About HCS (Romsey Hampshire)

[alwaysnotenoughesleep]

Went to the Prep Shcool's Open Day. Very good sports playground, warm welcome by the office staff, smart school uniform, polite kids, excellent classroom and facilities. The first impression is almost perfect.

Would any mumsnetters provide more information / advices that I may have missed / omitted?

HCS in general doesn't attract academic kids but you already know that.

Not really sure why you care about smart school uniform at primary age group - this wouldn't be in list of "almost perfect".

Hi user7214743615, indeed, school uniform is not on "the checking list", I just happened to notice that.

Had a quick look at two kids' maths and English practice book, They have been doing well. But presumably they are carefully chosen to show to the open day visiters. Is the academic gap big between HCS and the other similar schools, or marginal?

HCS gets lower results than many of the local state secondaries.
It us used by families from the Waterside whose catchment schools are dire
and by those who think their kids would get "lost in the middle" at the comps
It succeeds well at those tasks
but is not where academic kids tend to go by choice

Ta1kinpeece, Did not know this. A bit surprise. Thanks for sharing the knowledge.

Agree with pp about it being less academic, it is generally cheaper than other prep schools in the area which some would argue gives a broader range of parental backgrounds if that makes a difference to you. Is it just the prep school you are considering? There is no obligation to continue on from the prep to senior although of course many do but some leave for the bigger private senior schools, the Wiltshire grammars or the state sector. How old is your dc?

AtleastitsnotMonday, thanks for the message.

Yes, I have seen some of the same kind of comments that they are less academic, but how much less I had no idea. We are looking for pp / primary school only for the time being. We would not have to continue to senior, but after several years, would DC lag behind the majority of other similiar schools kids?

As you mention the fee, this is another thing that puzzles me. The fee is less expensive than some other similiar schools but their facilities and sports ground are very impressive. How did they do it?

HCS (was Embley Park) has fab grounds because it is the former estate of Florence Nightingale.
The estate is a single unit and the land holding is freehold - makes amazing grounds very cheap
It is utterly beautiful (both my DCs have had events there )
but as I say, the local Comps beat it hands down on exam results

Ta1kinpeece, Thanks for shedding some light on the questions.

It's unfair to compare HCS with local comps when it is a school for children who can't get into academic schools/wouldn't flourish in large groups. If you take only low/middle achievers, however well you teach them, they are not going to achieve as well as the naturally academic high achievers. On value added, if it were measured for a private school, I suspect that HCS would do very well.

It can also do very well with high achievers. Friends child recently got 9?A* and 2A at GCSE under less than ideal home circumstances. This DC would not have suited one of our excellent local comps.

user7214743615, TeenAndTween, many thanks for sharing your opinion / information.

There pastoral care looks very good.

Draylon
The difference in prices between waterside and other catchments can be the same as 6 years of HCS fees .... but yes, if they can afford it their kid would probably be better back there and then move at y 12

Snigger
from Ashurst, Twd is easy and since "changes" at Hd its doing rather well

golly I'm glad that my baby is safely at Symonds and all of the threads are esoteric

I'm TiP
was just in an odd mood. Fear not. Am back to normal now

I admit though that I am very glad that only DHs work is affected by the current stupidity in education policy as DD is off at Uni and DS has only a few more terms to go