We recognise that the world is a competitive place. However, whilst enthusiastically endorsing its place in areas such as sport, theatrical audition or election to school office, we will not allow competition to hurt or damage others. So we reject widely publicised and emphasised form rankings, as we believe that learning saddled with such measurements can all too easily cease to be exciting and become a source of anxiety and despair. Instead we demand something much tougher - competition with oneself.

Competition’s OK if you are the best otherwise it sucks.”
A current (and successful) pupil.

Her companion in the conversation added:

I am incredibly competitive. I always have been. At my prep school (south London feeder for narrowly selective schools) I was OK academically. Here we all accept each other’s strengths and weaknesses. And as a result I am much more confident and hate being beaten even more than I used to AND I am doing far better academically.