Blundell's Or Junior Kings - Looking for Prep School for DS

[LeCuisiner]

HI There. Does anyone have any opinions on Blundells and/or Junior King's. Looking for a prep school for my DS, going into Year 7. We need it to be Full Boarding and preferably a school that is lively during the weekend and does not empty out. We live in Singapore, and so full boarding is our only choice. I am mainly interested in the Pastoral Care. Academics is secondary at this point. Would appreciate any feed back. Really looking for a decent prep school that is good value and is known to have a culture of sociability of kindness. Would also appreciate any suggestions on what you feel may be good Preps. Am really new to this whole search for schools thing.

Blunell's is fabulous and has a large overseas student demographic so weekends are lively. Extra curricular activities are plentiful and facilities excellent. Bonus that it's a beautiful setting.

Singapore has International Schools, boarding is not your only option.

Have you had a look at the Junior House of Ampleforth College. As it is part of a boarding school for older children there are loads of people at weekends and loads of activities going on. The focus is definitely on pastoral care and the Junior House is a wonderful gentle introduction to boarding where they are really nurtured. The Matron is fabulous.

Blundell’s is a great school, but I would not send a full boarder there, especially not in Year 7. Blundell’s Prep doesn’t do boarding and most boarders start in Year 9. In years 7 and 8 (which unusually for a mixed school are part of the senior school but segregated from the rest in “School House”) there were only two or three full boarders when my DCs were there. From Year 9 there are more, but the pricing structure (which has a discount for weekly boarders and another discount for families within 10 miles) means that a lot of boarders go home every weekend and school is very quiet after Saturday matches and on Sundays.

If by Junior Kings you mean King’s College Taunton Prep (formerly King’s Hall Prep) that is a better option as it is a proper boarding prep in a beautiful setting.

I would suggest you also look at some of the bigger boarding prep schools in the area like Hazlegrove, Port Regis or Millfield which are all reasonably close by (less than 60 minutes from Taunton by car) and have a lot more boarders at that age.

King’s Taunton prep … do not recommend. Overseas pupils, mainly “the Chinese kids” are not integrated. Staff say the right words, but the actual experience of overseas pupils should be better.
No idea your cultural background, just saying that there are not many full boarders who are not seen as “other” by day pupils. There are some who full boarders with local families and their parents go to sports games, have them home at weekends.

You need to visit the boarding houses and talk to a student without staff oversight.
Very few full boarders - locals do casual boarding - the occasional night, or one night a week.

My opinion, as a “foreign” parent, is that the Kings community is very insular. Locals, affluent land owners are accepted as socially top of the heap. Foreign people - actively avoided & seen as less than.

My opinion - look at schools closer to London with larger boarding population.

If you are interested in West Country only … Millfield might be better option with more actual boarders, likely more acceptance of foreign people.

Have you looked at The Dragon in Oxford? That’s a lovely prep boarding school.

Do you mean Junior King’s Canterbury? or King’s Taunton Prep? Very different schools.

To be honest there are not really any full boarding preps left - ie where all the students stay in every weekend. UK parents - except in rare circumstances - are not looking for that. Even the handful of traditional boy’s preps now offer weekly boarding. That can be an issue for overseas children when their best friends go home for the weekend - although they also tend to have best boarding friends as well.

Your best bet is to look for a school with a high proportion of overseas boarders which still does Saturday school and Saturday afternoon games. That way the “weekend” is very short. Junior King’s Canterbury would tick that box. I think the Dragon has dropped Saturday school. Not sure about King’s Taunton Prep.

Windlesham House would be worth a look.

But do be aware that demographics in the boarding house are changing. Ten years ago there would be a mixture of Chinese, HK Chinese, Russians, Nigerians, ex pat Brits etc. Most schools tried to ensure that no one demographic dominated. But that can be difficult for them now as they need to fill the places and demand from Russia has dried up. Also many UK families (both expat and local) are choosing to put off boarding until later. That does mean that some boarding houses are full of Mandarin speakers which completely changes the experience for any non Mandarin speakers. This problem is likely to be exacerbated by the VAT on fees.

Have you looked at Taunton School? Definitely worth a look of you are considering the Tiverton/Taunton area.

For full boarding in Y7, personally I’d choose a prep with a primarily boarding culture, such as Ludgrove, Sunningdale, Papplewick, which have all boarders or majority boarders in the top two years and a full timetable of lessons, sports, activities and other things to do. Could be lonely otherwise.

Really appreciate the suggestions. Thank you. Shall look into it.

Our situation is rather complicated. My family may have to leave Singapore and I am Malaysian and my DS is Israeli...that's just the start of it...but I do appreciate your reply

It is indeed Junior King's Canterbury that I mean

Yes...I have had a conference call with them and they were lovely. It's on my shortlist. Thanks for the affirmation.

If you are limiting your choice to those two schools, over 200 miles apart, I would say Junior King's Canterbury, 100%, and I live down the road from Blundell's.

Given the two schools you mention are so different and so far apart it is difficult to recomment suitable alternatives as we don't know what your priorities are or how you came up with those two schools that have no obvious similarities (to me).

How many boarders are there in the Junior House?

Actually, not limiting myself to these two. Am looking for prep schools that have a good amount of borders during the week and the weekends too. Blundells and Junior King's Canterbury for now fit the bill. I am still looking at other options. My main considerations are really just genuine and sincere pastoral care. Also that the weekends are packed with controlled freedom, as it were. Cost is also a factor and am looking at a ceiling of GBP37000. Quite often ( and this may sound amateurish) I get a gut feel after having spoken online to the admissions people, the Headmaster or someone involved with the kids...so at present The lady at Blundell's has been so amazing and the Head Registrar at Junior King's has also seemed very sincere... I have been having conversation after conversation over the past two weeks...and honestly Mumsnet has been amazing. I also have a confession. I am actually a Dad. Not sure if I have breached any guidelines...but you guys have been instrumental in helping me come up with a shortlist. Here are some others I have spoken to - Bedes, The Downs, The Elms School, Ardingly, Wellington College, Taunton School, Wrekin. Thanks so much for all your input

There are plenty of fathers here - "Mumsnet" is a bit of a misnomer - so I wouldn't worry about that.

You'll no doubt get plenty of nuggets of advice here, but it would help if you can elucidate both on your son (academic level; sports/arts etc interests) as well as your post-Y8 plans for him (target senior schools). Those factors will play a massive role in determining which boarding prep is the best fit.

Notwithstanding the above, I'd echo the poster who suggested some of the usual top-tier Berkshire suggestions (Papplewick, Ludgrove, Sunningdale etc), especially in your case where proximity to Heathrow will help immensely.

Last but not least, I'm not sure the £37k ceiling is a realistic one for boarding preps nowadays, especially given the 20% VAT whack the government has imposed.

Look for a proper boarding prep where boarders are the majority. For me, that means Cothill, Ludgrove, Summerfields. There are masses of preps that have boarders but very few where they are the centre of gravity. They are all accessible from Heathrow and all have experience with supporting overseas children and working with UK-based Guardians for those pupils.