If you could get into Woodroffe, would you not bother with private?

Oh didn't realise this was an old thread

I guess the fact he isn't sporty is one of the things we worry about at Woodroffe, as our friends whose children go there are v sporty and rave about how sporty it is.
I can't advise on Colyton or Woodroffe, but dd goes to a sporty comp (in Surrey) and she is academic but not sporty and it isn't a problem at all. She still quite enjoys PE despite not being good at it and isn't made to feel inferior by either kids or teachers. She behaves herself and tries and the teachers seem quite happy with that! I don't think a comp would expect all kids to be good at sport. They'd be used to dealing with all levels for all subjects.

Oh yes, sorry but I think this counts as first hand knowlage. So SUCK IT

Oakman I know that this was written quite some time ago but I used to go to colyton and I was bullied and pressurised to get high scores or else. I never felt comfortable in that school or that I belonged there, and had no friends the whole day.

Ditto to the first sentence Jux. I think I've hit a raw nerve here!!!!

I don't post comments on this site to provoke a reply, just to inform from a position of first hand knowledge, not hear say and gossip.

[sigh] oakden,you are coming across as rather unhinged and defensive; you are searching desperately for a reason to believe that every one is misrepresenting your school of choice. Is my comment to the op the best example you can find to illustrate how wrong everyone is in their view of the place, that you have to worry at it like a dog with a bone?

Now, seriously,leave it alone or you risk having precisely the opposite effect of that which you wish.

I will not be responding to you again.

Beechbabe, thank you.

Agreed, but giving misinformation on a thread is dangerous as reader of posts do not read all threads across the whole network.

Didn't mean to do down the primary teachers who do a good job oakman. But reading through the education threads, Jux is a good guy, there are plenty who aren't.

Know your enemy etc.

Agree that it's mostly parents not teachers who do most harm.

Don't start laying the blame of myths and misinformation on this site on the hardworking and highly valued primary school teachers that are responsible for supplying most of the Colyton intake.

Are those "professionals" on this site making comments about schools that they know nothing about?

My reading of it was that OP has been given the impression, wrongly, by the teachers at her DS's school that Colyton is pressurised and pupils need to be 'competitive' to flourish there.

And that Jux was merely saying, if you do feel that that's the case, then Woodroffe might suit.

It's those teachers who should be castigated, not Jux. They're the professionals, doing their bright pupils a disservice. For what reason -ignorance, laziness, politics- God only knows.

I don't think I did misunderstand her referance to pressure, simply because Jux made a comment that there would be more "pressure" at Colyton than at Woodroffe.

My point is how does she know that? her child is at Woodroffe now if Jux has a child at both of these schools then she iwould be in a possition to make that comparison.

The comments made on this site are designed to help and inform, with information from people with direct experiance,

I would not dream of commenting on a school that I have no diirect knowledge.

To be fair to Jux I think you did misunderstand her reference to pressure oakman.

As a Colyton mum I've seen Jux post a number of times and she's unusual in being a mum of a DD who didn't get in but at the same time always being pretty positive about the school. I'd say that was magnamimous in the MN context. Especially since her DD clearly had a rubbish time in the immediate run up to the 11+.

Jux is actually pretty unusual and should get the credit.

Sorry about that houseofboys, my views on Colyton have quite needlessly been misrepresented on this thread. Ignore the elephant in the room!

I wonder if I'm being stalked

If you do want to know a bit more about Woodroffe, just ask.

Your just full of myth and mischeif, speaking on subjects you know nothing about.

Methinks the lady protests too much. You are excessively rude.

"On the whole, I think if you feel that Colyton would be too pressured for your son, then Woodroffe would be perfect for him."

Apoligize when I you clearly stated the Colyton would be more pressurized than Woodroffe, can I ask you how can you give that point of view?

You have no experiance of Colyton, so how do you know?

You are just adding to the myths, that come from non Colyton parents.

If you are to give advise stick to a topic you can speak of first hand and not hear say.

Actually, I wouldn't mind an apology from you, oakman.

I'm sorry, oakman, was that aimed at me? Have you read what I've said on the recently revived Colyton thread, from which I sped at speed due to beechbabe telling me to get my ass over here?

You will see there that I was not dissing Colyton at all, and admitted to a small pang from time to time that dd did not get in. I do not believe the rumours and myths about Colyton, though I too fell foul of them before we really looked into it. I am also sure that if dd had not been multiply bereaved so close to the Colyton exam she would have done better than she did and might have been attending there since September.

I skim-read the op here and had the impression that the op was worried about competitiveness (aka pressure). Only she and her family can decide whether the school is more competitive than would suit her ds. I have no idea whether Colyton is pressured, or more so than is normal for any secondary school, as my dd does not go there.

Here we go again a Non Colyton parent giving the impression that school life at Colyton is pressurized - it is not - kids are happy and learn at a comfortable pace.

Oh, and I second everything beechbabe said about Colyton. Don't listen to the myths.

My dd is at Woodroffe, started last September.

It's a lovely school. They have high academic standards, are great artistically, and have excellent facilities.

DD is very bright, but not competitive, hates sport. Even she has found some sports she enjoys. They have a lot of extra-curricular activities of all sorts ranging from Textiles Club to any sport.

The only complaint I have about the clubs is that there is a chamber choir which dd desperately wanted to join, but the teacher told her she'd have to wait until they'd finished rehearsing the current stuff which wouldn't be until "sometime next term"; I could understand if they'd been rehearsing for a long time, but if they weren't going to finish until sometime next term then they are either rubbish or had only just started (so dd would have caught up very quickly) - sometime next term was actually quite a few months away.

These days all schools are sporty, so rub that off your 'con' list, you won't find it any different anywhere else, though you might find a greater emphasis on rugger at Wellington . DD so far this year has done gymnastics, cricket, hockey, long distance runs, football, badminton, tennis and some others which I can't remember.

At Woodroffe, they have coupled sport/pe with food tech (or whatever it it's called). This is to emphasise that what you eat is as important as exercise, thus promoting a healthy lifestyle. There is a garden where they grow veg and stuff, and one 'module' of the sports curriculum is actually cooking. DD made some really good stuff, which she has cooked for us quite a lot of times since.

The teaching is excellent. Her english and science teachers are fantastic (I single these out because those are the subjects dd enjoys most). Maths teaching is excellent too, and though dd is in the top group she hates maths! Likewise ICT. However, she doesn't find her lessons as painful as she did in primary.

Art facilities are superb.

I have found homework a bit sporadic. Sometimes she has quite a lot - say 3 subjects - and sometimes none. This is a time management issue though, as the school encourages children to do their homework on the day it is set, rather than the night before it's due in, and dd does what? You guessed . This does mean that sometimes she's up until quite late doing a piece which was actually designed to be done over the course of several days, rather than hurriedly in one night. Her own fault; you can lead a horse to water.....

I have found the staff to be kind, pleasant and patient. DD actually loves almost all of them, and finds them very funny (and therefore lessons are fun), but she is also quite set on the idea that she doesn't like maths, for instance, so likes her maths teacher less than, say, her english teacher. When I question her a little more closely, it becomes clear that she likes both of them, and it's the subject she's objecting to.

Discipline is good. The children are encouraged to be proud of their school, their uniform, their place in the community. It is pretty clear that the aim is not only for kids to do well academically, but to fulfil their own potential. They are very good at assessing a child's strengths and weaknesses and acting accordingly.

Pastoral care is good.

There is only one thing I am not awfully sure about, and that is for Y7 (not sure about higher up the school) they have amalgamated History and Geography, calling it People and Places. I can see the logic (I think), but for dd who is a rabid history fanatic, it is a little frustrating. However, they wouldn't be doing Ancient History - which is what she really wants - anyway.

On the whole, I think if you feel that Colyton would be too pressured for your son, then Woodroffe would be perfect for him.

Do ask me more questions if you want to. I'm not sure I know any more than that though.

Have you visited any of these schools?

house I'm with you 100%, have been at the school a long while now and still have some way to go and know that the school cares hugely about the brightest/ poorest children as do many teachers/ parents which is why I'm trying to debunk some of the myths!

There's no way it doesn't accomodate the top 10%. It gets great results but the intake is not super selective. Definitely not compared to the other top schools. The resuts are great because of what the school does for the students once they're there.

Bus fares are a huge problem, they restrict access probably more than anything else but there just aren't the funds to provide transport for free.

L6/ L5 and not in doesn't sound right except now more than before it's got everything to do with performance on the day. L6 and not in! Very strange.

theta there was no such implied message at all, you're imputing it without cause.

I can't see that living in Exeter and paying £1000 pa for fares puts you in a worse financial bracket than everyone living in Lyme!