Queen Ethelburga's Harrogate anyone?

[TessTing]

We just had another prospectus brought home from DD's state primary for QE. The idea is quite appealing but not within our budget. It seems very expensive but mentions possibility of discounts through various bursary's and scholarships. Does anyone have any experience of this? Is the school to be recommended? (middle and high school age)

Aga I'm not sure how relevant the league tables from 2009 are. But the article is a little odd when discussing schools' performances.

If you look via BBC for 2009, then St Peter's York is way ahead. See here and here, and there are several schools, even if you restrict your survey to independent and/or coed, ahead again.

The Yorkshire Post, and/or the organisation it quotes must be using different underlying stats to the DofEd ones used by BBC, or putting them through different filters.

BettyBotter
I am the same as you. I live in Hampshire, I could not give a stuff about a boarding school in Yorkshire.
BUT
I greatly dislike being threatened and censored.
My work involves enforcing transparency over taxpayer funds.

I'm still not quite sure how my original post comprises defamation .....

OP : You will not find many old threads on QE because their deletion rate is quite extraordinary.
I'm dahn saaf so not affected by them, but find their reaction to discussions about them highly amusing.

but am being careful not to compound the error, while ensuring that the maximum number of people possible are made aware of their actions.

To be fair to the school AgaPanthers, that article was from 2009 and according to the school's website (or perhaps schools' website) their results have improved significantly over the past few years here. They seem to excel in MFL and maths.

And I do think that there is a place for independent schools (with all of the extra curricular opportunities they offer) to offer vocational qualifications - it might be a niche market. I don't know whether students have an entirely free choice about whether to study only A Levels or to study BTECs at QE. When I taught in a state school, the entry requirements to vocational courses were lower than for only studying A Levels, therefore you could say that pupils didn't have a free choice. I think that might be fairly standard. Their vocational results look pretty good too.

Actually, looking at the "True Position" set out in the email via MNHQ, it seemed to address a number of points that I don't think have even been mentioned in this thread. I can only guess that it is a standard response. But, if that is the case, it must be pretty galling to have to have a standard response of this type as a school.

Can I copy that section of the email here?

breatheslowly
I'm not on my computer that has it, but will certainly back you up if you do : go for it.

Excerpts from MNHQ's email:

The complaint has been made by Kay Boustead, the official solicitor of Queen Ethelburga's College.

The True Position

Having obtained our client’s instructions we set out below the correct factual position in relation to the defamatory statements (I am obviously not going to repeat the one of mine that they said was defamatory) referred to above:-

1. A number of the teaching staff have children educated at QE.

1. QE is owned by a Trust; not a private family.

1. The normal boarding age for a child is 8 years old.

1. The “letters” purporting to be from “The Legal Department” are both fictitious and offensive.

1. QE has no links to criminal organisations.

1. Staff turnover is not above average.

1. The Advertising Standards Authority did not uphold the complaint referred to in the Private Eye article.

1. The Daily Telegraph Independent Schools 2013 League Table places Queen Ethelburga's College 15th nationally with 80% and the Faculty of Queen Ethelburga’s 43rd nationally with 68%.

1. The “Leavers Letter” has been referred in in the “Good Schools Guide” as “charming”, moreover they remark “our view has come a long way, not just in its facilities but also in its academic provision, and is quietly and deservedly gaining more respect amongst its competitors”

Yup, that is exactly the same as I got.

That's sorted then.....

The KS4 stats show 90 for the Faculty, and 71 for the College.

www.education.gov.uk/cgi-bin/schools/performance/school.pl?urn=131124
www.education.gov.uk/cgi-bin/schools/performance/school.pl?urn=121743

The College did an average of 8.0 GCSEs, and the Faculty 6.4

Both quite low.

The Faculty had 75 students at end of KS5, broken down into 20.9 full-time equivalent A Level students, and 54.1 full-time equivalent vocational students.

At the College, there were 72 students at end of KS5, 57.5 full-time equivalent A Level students, and 12.4 for vocational.

At say St Peters, there were 117 students at he end of KS5, and 117 full-time equivalent A Level students.

You can pick and choose for A Level results, e.g., 'average points for entry' and so on, but if you add it up the total is 78 f-t-e A Level students, and 66.5 vocational.

I'm not sure the extent to which, if at all, students move between the two. Obviously it would be absurd to include the 'Faculty' in any kind of A Level league table, because it's predominantly vocational according to those stats.

The A Level choices at the College:

Maths/Further Maths: 88 (42%)
Modern Foreign Languages (which ones, is not stated): 49 (24%)
Sciences: 33 (16%)
History/Geography/Politics/Photography/Psychology/ICT: 14 (7%)
Accounting/Business Studies/Economics: 14 (7%)
English: 10 (5%)

are unlike most other schools (I believe Concord College, which specialises in rich foreign borders, is similar)

St Peter's for comparison:

Sciences: 83 (23%)
Politics/RS/Philosophy/History/Geography: 73 (20%)
Maths/Further Maths: 65 (18%)
Business/Economics: 30 (8%)
Art/Drama/Music/D&T/PE: 28 (8%)
Classics/Greek/Latin: 21 (6%)
English: 20 (5%)
French/German/Spanish: 29

The 42% of results being Maths is obviously a very high proportion compared to other schools.

And it's quite odd that they don't break the MFLs down. They list French, German and Spanish on their list, but whether the 49 includes any other languages isn't stated.

At the Faculty, there were the following A Levels taken:
Maths/Further Maths 32
Modern Foreign Languages (again, not broken down) 53
All other A Levels: 16

The BTECs are predominantly Business Studies.

I found a Linked In CV from a Russian ex-student, who says she took Russian (among other subjects) at QEs.

Obviously the extent to which the 'Modern Foreign Languages' consists of Russian and perhaps Chinese is critical, because without that and Maths, there isn't much left.

Point 9 is a bit odd. It is true that the Good School Guide said those things. However they are opinions held by the Good School Guide, that doesn't make them true. We are all free to think that the "Leavers Letter" is or isn't "charming", irrespective of the views of the Good School Guide.

A level stats here:

www.cjredu.com.hk/countries/uk/school/qe_good.pdf?

list Chinese, French, German, Russian and Spanish.

Russian was 83% A*-C, which means either 5 out of 6 or some multiple of that.

French was 75% A*-C, which means either 3 out of 4 or some multiple of the same.

The others are 100%, so can't really draw any conclusions

4 and 5 are a bit odd as well. I thought the comments that those refer to were quite obviously not meant to be taken seriously.

1, 2, 3, 6, 7 and 8 should have been fine if the point of the letter was to set out the correct factual position.

Also anyone know why they talk about links to criminal organisations? I didn't see any such claim in this thread.

I wonder how easy it is to get staff turnover numbers from competitors to be able to determine that yours is normal.

But it does read like the first page of any prestigious school's prospectus.

Were there any comments about boarding ages on this thread?

There may have been some tongue in cheek comments about links to certain criminal organisations. I'm not sure anyone took them seriously. Those comments may have been deleted.

For obvious reasons I can't really tell you what they were.

The claim is most academically successful (and/or top) school of its kind in the North.

The bit I bolded is important: it means coed independent boarding schools only. You will note also that "the North" isn't defined, but I found this on an education consultancy website: "Northern England comprises three regions of England - the North East, North West and Yorkshire and the Humber. The North of England may also be considered as the area surrounding the Pennines. This stretches from the Cheviot Hills on the border with Scotland to the Peak District."

The DofEd tables have been linked to this thread. Comparisons, by region, are pretty straightforward on that site.

OP was however interested in a number of schools of different types in a narrower region of west Yorkshire, and the state schools, again according of DofEd are excellent performers.

I too am in the South, but grew up in Yorkshire, hence my clicking on this thread initially; then I found comedy gold!

I also have a bit of experience of Charities and trusts through work, so I found the Foundation's accounts interesting.

I note Kay Boustead, the "Official Solicitor" (who I note is employed by a company based at Thorpe Underwood) doesn't say that the school is owned by a charity, just a trust.

Maybe she meant 'charitable trust' but omitted the word by accident: perhaps she or someone else could clarify the ownership?

She does appear to be a real solicitor - she acted in court for her insurance company (it's funny how blurred the lines seem to be between these various entities). www.picompensation.com/liability/personal-and-animals/article23661.ece

Its interesting that the financial interlinking of services and trustees and directors is exactly the same issue I have with State School academy chains ...

I've followed this thread for a little while after being asked if I'd seen it by a friend. I am a (local) parent with 2 children at the school and to be honest I'm struggling to even recognise it from the descriptions on here! Whatever the issues surrounding the advertising and trust funds, as a parent, the choice must be what is best for your own children? I have found QE to be an extremely warm and close knit school with very happy children in it. My two are doing very well academically and are vastly more confident than when they joined. QE certainly isn't perfect and I don't think any school is, but considering they are not selective and take many pupils forced to leave other schools, their results are very good. My son joined the school after a serious illness, which his previous school were unable to deal with, and QE were outstanding with their medical and pastoral care. I can only speak from my experience, which has been very good. If you have highly academic and sporty children who thrive on competitiveness, then there may be better and more traditional schools in the area, but if they need any extra help for whatever reason, QE is an excellent school. Just for the record and on a lighter note, I've not seen any zoo animals, helicopters or 3 year old borders, and only a handful of pupils ride their 'ponies'.

And you signed up to Mumsnet to let us know this, I see.

I've been a member for a while