Hi,
I see this topic hasn't been posted on for quite a while but came across it whilst searching for something else to do with OFS on Google and felt compelled to reply to ScholarshipClass' post.
I'm 29 years old, male, gay and happily married; degree-educated with a combined household salary in excess of 150k a year. Most importantly we have 2 adopted sons who are our absolute world currently aged 1 and 2 and are looking at schooling options after nursery.
I myself attended OFS between 1991 and 1998 and while I respect that this was a long time ago and school culture as well as social attitudes have changed somewhat since then; I can honestly say that my time at OFS was the most miserable of my entire life and I would rather stick pins in my eyes than consider sending my boys to an institution which caused me nothing but misery due to the bullying from other pupils (which was simply overlooked and never investigated), attitudes of the teachers (if you weren't sporty or didn't excel at anything then you were simply dismissed as a failure) and the total feeling of inadequacy I felt as a pupil there.
I myself was diagnosed with a learning difficulty (dyspraxia) at a young age and while OFS had a learning support team in place (extra tuition which came at a price, not that I'm complaining about this as it was actually very helpful to me and my family were willing and able to pay); my parents were told that I would never amount to anything and would be lucky to scrape the basic passes in English and Maths at GCSE.
As a result of my unhappiness I was given the option by my family to move schools at 11 instead of the usual age of 13 (therefore avoiding the dreaded Common Entrance examinations needed at the higher age to gain entry into senior independent schools- bonus!- although I'm not sure whether this is still in place) and took the entrance exam for Aldenham School near Elstree in Hertfordshire (c. 5 miles from Watford) on the advice of a former OFS pupil's mother whose son had done the same a year previously.
I passed the entrance exam for Aldenham and my parents promptly accepted the offer of my starting year 7 in September 1998 and I can tell you hand on heart it was the best decision I and my family made with regards to my education (at every stage of the process I was actively involved in the decision-making, I want to add).
I attended Aldenham from the ages of 11- 18 and while things weren't constantly a bed of roses (bullying still occurs wherever one is if one is singled out as 'different'), I loved my 7 years at Aldenham. The staff were nothing but supportive and caring and the ethos of the school was very much to help pupils find and develop their strength and their passion; regardless of whether it be in music, sport, art, science, languages or whatever.
Aldenham was (and still very much is) a school for all abilities; very different to the Harrows, Merchant Taylors, Haberdashers Aske's of this world to name a few (I want to make it clear that I am in no way slandering these schools as I have friends who attended and thoroughly enjoyed their times there; however there is a much greater ethos on one's academic ability than at Aldenham) and if one did show academic prowess in certain subjects then it was encouraged and one was pushed to reach one's potential; however, those with less academic ability were encouraged to do the very best they could achieve with the best possible support without being made to feel worthless, insignificant and stupid. A number of my friends who would not have been considered 'academically clever' have since gone on to achieve great things in their careers as a result of the encouragement and passion shown by the teaching staff at Aldenham.
When I started at Aldenham in 1998 it was a small independent school of c. 500 boys (with girls only in 6th form) and now the school has expanded as well as becoming totally co-ed starting with a nursery, through pre-prep, on to prep and all the way through to 18 years old. Whilst I cannot say whether this is for the better or worse as I haven't personally experienced it myself, I can tell you that after being dismissed by Orley Farm School as a failure who would struggle to obtain C grades at GCSE in English and Maths; Aldenham and its staff nurtured my potential, brought out my capabilities and invested the time in me and I left aged 18 having achieved 9 A grades and one B at GCSE and 2 A grades at A level in Business Studies and Geography and a B in German and went on to Aston University in Birmingham where I graduated in 2009 with a B.Sc. (Hons) upper-second class (2.1) degree in International Business and German language and am now working for a FTSE 100 company earning more than I believed I would ever have been capable of when I knew aged 9 or so that OFS had no faith in me and had effectively 'given up' on a lost cause because I had a learning difficulty and wasn't in the 'Scholarship Class' (I mean what a way to make a 10 year old feel inadequate by naming the high-performing class as such?!).
The ethos of the school may well have changed and in no way am I looking to discourage potential parents from placing their children at OFS; that decision lies solely up to you and only you know what is best for your child and will make the right decisions accordingly. Because I feel so passionately about this and literally stumbled across this post is the reason I've signed up to Mumsnet (despite not being a mum!) and if I can save one little boy or girl from going what I had to go through then this has been worth the time and effort to write.
Myself and my husband will without question not be considering OFS for pre-prep/ prep school and despite the longer journey, greater effort, larger expense etc. involved we will be placing our boys in my old school and hopefully they will be inspired, motivated and will flourish there without the pressure, expectations and damaging attitudes I had to experience as a young boy.
To the poster ScholarshipClass: I'm not saying you can't be proud of your son or daughter for their achievement (and if they do receive a scholarship offer from senior school then this will certainly relieve some of the financial burden of thousands of pounds of school fees) but please just be aware that this expectation and pride can place an astronomical pressure and burden on a 10/11 year old child. All we want is for our children to be happy at the end of the day and I only speak from personal experience when I say that the best educational decision my family and I ever made was to get me out of Orley Farm as quickly as possible. Just because your child is in the scholarship class does not mean they will go on to achieve great things, and on the flip-side: just because your child has been dismissed as a failure by one group of people in one educational institution does not mean they a) can't be happy and b) won't make a success of themselves and make you proud, in whatever form that may come in.