Moulsford/Elstree/Horris Hill/Cothill/Summer Fields/Pinewood/St Hugh's

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We are considering the above schools for our son. He is sporty, clever, sociable and averagely confident. Open to day/flexi/weekly boarding.

Can anyone provide any useful recent info on these schools please? How are they doing? Many have new heads etc

Where are you considering for secondary?

thanks for responding grovel. Potential secondary schools include Radley, Marlborough, Oundle, Winchester, Eton....

You do need to check the exact boarding arrangements. At least one of your list is primarily full boarding with a handful of day pupils - the full boarding will mean a compulsory exeat every three weeks and the possibility of going out either after games on Saturday till Sunday evening or just Sunday roughly one weekend in two.

And as they get older the boys tend to want to be in school with their friends over short weekends.

As grovel says, check the leavers' destinations. Schools can't work magic but it can make a huge difference.......

Thanks. I know that each has its own boarding rules/culture but I was really looking for any insights/ recent sentiment towards these schools/ their focus/reputation etc.

My knowledge of these schools is probably out of date. For what it's worth the headmaster of our local prep (a good man) is sending his son to Summer Fields (full boarding). He told me he chose it because it produces happy high-achievers and is one of the few schools which can attract his best staff away from him! So he knows the calibre of SF's teachers.

thanks - that's very useful. Any other opinions views would be really helpful as we're feeling a little lost and drowning under the weight of open mornings and school brochures!

Have pm-ed you!

Thanks Zero - Really useful info on one of these schools. Does anyone else have any recent experience of these schools? Thanks.

My DCs school plays Pinewood and St Hugh's. Pinewood has a lot of children from the Defence Academy at Shrivenham so has a huge turnover of pupils as their parents are only there fora year on average, we considered it but even though we are military this put us off. St Hugh's is nice but small and if you wanted to board before senior, to get used to it, it is not full boarding so would only be weekly and not give an idea of what it is like to stay in school over the weekend. I do like St Hugh's and wanted mine to go there but we needed full boarding for when we are away

I'm not sure how to pm but I have children at one of the schools you mention and would be happy to share my experiences. Pm me if you know how ;)

Have PM'd you about another school (a bit out of your area but with school transport) that prepares well and gets places/scholarships at the senior schools you have mentioned.

Mulv (and anyone else who wants to know)

On desktop site you can simply click "message poster" from anywhere in the thread. Or you can look at the top right hand page - hover over the envelope and click on inbox - then follow signs to write a pm.

On the mobile site go to top of page and click "inbox".

On the (dreadful) app I think there's an arrow?