Schools in Southampton

[Vibhav]

Hi Guys,
Good day,

My 10 year old son starts secondary school next year. We currently live in Thornden catchment area.
However self am undecided whether he should attend Thornden or King Edwards secondary school.

Could you kindly guide me as to which school is better.

Thanks

Thornden is in a very affluent area and gets very good results but is a state school so takes anyone according to their admissions criteria.

KES is an academically selective fee paying school.

Which is 'better' really depends what you want for your child. If they want local friends and being able to see their friends without a parent taxi, that rules out KES as kids come from all over southern Hampshire.

If you can't commit to 7 years worth of fees, uniforms, school trips and the associated lifestyle then that rules our KES too.

However obviously KES has good facilities and smaller classes.

Hopefully you will get the chance to visit them this year.

What impatientwatcher says.

You can't compare them, really.

One is the best performing state secondary in Hampshire with a very parentally committed, middle-class intake; the other is a well-regarded, a bit 'alpha' large private school.

Thornden by its very nature (and catchment) - yes, has to take 'all-comers' but its catchment means the DC are all very MC.

I can't tell you much about KES except I do have several non-Thornden catchment friends who looked at KES and found it a bit too 'alpha' for their DC.

Mine went to Thornden and I have no regrets. Neither terribly academic but both were happy and well supported there. Both now at uni, doing 'proper' degrees.

Greggs is generally considered more of an all rounder private school than KES which is more academically focused. Thornden gets good results but it's not all the teaching as so many kids have tutors in CF as I'm sure you know if you live there already. My advice would be to visit both, and as already mentioned, be sure that the years of fees plus additional costs for KES are worth it. I have friends with kids at both, all happy and achieving although my hunch would be KES over Thornden if money wasn't going to be an issue.

Although I'd challenge the 'all have tutors' re Thornden, as no one I know who sent DC there employed tutors 😂, I'd agree that if money is not an issue, you'll get all the advantages of Thornden plus the nice extras of 'private' with KES.

Greggs has always had a slight image of being most suitable for DC who'd struggle to cope in the hurly-burly of a bigger, more 'robust' school like Thornden or KES.