Cothill

[msabmsad]

What can anyone tell me about Ludgrove, Cothill, Summer Fields school?
The pastoral care??
The boarding accommodations??

[ZeroSomeGameThingy]

Given the holiday weekend perhaps you may have to offer a little more to prompt answers.

What are you looking for? What type of boy? Top set / sporty/ both? An eight year old or changing schools at twelve? Bursary or full fees?

[msabmsad]

A sporty eight year old who loves all types of sports. He is above average but not top set. An emphasis on manners and excellent pastoral care.

[ZeroSomeGameThingy]

Well.... they all play against each other in major and minor sports. The small educational service-user of my aquaintance has nothing in particular to say re Ludgrove; apparently the Cothill boys are spectacularly polite and all visiting teams envy the SF boys their grounds and buildings.

Cothill appears still to have no bursary provision for new entrants - the reasons or philosophy behind that may or may not matter to you, but it must certainly make for a less economically diverse intake than might be the case at similar schools. Both boys and parents appear exceptionally happy at SF. Boarding houses are divided (roughly) by year group, thus avoiding any hierarchy and fitting the house to the boys in it. While they both feed to the obvious big name public schools SF has sent many more boys than Cothill to Winchester in the last few years. Make of that what you will.

[summerends]

My impression is that Cothill achieves a solid CE level type education and caters really well for boys- possibly most similar to Radley in ethos?
SF also 'gets' boys but has teaching that aims and can reach to the higher level scholarships for brighter boys and therefore possibly attracts more ambitious parents / bright boys. Both have a record for excellent pastoral boarding care and also encourage traditional manners.
I suspect that Ludgrove is most similar to Cothill for education level but don't know about pastoral care.

[msabmsad]

Thank you for the input on the other schools, what can anyone tell me about Ludgrove??

[ZeroSomeGameThingy]

Think you may need to start another thread with the school name in the title!

Or ask more generally about prep schools in Oxfordshire /Berkshire?

[maudacious2]

Summerfields is a good school but personally I didn't like its situation tucked in behind Waitrose and in a built up area.