Uppingham School

[ASHANDOAK]

I am looking for advice on Uppingham. DD would be looking to start in year 9. Academically conscientious (but not a high flyer), sporty, enjoys music & drama. Very confident with boarding and is really good at making friends.

Would love some feedback from current/recent parents with regards to pastoral care, teaching staff and girls sports. I know it mentions lacrosse on their website but how much is actually played? It sounds like it is perhaps only in the older years. Are they strong at hockey & girls cricket?

We aren't looking for an academic hothouse but feel she would benefit from being in a school where the children work and want to achieve.

Any feedback would be gratefully received

I cannot speak of right now but “work and want to achieve” has not always been a feature of this school. I would check this out a bit more but dc get a lot of opportunities for a broad education. Where else are you looking?

@TizerorFizz thanks so much for your reply. Sport will be pretty high up on her agenda. I would be looking for a school that turns out confident, well rounded children. A good mix of boarders from a variety of backgrounds. Welcoming boarding houses with kind house staff and good house spirit. A supportive and encouraging environment.

It’s a nice school and ticks your boxes. It has tried to get more academic but like many schools outside of London, it isn’t an academic hothouse.
I think it’s harder to match up a non academic school with a “work hard and achieve” ethos. Not saying that non academic schools don’t want to produce those values, only that those output values are more aligned with more academic schools.
uppingham is a jolly nice school with lots of jolly nice girls and boys. Not the broadest church in terms of demographics and the sports sidelines are full of tweed-clad parents who’ve arrived in Discoveries and who are all v v chummy with one another. Plus around 20% internationals in the boarding houses as is par for the course at any uk boarding school.

we discounted Uppingham in the end for our dc because it wasn’t quite cosmopolitan enough for us. We chose Oundle down the road which is a very similar school but I would say a lot less tweedy/countryfied and pupils a touch more driven on academic success.
I suspect a child who does well at one of these schools would do just as well at the other. Their entrance exams are likely very similar in required pass marks.
the best thing you can do is visit Uppingham (and others) and see if you like the feel of it.

@leftandaright thank you so much that’s most helpful. We did look at Oundle for another one of our children and really liked it. We didn’t choose it in the end but it was very impressive. I have a preconceived idea that Oundle would be a little more intense than Uppingham academically, so I am very interested to hear your viewpoint. I will go and have a look at both

From experience with my dc at Oundle and lots of friends at both U and O, I would say both schools will do a great job at maximising your child’s potential - but I would say that at O they will get swept along on a tide of diligence whereas U they may need to be a bit more of a self starter , but the differences are very slim between both schools in so many ways.
if I have to pick one main difference, I would say U is for the “country set” and Oundle is more cosmopolitan. Sound like your dc would do well at either school. Visit both and see which one you all prefer. And other schools too if you wish … although you can visit too many! Geography is important too if you want to go up most weekends to watch matches.

@leftandaright thats really helpful thank you, and rather how I had envisaged the approach to work at U&O.

Would you say there is much difference in the schools from a sporting perspective? Is one more competitive/more successful than the other?

Did your dcs go to Uppingham? I only ask because you are across all education posts and I'm presuming you can't genuinely have personal experience of everything!

For girls cricket, Oundle is streets ahead of Uppingham. Oundle has very strong partnership links with Northants county cricket.
For girls hockey, they are both good and similar provision.
Uppingham girls play lacrosse a bit but not like the north of England girls’ school do! (Hardcore 😂)
Oundle girls have a popular rugby offering and they go to Rosslyn etc
There isn’t a lot to choose between them for sport save for cricket.

No. We didn’t choose it. DD1 has two very good friends who did. Both said the ethos wasn’t work hard and achieve. I also said my experience was a while ago, However from posts above I would say I’m
not far off the money. We had a very good look round for 6th form and DD2 wasn’t keen on the boarding arrangements for new 6th form girls. I accept that’s not what the op is looking for but from what I’ve heard there’s a gap beteeen Oundle and Uppingham as described above. We also had friends who liked Oakham. We also knew a parent who had to remove DS from Uppingham due to severe bullying. DD1 also said one of her girl friends was scored for her looks by boys and given an unflattering nickname. It’s a risk in coed and goes under the radar.

I will say the girls’ skirts are short at U and some girls wear a lot of make up. By contrast at O, the skirts (culottes) are floor length and there’s no obvious make up to be seen on girls.
the culture at O is not to objectify girls at all but there is a culture of looking down at pupils (of either sex) who aren’t seen to be academically diligent. Not the same as being a brain box but O isn’t a school for coasters in any shape or form and so you need to be sure that your child is happy with a get your head down and work ethos. Bulling at O is rare and if it’s caught, almost certainly ends up in a swift expulsion. I do not know what the tolerance at U is for bullying so I make no comparison with O in this regard. One pupil expelled from O for bulling 18 months ago was accepted at Oakham however.

All so helpful - thank you so much 😊

Lots of schools pass these dc around. As long as the new school monitors behaviour carefully, that’s ok. We found that isn’t always the case as money talks.

Uppingham is well known for its Music teaching and achievement

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14386413/Teachers-boarding-school-failing-pupils.html

The way Uppingham has treated one of its feeder prep schools (Maidwell Hall) has changed my opinion of it and its leadership. I wouldn't consider it.

I’m saddened to hear about the ISI report. Uppingham is a fine school but when we looked around one of the boys boarding houses, the dorms were archaic.

If your DD likes lacrosse then look at Oakham. Their marketing department is off the boil ATM and doesn’t publicise the great variety of sports on offer, it’s all rugby hockey cricket yawn. Also, the drama is phenomenal.