The Leys v Leighton Park

[searchingforschools]

Searching for a senior school for ds. DS is currently at a prep and has mild SN. DS currently flexiboards and loves it, very musical and arty, very good in English but poor at maths. We were recommended LP but recently went to their open day and despite our high hopes for it, were seriously underwhelmed! we are now looking at the Leys. Are there any current parents here at either school.

We ideally want a school with a good caring ethos, strong pastoral care but that also strives for academic excellence for each child. We also lean more towards traditional english schools which i realise might be contradictory to what we are trying to find.

Bradfield?

Are you a parent there? I've added Bradfield to my list now. Please tell me more about it. We are not in that area so ds will have to full board if he goes there.

I don't think the Leys in Cambridge does flexi boarding but offers places as day pupil, day boarders or a full boarders. Its certainly a traditional school and does seem to give good pastoral care (but I really only know about it from the perspective of teachers I know there). It gets good results for GCSE, though a lot of the pupils who joined at 11 or 13 and live locally then go on to other schools (particularly to Hills Road SFC).

No, I'm not a Bradfield parent but your description of your DS sounded just like a friend's (lovely) DS. He's very happy at B.

Where in the country are you?

King's Ely might be a good fit if musical and arty.

Thanks for all your replies. Lilymaid why do they go on to yet other schools? doesn't the Leys do A'levels?

Grovel Thanks. ds is very charming despite his difficulties. We are in Herts.

Hereiam I'll check out Kings Ely - do you know if it has lots of full boarders? ds is very keen to have the full boarding experience, with all the inter house competitions etc (this was a major strike against Leighton park, as they are mainly a day school with only one boarding house).

The Leys does do A Level, but Hills Road is a state sixth form college (Cambridgeshire is a three tier system) which has A Level results that turn most private schools .

The Leys attracts alot of HMF families boarding. A relative of mine has two DC there and is I believe very happy with the school.

Lonecat Ah! i see. Thanks for explaining.

So Leys is day/full boarding - definitely on list now!
Bradfield - not sure if its full boarding (will check archives)

Others mentioned to include:
St Edwards, OXFORD
Bedford school

Hoping some more people will know about these schools, thanks for all your help.

Bradfield is a basically weekly boarding, St Edwards Oxford definitely worth a look and more than 3/4 full board.

Pastoral care is really strong at St Edwards, it is very sporty but also lots of art music etc, academic results are improving year on year. Not sure what you mean by "leaning towards traditional English boarding schools" perhaps you could expand on this comment. St Edwards is quite liberal, no ridiculous uniform, little meaningless ritual.