Help with prep school choice

[Ruggles]

Hello
We're just starting to look for a prep boarding school for our two DS. We're based in the south but can travel a bit. They are both happily ensconced at a mixed pre prep feeding a prep school. It's mixed, fantastic, quite large but seems very 'female' and all of the hobbies are terribly unisex. The school seem to go to great lengths to avoid anyone getting muddy or wet. All good for large-scale pupil management, but we have very active boys and are wondering if we can find an all boy environment with lots of country-side stuff - not just sport, but ferrets and fishing etc. Is there such a thing as a southern Asygarth? Thanks everyone!

Summer Field? I know it's in Oxford but as it's on the edge it's literally at stones throw from the countryside. I know lots there all have been happy and they staff seem very dedicated. The added bonus of place to go if your hoping for a scholarship into Eton or win Coll.
Cothill also has an excellent reputation for happy boys.

Have PMed you OP.

Woodcote House?

Fabulous school.

Thanks ladies - interesting suggestions. Will have a look at Summer Fields. Dancing - we are in Sussex, but have good access to Hants, Dorset and A34.

And Cothill and Woodcote!

Do you have any idea as to what senior schools you are hoping your DS's might go onto? Are you looking for proper full boarding or weekly boarding?

Windlesham House?

Happy - not sure where they will end up, esp as so young at mo. Both down for Radley, but also like the idea of Sherborne. Very open as so much will depend on them / their interests and academic ability etc. Quite open about full boarding or weekly. If full, prob start slightly later.

Ok, got a better grip of your geography. You might like to look at Forres Sandle Manor. It's co-ed but boys can be boys. Edge of New Forest.

Windlesham House is fab all we know there have been really happy didn't mention it before as I thought you wanted boys only. Excellent mix of day and boarders.

A friend who wanted a prep that was a bit more boyish but also wanted a caring ethos looked at and really liked Ashdown House she said lots of outdoor stuff although they did eventually choose Windlesham.
This was at least 6-7 yrs ago so things might have changed and Im afraid I do to know any more than that about it.

Aldro in Shackleford, lots of sport, lovely grounds including a lake with an island and rope bridge. Also woodlands.

www.aldro.org

Windelsham is lovely...
Ruggles: have you thought about Dulwich?

If you want muddy and outdoorsy, look at Abberley Hall (might be way too far away for you, but it's not as far as Aysgarth )

Cothill sends lots of boys to Radley I think.

Not so much ferrets here, but snakes! The school’s herpetology club is quite legendary. I’m of course referring to Papplewick School in Ascot, a prep school where my DS attended aged 10 for three years until he left for Eton.

It has almost all the attributes you’re looking for - huge countryside, all boys environment, active outdoor life, boys’ sports, prolific feeder to the major British public schools, not least Radley, with major scholarship successes to boot!

Oh yes. I have heard that there are families (not too far from where I'm sitting...) who like the look of everything at Papplewick except the thought of their DC wandering home attached to a random snake...

Interesting suggestion charley - it made me curious as to whether the OP does just want outdoorsy or whether she actually wants a touch of macho as well. I love the fact that St Ronan's wants pupils to be "gentle" (though I wonder if they would have said so if the school was boys only...)

I haven't come across a school before that does exclusively part time boarding - Tuesday to Thursday only? That must be a draw for local families but I guess it means they don't have many foreign children?

My son has just left Summer Fields. It's not a magic ticket into Eton- son was in the schol class but managed to fail pre-tests to Eton, Winchester and Harrow (school had advised that Eton would be a stretch but Winchester would love him and Harrow would be no trouble). There were several families who came away with slightly disappointing outcomes; but given the recent huge increase in the number of applicants to these schools and the fact that the schools cannot really prepare them for the pretests, I don't blame SF. They did get 20 into Eton this year, another 4 to winchester, 1 to St. Pauls, 4 to Harrow, a heap to Radley (the local fall back) a couple to Charterhouse, a couple to Stowe and the rest scattered around.

Given that our outcome wasn't what we had wanted we have examined quite carefully whether we were satisfied that sending him to SF had been the right thing and came to the conclusion that it definitely had been. He has been so very happy: it is a little boy's paradise- lots of messing around outdoors. There are a couple of duff teachers but most of the teaching is absolutely superb and they really develop the boys' intellectual curiosity and ability to debate and discuss. DS is dyspraxic and the learning support people are lovely. The boys are astonishingly polite and charming, in a slightly old fashioned manner; they're confident without coming over as arrogant. It's sufficiently international for there to be cultural diversity and texture but not so international that it has ceased to be a very English school. Lots of drama, art, excellent music, etc etc. More of a social mix than one might imagine and an academic range from brilliant to thick as two short planks. All valued for something

What really stands out, however, is just what a kind place it is. My son was really homesick to start with and was given fabulous support, down to his lodge mother putting lavender oil on his pillow. They were brilliantly supportive throughout all the schools disappointment.

Boys all very wet-eyed on the last day.

vixsatis At the risk of derailing the OP's thread - I'm terribly pleased to see your post. I seem to remember that a while ago, when I first found MN, yours were some of the most thought provoking and helpful posts on the threads I lurked on.

Don't say your DS "failed" the pre-tests. They obviously weren't the right schools for him for whatever reason and I'm sure you've since found somewhere that fits him exactly..

But you are very eloquent in describing a near perfect prep school experience. Thank you.

OP I hope you're progressing towards a clearer picture?

I think both the Oxford boys' preps are good for outdoorsy boys. Sunningdale is another one that seems to come up quite a lot for a traditional boy centred education if your sons are more likely to be aiming for Harrow or Radley.
Vixsatis your DS must be very bright if he was in the SF scholarship set. Sometimes it is a question of early pretests missing late developpers.

zero summer sweet comments- thank you. He's just patchy and has a blind spot where VR/NVR should be. He's now at King's Canterbury. Discovering girls........

OPI think all the boys' preps on the SF rugby circuit looked pretty good and offered the same sort of experience, although I thought Ludgrove looked a bit too Spartan. Papplewick and Cothill would both be worth looking at. There's a balance to be achieved between somewhere that's small enough really to have a family atmosphere and to give everyone a chance to be in plays, choirs etc and somewhere that is so small that: (a) one wonders about its financial security; and (b) public school is going to be too awful a shock. All these schools fall into that middle ground.