Perse Upper?

(this is a repost as the systems seems to have lost the first message).

I have two kids there.

The Pastoral side is strong and they do a professsional job at induction but whereas the school talks about being full of academic and talented children it does not even stream for maths in year 7 (or e.g. physics for much later). Most of its feeder schools stream maths from year 2 or 3 so there is a huge spread of ability in the sets so the bored boys cause mayhem. Classroom control is poor, when each of mine arrived they were shocked at all the disruptive behaviour (all sorts of dare games, bullshit bingo etc) and general poor classroom discipline but the teachers with the problems do not seem to get much support or sympathy from the school.

I think the issue is mainly an "everyone is equally brilliant at everything" dogma. The school set mundane and trivial exams, tests, dull repetitive homework to try to paper over the spread in ability and make everyone feel good. I have been told that they have a poor reputation for rote learning exam questions versus teaching to think but I don't really know about that.

I think an anxious child would be stressed about the tension between fitting in socially and joining in with classroom misbehaviour. They might well be pretty bored too.

My DS left years ago (and there's someone who posts here on Perse topics who has queried other posts by me stating that my experience is out of date and that the school is going downhill) but I would have thought it ideal for a very bright but anxious child. He would find himself one of the crowd ability wise - not sure what behaviour is like there now but DS had had a difficult time before he went to the Perse and he fitted in almost immediately: 1st day difficult - 2nd day to end of Upper Sixth absolutely fine.

I have boys there and we are very happy with the school.

Don't think the school have a problem with very bright children fitting in, as lots of them are.

The anxious aspect I would guess it depends why they are anxious. We haven't found the school to be a hot house - homework levels seems reasonable to low, at least in the lower school, although you do need to be quite organised, but I'm not sure this is any different to other secondary schools. If not always coming top of the class would be a problem, then I guess that could be a problem, as even the scholarship boys we know aren't top in every subject. If they are worried about lunchtime there are clubs/talks every day so they don't have to feel they are sitting alone - ds1 went to lots of lectures in his first few terms and I think this was partly so he wasn't alone at lunchtime. There are also clubs (like Lego building) that run every lunchtime and I wonder if this is more as a social setting. The range of extra curricula stuff is huge so I'm sure your dc would find something they wanted to do and so meet similar minded children.

We have found the pastoral care to be good, small tutor groups which seem quite well balanced and thought out (my boys came from a small village school and knew no one else in their years, but met other boys in the tutor group in a similar situation which helped with initial friendships). I have been phoned by the school nurse and head of lower school before if they think there is something we need to know, and the tutors always reply quickly to email queries.

I guess the other thing to consider is what your alternatives are and if you think they will be a better fit.