THE ASHVALE WAY

Ashvale develops schools which nurture confident, creative children, ready to thrive anywhere.

Five shared principles:
The Ashvale Way

Ashvale Schools balances tradition and innovation. Our schools are pioneering new educational brands that resonate with the communities they serve, respecting local and national culture, language, religion and heritage. Underpinning our educational approach is a robust British curriculum framework that provides firm academic foundations for our children, opening doors to world-class senior schools and, later, to renowned universities.

While each school is distinctive, all our schools share five guiding principles:

  • Schools that build character, empathy, and cultural fluency. Helping children become creative, thoughtful citizens of the world, as well as academic performers.

  • Academically ambitious but never joyless. A curriculum designed to spark curiosity, debate, and creative expression.

  • Right-sized schools where every child is known, with small classes, deep teacher-pupil relationships and strong parent trust.

  • Grounded in British educational heritage and 188 years of prep school values, refreshed for a global future. Quietly confident, never stuffy or clichéd.

  • An educational approach that equips children to become effective stewards of their environment and their own health, prepared for century-long lifespans.

Human-centred learning

Central to our teaching and learning approach is the principle of academic value-added. Our schools help pupils, regardless of starting points, to outperform expectations, gain internationally recognised qualifications and access world-class higher education.

It is the quality of human relationships which enables this journey. Personal connection, and individual support for every child is at the heart of all we do. Our schools’ pastoral structures – including houses, form tutors, learning support departments and peer mentoring – ensure that every child has a network of trusted adults and peers on whom they can rely.

We evaluate pupils’ academic baseline standards on entry and leadership teams carefully monitor all pupils’ ongoing progress against comparative benchmarks.

Ashvale Schools’ curriculum development and pedagogy are informed by academic evidence and practice in renowned schools in London and the British educational system.

Intellectual joy

Ashvale School develops a tailored curriculum, underpinned by the framework of the renowned National Curriculum of England, and offering internationally recognised qualifications to mark key milestones at 11+, 13+, 16+ and 18+, including ISEB and Cambridge International.

McKinsey’s Spark and Sustain research shows that London has among the most rapidly improving and high-performing sub-national school systems in the world. Curriculum is the fundamental building block of an outstanding school: our team’s work tailoring the curriculum has been tested in the highly competitive London independent schools market; Ashvale’s leadership have significant experience teaching in, leading and growing academic value-adding London schools.

Smaller, better schools

While many school operators look at education from the top down, thinking first about leavers’ grades and university admissions, we think from the bottom up. We believe emphatically that firm foundations from a young age are the key to academic success and personal fulfilment. Ashvale’s core expertise is in primary and middle school education.

Ashvale Schools’ early childhood education provision uses the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework, with its focus on cultivating communication and language, physical skills, and social and emotional development through a carefully curated blend of directed and child-led, play-based learning. Pupils then transition into more formal primary education with the fundamental capabilities of literacy and numeracy that enable them to be effective learners.

Global, modern Britishness

Ashvale alumni will be globally fluent, capable young adults, who have the confidence and empathy to live and work successfully across Eastern and Western cultural spheres.

Our schools are anchored in the communities they serve. Tailored brands resonate with local, professional families. We place a strong emphasis on teaching the historical, political, literary and spiritual heritage of pupils’ city and nation. Effective language teaching is central to achieving this aim. Drawing on our expertise leading and growing excellent schools in the UK and around the world, including bilingual schools, our teaching methods empower pupils to find their voice, in and out of the classroom.

Our intention is for every Ashvale School to be accredited by UNESCO, in recognition of our commitment to cultural education.

Rooted in nature

There is no exam syllabus for life. While academic qualifications are vital, and demonstrate capability in a highly competitive world, the other half of education must not be forgotten – it is an individual’s character that shapes a career.

Character development and opportunities to find personal fulfilment are embedded into the wider curriculum in our schools, from the early years all the way up to higher education transition.

Ashvale Schools will be creative powerhouses, drawing on our founders' expertise of leading arts education. A creative curriculum, with specialist lessons taught by skilled professionals, fires our pupils’ imaginations. Meanwhile, compulsory, age-appropriate service learning will cultivate empathy, promote cultural awareness and encourage our pupils to address intractable social challenges with entrepreneurial responses.