finish at 4 pm, or at noon on Wednesdays. Pupils belong to one of two houses, Charlemagne and Nightingale, collecting points through the week, with a trophy going to the house that has gathered most by the end of the year. Pre-registration is free, and priority goes to siblings of current pupils, to children arriving from the school's French sister schools and to the children of former pupils.

The school states that its central aim is a bilingual curriculum that is at once demanding and inclusive, in which every child feels valued within the community and personally looked after. Because classes are small, it says no individual goes unnoticed, and it uses small-group and one-to-one sessions to fit the teaching programme to each child. A named SEN Coordinator is part of the staff, and the school publishes a SEN policy alongside its accessibility plan and its mental health and wellbeing policy. Language support classes run after school for pupils who need them.

Clubs and classes run on the premises every afternoon after school. The offer covers ballet, drama, chess, tennis, fencing, football and coding; languages, namely Spanish, Russian and Arabic; drawing and arts; and music, with solfeggio, singing and tuition on piano, guitar, recorder, violin and trumpet. They are grouped as arts (music, art and drama), science (STEM with Lego, plus coding), chess masterclasses, languages, an introduction to Latin with 11+ preparation, sports, and a Wednesday club of handcrafting, design and cooking. Beyond the taught curriculum the school runs outdoor skills, trips, visiting speakers and further arts, music and drama projects, and it uses its North Kensington location for regular day trips to galleries, theatres, concerts, parks, museums and historic sites. Timetabled specials include sport on Thursday mornings, choir on Thursday afternoons, Latin on Fridays, Forest School for Nursery on Mondays and Reception on Fridays, and dance for Nursery on Wednesdays.