Hampton vs Dulwich

[Rakushka04]

Our DS has got offers to Hampton, Dulwich and Trinity with a music scholarship at Trinity as well. We are choosing between first two as it's a pain to get to T on a public transport as they don't have school bus covering our area.
He's very academic and not sporty at all, good at music. I was told that DC is not pushy academically but very nurturing. Hampton, on the other hand, makes kids do the stuff. DS needs some good push otherwise we won't be in that position :-). Location wise - both schools cover our area with their buses running with 30min difference in the morning.
DS likes all 3 schools so we cannot make our mind up. Help :-)

[GU24Mum]

Hello, do you mean that he'd have to leave home 30 minutes earlier for one school than the other? If you can't really otherwise choose between them, that would swing it for me.

[Rakushka04]

Yes, correct. One of the schools has bus at around 7am, another at 7.30.

[Frostyskies1223]

Go with the shortest journey, don't under estimate how slow the traffic can be especially if your ds goes to Hampton & his bus crosses the river at Hampton Court.
Also don't forget how many times you will need to drive to the school for parents evenings, drama events, music concerts etc, look at both school's online calendars to give you an idea. Hampton has a first year blog on the "What's On" section of the website to show you what the ds get up to.

[Rakushka04]

Good point, Frostyskies1223, about the events and driving there. Hampton bus leaves later. Personally Hampton area looks easier to get to than Dulwich. Not fond of Croydon at all if we bring back T into consideration. I am trying to evaluate their academic capabilities/status more if that makes sense.

[Frostyskies1223]

If your ds is bright enough to get this set of offers he will do equally well exam wise at all the schools.
My ds is at Hampton & loves it, he isn't musical but we go to the concerts and the standard is very impressive. You will need to go there more than you imagine to collect from school trips as well as all the other reasons. If your ds is coming from the Wimbledon area the bus seems to be quite social & the dc do their homework on it too - they also get to know the LEH dd travelling with them.

[Rakushka04]

Thank you again, Frostyskies1223, very valuable information. Yes, we are in Wimbledon. Sounds like we might meet at some point at one of the bus stops :-). We have information morning next week, so let's see how will it go.

[Rakushka04]

Any Dulwich parents who can give some insight please?

[Wobbles21]

Thought you were in Wimbledon. We went to trinity and had friends who went to dulwich and Hampton. All are happy but the feel of these schools is very different. If you want push, push, push Hampton sounds more your school. Trinity pushes but for the sake of learning I feel, not just exams.
Which school are you leaving?

[Allyoudoiscriticise]

It may be worth thinking about where boys in Wimbledon are more likely to go out of Hampton and Dulwich, bearing in mind most local boys will assumedly accept KCS if offered.

[Allyoudoiscriticise]

I would have thought Whitgift may be more popular than DC for Wimbledon boys heading south-east?

[Wobbles21]

Well we didn’t accept KCS .We turned it down in favour of Trinity . Interestingly we didn’t do the Hampton exam but our school applied for us and Hampton wrote to us explaining that we just failed the exam by a couple of marks!
I’ve never heard any criticism of Hampton from those who go there-presumably they pick the school suited to their son. However, playing sport against them at all ages makes you wonder what their sports coaching .

[Allyoudoiscriticise]

Wobbles I've never heard of a child not sitting an exam, but then finding out they missed by a couple of marks? How can this be? Or am I missing something? CAT score, maybe?

Hampton are well known for sporting excellence.

[Wobbles21]

No this was Hampton sending out a generic letter but making it sound personalised. We hadn’t attended the exam but were plugged into their system. Hence the letter

[Allyoudoiscriticise]

Ah, I see.

[legalalien]

(comes out of mumsnet retirement to answer the dulwich question). My two cents' worth - it's a big school that values sport, music, drama, and random quirky things your child might be interested in, equally - the boys hang out in groups which value their own different things, if that makes sense. It's diverse in its intake and proudly so - it does have a very "London" feel as opposed to a "leafy suburbs" feel about it. The academic standard is quite high but it is doesn't feel like an exam factory. From people I know at other schools, it's culture is probably more like Trinity than it is like Hampton, and quite different from Whitgift - that's an observation rather than a criticism.

[Rakushka04]

Thank you, everyone!

[Boysandgirls]

Didn't think it possible for your school to apply without your permission (Gdpr or something) and they would have to had to pay your registration fee too! Hampton don’t tell you how much you missed an offer by either, it’s just a yes, no or wl - think you must have been spammed!

rakushka04 Ds is at hampton & loving it. Good balance between music / sport /art & even chess & the more techie activities. Ds pushed to work but certainly not too hard as has time for other activities, mates & even his PS4! Definitely consider transport as I live near one child’s school & other gets a school bus & it does make a big difference. Don’t think you’ ll be disappointed with Hampton. We’re certainly not!

[MGMidget]

Wobbles, Hampton do their own exam, not the ISEB pre-test. Your school could not have applied for you. How strange!

[Rakushka04]

@Boysandgirls thank you!

[Wobbles21]

MGMidget. Not meaning to be rude but please don’t tell me that my school didn’t apply for me. They did. This was 2 years ago. We didn’t apply the school rang us up on Boxing Day to tell us that they were disappointed we didn’t apply but that had spoken to Hampton with whom they think the have a special relationship and they thought DS was a perfect fit and they were looking forward to seeing him on exam day. We didn’t turn up. They tried to charge us and sent us a ‘ you failed by a couple of marks’ letter. That is how it happened. Needless to say we contacted them, told them not to write insincere letters of condolence and not to expect us to pay for an application we didn’t make.

[champagneandfromage50]

The children at DC are definitely pushed academically so I would suggest you make your choice based on the best fit for your son...does he have a preference?