by Ian Nicholas, Deputy Head (Academic) 17th March 2026

How does make-up affect young woman and girls psychologically? If AI generated a painting, would it still be considered art? Why do we eat food that’s not good for us and how do we stop?

These aren’t questions from a philosophy seminar or a university lecture. They’re the questions our Year 8 pupils are asking right now and they’re the reason we believe the Independent Project Qualification (IPQ) is one of the most important things we do at Highfield and Brookham.

More than a project

The IPQ isn’t a box to tick at the end of prep school. It’s the culmination of two years of deliberate, careful development. It’s the moment when everything a Highfield and Brookham education has been building towards comes together in one remarkable piece of work.

Each pupil begins by choosing a question they genuinely care about. Not a topic, not a title but a question. One that is open to debate, alive with complexity and worth the months of thinking it will demand. That process of choosing, framing and owning a question is itself a profound act of intellectual confidence. And confidence, we find, is rather contagious.

The habits behind the work

What strikes us every year is not just the quality of the finished projects, though that quality is consistently extraordinary, but the habits of mind that produced them. Pupils have conducted surveys, visited museums, analysed data, produced podcasts and created portfolio-style presentations. The breadth and originality of this year’s work span science, culture, design, society and more.

But behind every project is the same set of skills we deliberately nurture from the moment a child joins us.

From the very first IPQ session, pupils are challenged through Socratic questioning. They learn to justify their ideas, test their assumptions and sit comfortably with uncertainty because strong thinking is what matters far more than simply finding the right answer. They learn to think critically and make connections across subjects, to communicate their ideas with clarity and structure, to adapt when their research takes them somewhere unexpected.

This is resilience in its truest academic form: not just pressing on when things are hard, but genuinely rethinking, refining and growing through the process. Intellectual stamina, not just grit.

And then there’s the ethical dimension. The best IPQ questions don’t have easy answers. Should hypnosis really be something in the hands of our society or is it something too dangerous? Does billions of money spent on space exploration make life better, or should they instead be solving problems on Earth? Questions such as these ask pupils to act with intellectual integrity, to respect complexity and to take seriously their responsibility as thinkers in a wider world.

A nationally recognised achievement

The projects are assessed through the Independent Schools Examinations Board’s Comparative Judgement Model, which benchmarks work from prep schools across the UK. It is a rigorous, meaningful qualification and our pupils meet it with remarkable maturity.

Historically, some educators believed 13-year-olds were too young for complex independent research. Year after year, Highfield and Brookham pupils prove otherwise.

In May, we host our annual IPQ Exhibition, where every Year 8 pupil presents their work to an audience of parents, teachers and peers. It is one of the highlights of our school year and a celebration of not just of knowledge gained, but of curiosity pursued, arguments crafted and ideas shared with genuine conviction.

What leaves with them

By the time our pupils walk into their senior school, they are not simply academically prepared. They are confident thinkers who know how to ask the right questions. They are curious learners who have already experienced the satisfaction of following an idea all the way to a conclusion. They are communicators who can stand up, own their work and speak about it with authority.

The IPQ is, in many ways, the fullest expression of what we mean when we talk about educating the whole child. Not just filling young minds with knowledge, but forming capable, grounded, outward-facing young people who are ready, intellectually, socially and morally for what comes next.

And it all begins with a question worth asking.