Miss Fareeha Kanwal

Why an English teacher opened a primary school

A-Levels English is the last examined stop in a school education, and it is the level she teaches. Spring Buds School begins at the other end of it, at Play Group. What a student can do with a blank page in an A-Levels paper was mostly settled years earlier, in the years when reading either became a habit or quietly did not, and when a child either kept asking questions or learned not to.

So the teaching here is built on activity. It points in one direction. In Montessori a child chooses a piece of work, carries it to a mat, finishes it and puts it back. By Grade 3 the same habit is planning a piece before writing it. By Grade 8 it is extended writing under time, which is what an A-Levels paper will ask for a few years after that.

The one part of this that somebody outside the school has marked is creative writing. That is her own subject. Spring Buds students entered Create for Peace 2026, a competition run by MindCarver, and came back with Silver and Bronze in the Creative Writing category. Several others were recognised as Young Peace Advocates. The certificates were handed over at our prize distribution on 3 June 2026.

Her argument about the early years is set out at more length on our mission and values page. Anything she writes for parents goes on the blog.