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)

Doesn't a member of staff normally pitch up on these threads to defend QE?

Ohh do they? Can't wait for that

Aw, my friend went there. She's lovely

no but really, she loved it and she's at an RG uni now.

It has happened in the past. I had the temerity to post some unfavourable opinions on the school, and a poster who seemed to be taking an extremely pro-QE line accused me of being a parent whose DC did not make the entrance grade and I was simply and unreasonably embittered by rejection.

I pointed out my school age DC were boys

Pity that thread was zapped - "too many anomalies" IIRC.

boys and girls attend the burga of queen ethel tho meditrina - does not sound like any kind of place where you have to 'make the grade' to get in tho!
i recall another thread with some very pro burga posters

Last years last accepted distance in the town catchment area for HGS was 1.26miles which would get you a house in a slightly cheaper area or 7.31miles for the rural catchment area.

It is a good school, it has been for many years (since I went there natch) but in reality if you picked up almost any of the schools in Harrogate and Knaresborough and plonked them in an inner city area then there would be a clamour to get in.

YY to shootings recommendation on the colditz with carpets boarding school HLC, vastly superior to QE's and the quality of their old girls is pretty damn fine too .

mrsPnt you're right, but I wouldn't invest in buying a house say 1.2 miles away with the sole purpose of getting into HGS, only to then get a bigger cohort that year and be faced with no school place I was happy with....

I would say that well under the mile was a safe distance if you were to buy solely for the purpose of getting into HGS and you had no other alternative you were happy with...

Used to live nearby, watching with interest....

flootshoot To be fair other schools do advertise, it just tends to be rather earnest and dignified, unless you count Seddon plastering his Tatler recommendation across the website . They don't tend to advertise in the manner of a carpet warehouse or car dealership........

I do think there is no need to go quite so over the top.
Leeds Grammar in my view is the better school by a mile than QE or Harrogate Ladies etc if you have a bright child.

Unusual advertising is fine. Some people and their organisations are very dull. Lots of parents want eccentricity and difference which private schools can provide in a way the state system is often constrained from providing.

It would be pretty dull if every school were a clone of each other one.

^I totally agree with LauraBridges :)

But FWIW I know a couple of children at QE and they are doing well. They seem happy, are definitely not spoilt and the split school system seems to adapt well to those with different needs and abilities, I think for lots of children it can work.

So I clicked on the creepy masks link, and found this little gem of irony:

The ability to communicate well is vital at all ages and never more so than latter in adult life

Have you been in receipt of one of their pieces of direct mail? I am a marketeer, I couldn`t agree with you more about schools serving different markets and how refrrshing it is when an organisation comes up with an imaginative advertising campaign that engages whilst conveying the ways in which the product will meet your needs as a customer. Queen Es bumpf is multicoloured, messy, poorly designed, unchecked for errors, make claims that are hard to believe via statistics that on closer examination don't actually demonstrate what they claim and the response amongst its target market as represented by the parents here is evident. I don't dount the school meets the needs of the majority of its students, possibly it does it well the advertising really isn't just eccentric it is positively bad by every measure I can think of.

I am a teacher in Yorkshire and know several pupils, teachers and ex-teachers from QEs.

You could not pay me enough to inflict that place on my own children.

Antoinette. SWALLOW HILL ANYONE>>>>>>>>

soul sorry I don't know what you mean. That's in Leeds, right?

And scrappy, I know. I know!!

Ah!

LauraBridges I would argue that QE does not try to provide an eccentric or different education - rather it aims to emulate a 'public school' without much success.

In the sixth form the range of subjects is no different to a sixth form college. If anything, I would argue that the segregation of A level and BTEC students is detrimental.

Thanks for all the posts. QE an absolute no no then!

So far, options for fee paying are Leeds Grammar, Ashville or Harrogate Ladies.

Options for public schools are HG, St. Aidens or Rossett (anyone able to tell me about Harrogate High? Or how far the rural catchment areas spread to?)

Houses we have viewed in the past were extremely close to HG (next street kind of close) but 3rd bedroom was smaller than a matchbox and for around £75k more than other much larger / regular sized 3 beds. Also viewed around Ashville but most were in need of complete renovation and at the very expensive end of the market.

IF we were looking for a good choice of say 2 or 3 of the public schools, with a budget of, for example, £300k and in need of 3beds / 2 recepts. Then which areas would you recommend/avoid?