Reigate Grammar or Caterham?

I'd anticipate a period of transition, some of which may be painful short term. David Thomas has been there a very long time .

OK, your first post indicates that all of your dn's friends were local vs Caterham being very spread out? And that that was the main advantage of Reigate over Caterham?

If you think a post is seeding, then report it. I would expect seeding to be better executed tbh.

LM - I hadn't read the whole thread, so didn't see your earlier posts about your children being there.

I know people namechange if they are revealing personal details, but I have to say I found something just a little bit strange in doneitallbefore's post. If you re-read the last four lines it's just seems a bit too 'gushing' really.

I know for a fact that many top independents employ people either in house or via PR agencies to do exactly this - pose as parents to write glowing reports on forums and on school review sites, so parents mustn't be duped by everything they read here and elsewhere! It's a lucrative business for educational PR people - it's called 'seeding' - it's the equivalent of bumping up ratings for Trip Advisor!

By the way, I'm not sure that Reigate Grammar is mostly just 'locals'? Certainly it does draw a lot of children from the immediate area, but my DN/DN's friends come from as far afield as Guildford/ Ardingly/Epsom/Godstone, and there are buses coming in from all directions IIRC.

I think you'll see that I've got one there from earlier on this thread. He's come from a prep which send boys to Caterham (and elsewhere), and I have another child at a different prep which also sends children to Caterham each year. Neither school has children applying to Reigate, which I think supports your view that it is mainly very local children who apply for it.

By the way, it is fairly common to namechange on a thread when you are naming the school which your children attend by the way, especially when you're indicating previous schools etc. I doubt that either school would be resorting to fake posts on here as part of their marketing!

LadyMuck - like I said, you can always find something in a league table to support whatever point of view you are promoting...
Are your children at Caterham by any chance ?

I asked my SIL, and she didn't think the Head's departure was a surprise at all, and that she and other parents were certainly aware that it was coming.
I think personal/ family factors are an important element in the decision - his wife has been very ill in the last couple of years I believe, and I think this is part of the reason he wanted to step down? He's on record as saying he wanted to devote more time to family life.

I think perhaps the only surprise was the timing, but then there was speculation that he decided to announce it earlier than planned, when the ISI inspection was scheduled at the end of last year. However good or bad that report ended up being, if he'd announced his resignation afterwards there would always have been a suggestion that something in the report findings had led to his departure.
As it is, it ended up being a very good report so no worries there after all.

(P.S. doneitallbefore - has never posted under that name before - methinks the Caterham marketing machine maybe at work..... )

The BBC league tables are a notoriously poor indicator for private schools though. 95 v 96% rates are skewed though as some children are "out of year" at each school. The actual GCSE results are here for Reigate and here for Caterham. As you can see both schools have far in excess of the 95/96% of pupils getting 5 or more A-C, and the stats at each grade are pretty clear too. At least the overseas boarders might explain why a Caterham pupil got D in English language. Do you think that the 3 who got E's at Reigate are all local?!

The A-level results are also available on each schools website.

Do you know when Reigate will announce its new head? Where is Mr Thomas off to? The "no head should be there for more than 10 years" seemed to come as a surprise to some of his leadership team!

The new league tables (just published, and available on BBC website put Reigate Grammar very marginally ahead of Caterham at GCSE : 96% achieve at least 5 GCSEs (vs. 95%)

GCSE is a much better indicator of value added than A levels for Caterham, since it measures the achievement of children who come into the school at 11+/13+.
The problem at A level is that the results get inflated by the high number of (often very academic) foreign students who join the Sixth form (many as boarders) as a prelude to getting into a UK university.

That said, the latest results (again on BBC website) show that the average A/AS point score per pupil is higher at RGS (951 vs 945), as is the % of students getting 3 or more A levels (99% for RGS vs. 87% for Caterham)

Which only goes to prove.....

.. that you can always find a league table to support whatever point of view you are promoting!

Actually having looked at the Caterham website they don't mention IGSCE, just GSCE, maybe they don't make a separate reference to it.

Think at GSCE level they are pretty similiar, they both do IGSCE in certain subjects but Caterham edges it at A level, 67% A or A* as opposed to 59% for Reigate. They are both very good schools, but if you are Reigate based I'd probably opt for Reigate for convenience. There are a fair number of coaches coming into Reigate every day so there are a fair proportion who don't live in Reigate.

"The recent FT school league tables rank Reigate Grammar at 90th in the country and Caterham at 96th, so they really are very similar!"

No, you're a year out of date. The recent FT school league tables rank Caterham 19th, and Reigate 91st. And Caterham does iGSCEs too. But if you live in Reigate and want a local day school, then agree that it may not be worth the hassel of travelling. As Sandythumb indicates, children don't seem to travel in to Reigate.

But I don't think that anyone could accuse Caterham's head of not being focussed on the children? He is a very visible presence in school, and if anything his trademark is that he spends more time talking to children at open days, speech days etc than to their parents.

Doneitall - just to balance out your glowing report, I can write exactly the same about Reigate Grammar! My darling neice and nephew both go to RGS and it is a fantastic school. My brother/SIL actively chose RGS over Caterham (nephew had scholarship too) and are convinced they made the right choice.

The school has seen lots of new development in recent years. It has the most amazing music department, and in the last couple of years a new indoor swimming pool and a state of the art new science block.

RGS just had a recent ISI inspection which rated it Outstanding in many aspects (in fact the report is apparently almost identical to Caterham's from 2010) See here

The current head from RGS is retiring at the end of this year, and my SIL says the general feeling is that whoever takes over is likely to move the school on even further in the future.
I've been to a number of events at the school and the atmosphere at e.g. the drama productions is akin to a West End production - they are fantastic.

Caterham makes an awful lot of noise about it's 'thinking styles' way of teaching (a la Edward deBono...) but a lot of it is a bit of a marketing gimmick. Awards are all very well, but I think a lot of parents would rather the Head & teachers spent time focused on the children, rather than traipsing round the country making presentations to the HMC!

I think the two schools are very similar in terms of results, and where they are ranked depends on what you are comparing. Caterham does very well in A/AS levels due to the high proportion of foreign students coming into the school just for Sixth Form. RGS's GCSE results are excellent, and the league tables don't reflect that the school follows the somewhat harder iGCSE syllabus.
The recent FT school league tables rank Reigate Grammar at 90th in the country and Caterham at 96th, so they really are very similar!

My SIL says RGS has worked very well for her kids because they are at the heart of the community, can walk to school, and in the holidays and at weekends they have all their friends relatively local. One of my nephews best friends went to Caterham and now his friends are spread over a 20 mile radius, which makes his social life harder (more Facebook & less face-to-face!) and his parents permanent taxi drivers!

Anyway, as any parent knows, it's horses for courses, and it seems both these schools offer an outstanding all-round education...

I know this is a very old post, but I happened to stumble across it and felt that I had to put my two cents worth for anyone who reads this who is also having this debate. I went through the entire 'Caterham or RGS' debate twice for my son and daughter, and in both instances we chose Caterham. My son (who entered at sixth form) and daughter (13+) both received generous scholarships while both came from the state school st bedes. We have found the pastoral care to be outstanding and the staff to be nothing but helpful and attentive when it comes to the very few complaints or queries that we've had over the years. Both my children were involved in numerous drama, music and sporting teams and ensembles, all of which were excellent. Weve had no personal experience with bullying, but it would be wrong to say that no school is exempt from it. All incidents that have occurred have seamed to be dealt with quickly and effectively. The kids love the fact that theres such a sense of family in the school, mainly because of the system of 'Houses' that is in place there....We just found that there was an electrifying atmosphere at Caterham that RGS just couldn't compete with. All academic results have been outstanding and the students are really pushed to their potential, and it seems that the staff have just as much fun with the lessons as the kids do. The school is winning award after award right now, having recently been named the top co educational school in the country, and it looks like it can only get better :) Also, have a look at this if you dont want to just take my word for it;

www.goodschoolsguide.co.uk/schools/104857/caterham-school/A21KK36#sch_tabs-2

Oh I see, that would be a pita! Thanks for your thoughts btw, very useful to hear people's experiences of schools in the area, I like to try and be prepared these days (primary admissions was a nightmare).

Well done your son too, scholarships for both, you must be v proud. Can I be nosey and ask where he went for primary/prep? Did he do much tutoring?

Did you look anywher further afield? A lot of the children at my dc school go on to trinity and whitgift, some seem to get 100% scholarships. Now that would be a commute!

the commute's honestly not that bad, esp from our end of town ... we both work, drop and run to Merstham station.

i'll give him a lift if you want

Was just looking at that too, same last year as well. Prob nothing in it at that level but I did have the impression rgs more academic. Again, just impression at this stage. How does RAAS compare with exam results, uni admissions?

What, in reality, are the scholarships like in terms of percentage of fees? Websites say up to 10%, 25% etc but i constantly hear on the grapevine about people paying nothing or nearly nothing for both schools? Met someone today at RGS who said his company pay most of fees?

Have you seen this thread here FT Top 1000 schools

Reigate looks like it just pips Caterham on the FT rankings, but it's very close....

Interesting thread, we would prob be looking at RGS/RAAS or possibly Caterham for our dc - way off yet but you know how it is!

Anyway, can't really help with the school choice yet as mine are younger but I just wanted give my input on the journey. Mine are at OGS which is just round the corner from Caterham and I drive there and back every day from Reigate (sometimes 2/3 times!). I also know quite a few people in the Caterham area with older children at schools in Reigate who do it the other way round. I do spend a lot of time in the car but it is doable imo. Ds has to be in by 8.40 and I often don't leave Reigate until 8.20/25 and can still make it (just!). It's a 20 min journey, 15 if you put your foot down/no traffic. Obviously traffic problems on the M25 can have a knock on effect but I only ever really get delayed coming out of Reigate, after that you are going against flow of traffic and generally ok. I go through Merstham and up Rockshaw Road.

With regards to the schools I have a slight preference for RGS at the moment - but this is just anecdotal as I have heard some negatives about Caterham (as well as many perfectly happy there) and none about RGS - but then I don't really know any RGS families yet and know loads of Caterham ones with ds being at a "feeder" prep. My friend lives nearby and apparently the traffic directly around the school is terrible at drop off and pick up so that is something to consider (most people I know there move to be walking distance) - she gets stuck in her house in the mornings. I was at a house nearby recently and a parent queued for pick up across the driveway of the house I was in and wouldn't let me out! I do get the impression there are some very self-important types there and do know people that have taken children out for that reason or because less academic children were perceived to be not getting much/any support. I guess there are always people who like/dislike any school though for a myriad of reasons.

FWIW I am hoping RAAS continues to go from strength to strength as I have a few kids to get through secondary school and so it is an attractive option financially!! (we are within the magic 1 mile catchment for flexi-boarding)

The majority of Caterham school teachers do seem to send their children there, so I suspect that Jane's teacher-friend may be fairly identifiable. And I presume that Mr Bishop lost his staff discount when he moved to be Head at Trinity yet his child is still at Caterham.

Every senior school has to deal with bullying and drugs - any that say they don't are lying. Most of the local independent schools have had pupils suspended/excluded this year (including both Caterham and Trinity) so I don't think that the issues are being ignored.

Woldingham is not for us (being a family with boys) but I love the fact that the daygirls can have their laundry done. How I would love to avoid the muddy games kit.

Reigate Mum, hi there, he he he..... yes reading it back it might sound like that, but I was only trying to be helpful. As I live quite nearby and know teachers/parents there I guess I might hear these things more than other schools and form a stronger opinion - when a teacher says they wouldn't send their own child there you have to wonder!

Many years ago I visited A&A with a view to sending my own son there when my husband was made redundant and we were considering alternatives for him. As it happened it was not neccessary but I was very impressed, I think it is a strong alternative for people in the area and often forgotten - quite competitive entry though. Go and visit! see what you think. :)

Lizs, regarding Cranleigh, that was just a suggestion because I heard they have lots of bursary and scholarship schemes but I don't know too much about it. I haven't lived nearby to it so I don't have the same kind of insights.

You're both right though, all schools have an underbelly - I think the best advice is to really think hard about your childs disposition, what is right for some is not right for others. Some thrive in a competitive academic setting - others are utterly miserable and do better in a smaller, gentler and more creative setting.

I went to a well regarded independent girls school myself and some of the 'extra curricular' activities would certainly frighten the horses! ;)

It's

lol Jane. I seriously doubt that some Woldingham parents aren't much similar, or their offspring, it kind of goes with the territory sadly. Ironic that you recommend Cranleigh on another thread since I've anecdotally heard similar (drugs, bullying etc) of there, yet it is still held in high regard. Unfortunately it is possible to cite such examples from a whole myriad of schools, private and state. We know a number of families , including teachers, who have been more than happy to send their children to either school for secondary. RAAS is an improving school but you need to live almost on top of it to get in as a day pupil, and it is hard to get in other than at 7+ or 11+, although I gather their day/boarding system may be changing this autumn.

Jane - that's interesting, but you do sound rather as if you have a personal vendetta AGAINST Caterham! Is there more you want to tell us?

We will be considering schools in the near future for our DC. You mention Alexandra & Albert - I keep hearing interesting reports of this school - do you know anyone with children there - what's it like? Seems to be a school doing the 'right things' - it's Added Value scores are v. good...