Dulwich Prep - anyone have any feedback

[Poppssy]

Hi,
Our son has been offered a place at Dulwich Prep in September and I was hoping I could get some feedback from any parents familiar with the school before we make a decision. I have seen a few negative threads on here and as putting him there will be painful financially and logistically, I want to gain some confidence that the school is good. Any comments welcome. Ideally from the horse's mouth and not hearsay though.
Thanks

Dulwich Prep in Dulwich btw. Not in Kent.

just bumping, I only know the kent one :)

Hi there

Congratulations on your son getting a place. I have 2 boys currently there and overall I am very happy with the school. It's a big place, but I feel that they really know my sons. Standards are high in everything they do and there is tons going on. Do feel free to pm me.

Bumping :-)

Hi poppssy, my son is in y4 and has been there since nursery. He is happy there and doing well, feel free to pm me if you have specifice questions or wish to discuss.

The young men I know from there are mainly nice and very well trained. They are not intrinsically brighter or less bright than their peers from elsewhere but they don't find year 9 work hard when they arrive at secondary school and are well grounded academically and sportswise.

The school gets boys into lots of good schools later. It is a better prep than the one Ds went to, which might in theory have limited his choice, but in practice it didn't.

As I say, they find year 9 it at any rate the first term easy. Others who have not been there do just as well, however, so you would need to think about whether it is worth the extra stress you put yourself under.

Thanks ancientbuchanan and legalalien. Looks like mainly positive comments on this thread at least which is reassuring. The decision is more of a state school versus public school for us to save stress unfortunately as there are not many good public schools much nearer to us. And whereas Dulwich might not do better resultswise than other preps, it does better than state schools I would imagine.

My son will begin his yr4 in Dulwich Prep London in Sept 2014. He is academic and musical but not keen on sport. He doesn't swim because he is still scared of putting his head in the water. I hope the teachers there will be able to help him to overcome the water phobia.

Popps,

That's quite difficult to say. They get into good schools. But a significant proportion of Ds's school cones from the state sector into year 7 and by year 11 they are indistinguishable. In fact sooner, much sooner, despite the influx at year 9.

What I do think the good prep gives and can give is a much more all rounded education, with far more opportunities for extra curricular activity, and specialist teachers, than most state primaries. If you can do the extra curricular stuff yourself, then there might not be that much difference. So there will be far more emphasis on sport, on mfl and in classics, for example. Some state primaries v nearly achieve this, but the funding isn't there.