Stowe: clueless about private education - could somebody kindly help?

[Ujjayi]

Let me begin by saying I have zero experience of private education and haven't previously considered it for our DCs since we believed our local schools to be good schools.

However, DS1 (currently yr 9 at local high school) recently attended an activities weekend at Stowe, led by a group of 6th Formers. He has since become infatuated with the idea of going to the school and keeps asking me to look into it. It isn't because he feels it's going to be one long jolly - he just loved the general atmosphere in the school, that they were committed to both study and having fun. We have been over and over this with him and it is clear that he isn't seeing this through rose-tinted glasses - he just wants a fresh start at a school where he could have some great opportunities in at atmosphere where it is ok to be yourself. He sees it as an opportunity or challenge to which he could really apply himself.

Obviously, I need to contact the admissions office but, being totally honest, I feel a bit of a numpty as I don't have a clue if it is even feasible for DS to obtain a place if he hasn't previously attended a prep school plus the fact that he would be starting a year later than most pupils. Do children transfer at times other than the general intake? Do many children switch from state to private? Particularly at this time (Year 9/10)?

DS is a good student generally but really struggles with maths (barely scraping an E grade). He had a very unhappy start to high school life - suffering 2 years of bullying. He is more settled now but is fed up with the immaturity and constant clique issues in his current school. He loves drama/performing arts and would love to play more sport.

I would be really grateful if anyone could kindly shed some light on the whole system or whether we are wasting our time.

Having tutored some kids to get in, I can report that they were, without fail, at least 3 of the following and all were the first:

Very wealthy
From a very horsey background
Pretty/good looking, fit, slim, cool
Not very bright/academic
Very capable, mature
Popular, easily/readily socialise and are socially confident
From old money or aristocratic families

They love it - in with the cool crowd, and non academic subjects are brilliantly resourced e.g. DT, sport etc.

By the way, just today the daily fail published an article about Stowe running out of the morning after pill at the weekends!

I didnt look at CE scores too closely, but from what I saw the top of the tables places were asking 65% or sometimes 70%, and everyone else 55%, but I presume the actual gap was bigger than that in reality.

Didnt get the impression it was that important either, more like something to do to keep the boys on for y7 & 8. I suspect the senior schools could do without it and just have pretests.

They could aga - but at the moment most don't and it is important. It isn't just the boys that do it either? Our current Y8 is 50/50 girls and boys and they've all done it.

catinbootz - it has made efforts in recent years to change its reputation and become more academic though. It's very recent (last 3-4 years I'd say). And yes, you can still get in at well below average intelligence.

Ehhn - people are talking about that at our school this morning. Thing is, they only have a stock of 2 pills, most secondary schools are probably the same and it's better than the kids getting pregnant. I agree it's not great but Stowe, I believe, get a bad rap in the press due to being one of the most expensive schools in England. It's not a school I'd pay 30000 a year for but I suspect it's no worse than the majority of schools.

Hmm, most of the girls leave after Y6 here. And admissions are done on Y6 pretest, the CE is just a rubberstamp.

Maybe it's different in other areas.

I don't know anything about Stowe, but I want to say that you should not feel even remotely worried about approaching a school because you are inexperienced with private education. It is worth approaching any school at any time I think, because you never know when they might have an opening or how flexible and sympathetic they might be.

If the school makes you feel uncomfortable then that is THEIR problem, and it is a big one. That would be a red flag to me. I would find a private school that is open minded and welcoming.

Good luck with your decision. It sounds to me like your boy would thrive in a different atmosphere, and you should definitely look into a few possibilities right now.

Agapanthers Well it can't just be a 'rubber stamp' if your unconditional offer is subject to passing CE, if you pass your pretest but fail CE then you're not going to get in (unless you're saying you have evidence that papers are simply all passed!).
I know most of these schools are good at choosing the right child for their schools, and can tell from experience wether a child is the type that might score 70% at CE (pretests are quite rigorous) or not, but failures do happen, HM may at this point lobby on behalf of a child, but I woudn't assume once you've passed pretest you're in, i'd say you're almost there. in addition the preparation for CE benefits the student and gives them a taste of what GCSEs will be like, so the experience is valuable.

What i'd like to see is the Independent schools council making up their minds wether applicants should all sit 13+CE or all schools should just do their own exams and scrap CE altogether. Sitting CE on top of senior school exams (at which point many get confirmed unconditional offers) leaves no motivation to prepare for CE at all.

Lastly, Stowe is starting to become more selective, and so you cannot base opinions on the last 4 or 5yrs as the current new entries are being admitted with a higher criteria. Considering the past cohort of students and their results, i'd say Stowe is a school that adds great value.

Oh I'm not saying that it's completely unconditional, but they aren't handing out offers to anyone who isn't highly likely to pass. It's not like university offers - there really isn't much doubt about the school you will go to because they are sitting CE practice papers for a couple of years, and if you are averaging 65% in Y7 then you are not going to fail at 55% a year later.

I'm not sure how well correlated the curriculum is in Y7 and Y8 of a prep school with the curriculum for Y7 and Y8 of a 11+/13+ mixed entry senior school.

I see where you're coming from, but for schools like Stowe who don't have a pretest, the CE is then very significant for them as this is their only measure of selection. At the moment its been raised to 55% plus interview, which is what most schools currently ask for, a schools requiring 65% and above are actually not that many, as of 3 yrs ago Stowe was still accepting 45%, hence their results.

I'm inclined to think that correlation of curriculum will be strongly led by what the senior schools main point of entry is. If main entry is at 11+ then it may not be all that well correlated and the 13+ candidates entering in yr 9 might be held back a bit for the rest to catch up vice versa.

I think the OPs DS was barely scraping an E grade in Maths. This is not 55%. There is another private school quite close to Stowe (Akeley Wood) but it is hardly the same. Like lots of boarding schools, Stowe is not for shrinking violets. It is also in the middle of nowhere and my DD thought it was very cut off from the outside world. We were impressed with the teachers we met. Lots of people there are rich but that does not mean that less well off children are not welcome. I would see if they have any spaces and go from there.

Of course "being yourself" for some people is being "cool". My DD is "herself" and uber cool at the same time!

It is not for the brightest bunnies to be honest. If he wants to board why not try for a selection of schools including some more academically successful?

Also where the children are not very bright I think things like drugs and materialism take a bigger hold particularly when the school is in the middle nowhere.