Christ's Hospital

[Beetrootccio]

here

Did you know it is means tested?

Great school I have heard

Your contribution is based on what they consider to be your net income

so gross income including earnings, maintenance, tax credits, child benefit, investments EVERYTHING

LESS

mortgage/rent (but limited to 12.%)
insurances
childcare (essential to working)
some other stuff too from memory

I think £20k is probably typical of boarding schools but I don't know can't afford for her to go private other than at CH, if she gets in

Former flatmate went to the girl's school before it merged with the boys, and I was at college with a whole group of them (aaargh, one of them is probably coddy in another incarnation).

They all seemed to have had a good time. Though flatmate did mention the communal uniform, and had been majorly traumatised by having to wear other people's crusty socks. She was big on fabric softener.

didn't realise the socks were recylced - at least dd not used to fabric conditioner.....

So people who pay top wack for the school would be able to choose any boarding school. And presumably are picking CH because it has some special quality.

It is very academic - they have entrance tests, it is very hot on music, theatre and sports. It has a v good reputation - perhaps they also want their dc to mix with all walks of society not just the wealthy/affluenced??????

I knew someone whose children but she was very resistant to discussing it. I think she'd received a lot of criticism for choosing boarding school so she'd become a bit furtive. So I was never able to discover how the means testing thing worked or why exacty she'd chosen it. Thanks for the info.

Sorry. That was a bit illiterate. Mean to read I knew someone whose children attended.... Typing too fast.

They've just had an open day but there is quite a bit of info on the web - just ring up and ask for an application pack my dd is in yr 5 at the mo so if you get a place and I don't I'll thump you I got slated on here for considering boarding but my local school is SO wrong for dd1 I'm still going to let her apply and pray hard for the "right" thing to happen

I don't think many people do pay full whack. It's raison d'etre is to educate kids whose parents can't afford boarding schools. I believe the means testing is pretty thorough, but presumably no worse than you'd go through for a meanstested bursary anywhere else. I'd expect to have to supply payslips, P60s, bank statements, tax returns, blahdiblah.

I'm just curious. Your daughter's place is safe from me.

Stats from pack given out in march 2006

just under 20% of parents pay nothing, one third pay less than £250 per year, they limit the families asked to pay full cost to 6% of the school population.

I think your social circumstances are as of equal importance to academic ability when they look at offering you a place.

Those statistics are interesting, CarGirl. Sounds like an unusual place. Are you very set on it?

well the alternative is

Local comp - bottom of surrey league table - has been around there for last 10 years, been through special measures about 5 years ago several new heads and it's not progressed much

Local private schools - nearest one St Georges of Weybridge - she wouldn't survive socially - you have to have a chelsea taxi, nanny, mansion etc just to think of it even if she got a scholarship - they have started asking children to leave at age 7 if they are not academically enough - welcome to "Surrey Darling"

Dd is very academically able, plays the drums, very sociable, we are broke it seems an option worth pursuing - her school friends all have siblings at a different state school but she won't get in as we don't live near enough

Bleedin nightmare

we dindt share socks
you hae to wash your own underwear and dry it nciely on radiators( hence hardness)

What about trying for Tiffins? Or do you have any religous inklings?

I can understand how you feel. It is horrible being the poor girl at a private school.

I guess she may have been exaggerating the Dickensian-ness of it all.

I'd heard, fwiw, that a lot of the kids there are recommended by their community leaders, or church leaders from deprived inner city areas and may therefore be sponsored by Worshipful Companies of this that and the other. I gather that most of the full-fee payers tend to be children of left-wing, more socialist types. I get the impression that it is a unique school offering a specific type of educational experience to kids from a very wide range of backgrounds who otherwise wouldn't get a look in. Personally, I think it would be well worth a look BUT I wouldn't want my DSs to board, even if we stood a snowball's chance of getting them in. Perhaps for many of the pupils, boarding provides a safe and structured environment away from possibly chaotic home lives. And I dig that crazy uniform!!

CH is very near to us so visiting weekly or whatever would be easy and practical - bearing in mind have 3 other dc to factor into the equation. Think they also come home at least every other weekend, plus she is depserate to be a drummer in the band..............

must get that application form done.....

My dd is here in her second year. They don't wear the uniform all the time now; which she is pleased about; but which is a peer group pressure induding pain and logistical nightmare for us. My husband also went here and says it is vastly improved since his day (1970's) and that the school is infinitely more sensitive than it used to be, and he got a lot out of it even in the days of horsehair blankets and floggings !!. We live nearly 3 hours away from the school and miss each other a lot but overall feel it is worth the seperation pains. The facilities are amazing, as are the teaching staff. The focus is very much on the pupil, and money/status is not the driving force here. It's all about developing pupils as individuals. It's not the archaic academic crammer you might imagine. Independence is really developed here, alongside a very real concern for the wider community, both in and out of school. The music, drama, sport, art, design, languages opportunities are just fab. If a pupil has potential, this is a school with enough resources to bring it out. Like many, if not most of the parents with children here, we are VERY far from 'typical' parents of a child in boarding school and I never in my wildest dreams expected I would have a child in boarding school, let alone my beloved only daughter; but it is proving to be everything we hoped for; after some initial teething troubles. Check out the website and go to an open day if remotely curious. The PUPILS take you round and you can ask them anything you like. Start when your child is young so that if you ARE applying, they (and you) break down any feeling of being overwhelmed by the physical grandeur and scale of the place. On a day to day level, the Harry Potteresque location and uniform are just NOT what this school is all about.

My brother went there and my nephew was Senior Grecian ( head boy) and had lunch with the queen!