Are there any parents out there with girls at Oundle or Rugby?

[PinkPaeonies]

If so, please could you share your thoughts \ experiences? Was it the right choice? Is your DD happy? Are you happy with the pastoral care? Any noticeable strengths \ weaknesses? Is it friendly?

School has recommended for DD so any insightful information much appreciated.

PPx

I’m not sure. There is a mix in all houses. Around a quarter on each house from overseas I would say. It’s not something I would worry about. It’s a great cosmopolitan school.

Hi Hulamum
My daughter is joining Oundle this September (if Covid19 permits). Please can you share how your daughter is getting on and if you have any tips you could share. Thanks

Hi NewSong2020
We have 3 children who we sent to Oundle School, having been made to believe that it was the best school in the wider Northants/ Peterborough area.
The truth is unfortunately far from it. The advertised pastoral care is in name only and just a tick box exercise for the school. Boarders who develop anorexia are mismanaged and eventually discharged back to their parents. Bullying is rife both online and in real life on the school premises. The management of the school and the vast majority of teachers are on a massive power trip. Children penalised often without reason. Rubbish sports program; if your child has a talent in a particular sport don’t expect it to be nurtured or to get any special dispensation to pursue this sport at a higher level off the school premises.
GCSE and A-level results have been on a downwards trajectory for a number of years with no hope of recovery as teaching was haphazard at best even before the COVID situation.
The most troubling thing in my view is that when you bring all these issues and concerns to the Head’s attention, there is no will whatsoever to put them right.
Consider this: Oundle School has a rigorous selection program and only the best and brightest kids are granted a place in Year 7 and Year 9. Come GCSE results, roughly half the pupils are either leaving to do A-levels at other schools or are not allowed back due to poor performance at GSCEs.
Now ask yourself this: why are half of the best and brightest kids admitted to Oundle at Year 7 underperforming at their GCSEs a few years later?
We have already taken one of our children out of Oundle School and the other two will be leaving too shortly.

This is so sad to read, Georgesilk. Clearly an unhappy parent feeling a desperate need to pebble dash their emotional guts all over the internet. You’ve obviously had a torrid time and this is such a shame but the exception not the rule at Oundle.
I am a current parent and do not recognise this picture you paint.
I have a child who plays sport to a moderate level and the school give weekly 1 to 1 tuition and transport my child to training sessions at far flung UK destinations at no additional cost to us. This is open to all pupils (not just sports scholars).
We also have dispensation to compete in said sport at the weekends.
We have other friends with their children offered similar support (girls hockey, boys cricket, rugby etc)
It is not however a sports mad school but people don’t choose Oundle to peruse elite sport in my opinion. I am impressed with the level of commitment from the sports staff however. Weekly online consultations in each sport throughout lockdown, for example.

It is not correct to say half of pupils leave for A level either. That’s a massive overstatement!
Yes a few go (sadly) when they don’t make the grades but these standards are explicitly communicated to all parents and pupils from the start. No doubt others come and go too, such is school life.
I have also found the pastoral care to be wonderful. I have friends with children in many houses and haven’t heard anyone be unhappy with the pastoral care.
Of course there will always be unhappy parents (and children!) in all schools and there will be extreme examples of mistakes made and the repercussions there of. It’s fundamentally a full boarding school and not all parents and children connect with the reality of life in a proper boarding environment.

I can only reiterate that I am really happy with the school and lots of families I know have multiple siblings throughout the school and remain very happy, which is why is remains a hugely popular school.
I hope the poster Georgesilk finds their perfect school for their children in the future.

@NewSong2020

Hi Hulamum My daughter is joining Oundle this September (if Covid19 permits). Please can you share how your daughter is getting on and if you have any tips you could share. Thanks

My daughter is also starting Oundle in September. I have two sons already there but this is a different kettle of fish.

@HulaMum

Hi PinkPaeonies, My DD is entering Oundle first form in the autumn. If you're still in need of Oundle feedback in a few months' time, feel free to contact me.

Hi Hula,

I would love to pick your brains on some simple stuff such as how many and what clothes to take with them. My boys don’t care, enough clothes for some to wash and some to wear but I know with my daughter it’ll be another thing. She really worried about simple things like if she has a period leakage and sending things to laundry. Do you or your daughter have any basic tips or words of wisdom on the best way of managing life there‽
Tia

@leftandaright

This is so sad to read, Georgesilk. Clearly an unhappy parent feeling a desperate need to pebble dash their emotional guts all over the internet. You’ve obviously had a torrid time and this is such a shame but the exception not the rule at Oundle. I am a current parent and do not recognise this picture you paint. I have a child who plays sport to a moderate level and the school give weekly 1 to 1 tuition and transport my child to training sessions at far flung UK destinations at no additional cost to us. This is open to all pupils (not just sports scholars). We also have dispensation to compete in said sport at the weekends. We have other friends with their children offered similar support (girls hockey, boys cricket, rugby etc) It is not however a sports mad school but people don’t choose Oundle to peruse elite sport in my opinion. I am impressed with the level of commitment from the sports staff however. Weekly online consultations in each sport throughout lockdown, for example.

It is not correct to say half of pupils leave for A level either. That’s a massive overstatement!
Yes a few go (sadly) when they don’t make the grades but these standards are explicitly communicated to all parents and pupils from the start. No doubt others come and go too, such is school life.
I have also found the pastoral care to be wonderful. I have friends with children in many houses and haven’t heard anyone be unhappy with the pastoral care.
Of course there will always be unhappy parents (and children!) in all schools and there will be extreme examples of mistakes made and the repercussions there of. It’s fundamentally a full boarding school and not all parents and children connect with the reality of life in a proper boarding environment.

I can only reiterate that I am really happy with the school and lots of families I know have multiple siblings throughout the school and remain very happy, which is why is remains a hugely popular school.
I hope the poster Georgesilk finds their perfect school for their children in the future.

Paid advertisement for Oundle School or maybe an Oundle School staff member posing as a parent me thinks.

I am not. Look back through my profile and history and you will see I am not a teacher anywhere! Not in any way connected to any schools anywhere at anytime save for being a parent paying full fees.
I am sure you would accept that despite your bad experience, there are hundreds if not thousands of very happy parents. How else would a school continue to thrive etc

@leftandaright

I am not. Look back through my profile and history and you will see I am not a teacher anywhere! Not in any way connected to any schools anywhere at anytime save for being a parent paying full fees. I am sure you would accept that despite your bad experience, there are hundreds if not thousands of very happy parents. How else would a school continue to thrive etc

Why the personal attack in your earlier post then? “ Clearly an unhappy parent feeling a desperate need to pebble dash their emotional guts all over the internet”? I thought the forum was meant for parents to share our personal experiences, be it good or bad. “Hundreds or thousands of very happy parents”? “How else would a School continue to thrive etc”? What makes you think that it is thriving? The new Sports Centre? Are you aware at all how many vacant pupil slots there are in L6 and U6? Are you aware that the actual GCSE and A-Level results have been on a downwards trajectory for at least the last 6-7 years? Sure Oakham, Stamford etc still have even worse GCSE and A-Level results than Oundle, but these are not selective schools. A more appropriate comparison would be with Perse School in Cambridge for example, which is also a selective school. It has significantly higher GCSE and A-Level results (no comparison at all really) and is quite a bit cheaper than Oundle too. It takes a substantial amount of effort to take the best and brightest kids in Year 7 and 5 years later have a significant proportion of them perform so badly at their GCSEs than they are not “invited” back for their A-Levels. It is clearly the school’s failure to teach these kids properly and “communicating” the GCSE grade standards required to be “invited” back for L6, is merely an alibi used by Oundle School to blame the children and their parents for the school’s failures. It is always the default position of Oundle School to blame the children for the school’s shortcomings and their parents for complaining about them. Remember the incident a year or two ago, where a few children were found to be using nitrous oxide in one of the boarding houses? You can still find the Northampton Telegraph report on the Internet if you look for it. Two pupils were suspended immediately. A few more were allowed to finish the year and were suspended at the end of the year (because they blamed everything on the first two). The Housemaster and Matron of the boarding house did not get disciplined at all, even though while they were supposed to have been supervising the minors at all times, they allowed for the substance to be brought into their boarding house (presumably due to lack of proper supervision). It goes on and on and I have plenty of specific examples with dates and names of people involved, not general statements about “hundreds and thousands of happy parents and children”, but this forum is arguably not the place for it. The point we need to keep is that sometimes, if you dig a bit deeper, things are not as they appear. And that is definitely the case with Oundle School.

This is very broad but Oundle is trendier, probably with higher density of cool, spiky profiles. Pastoral care on balance better at Rugby. Both take significant percentage of Brit expats / international set. Overall I would lean on Rugby. But all of this based on friends rather than first experience.

Perse was the top performing co Ed school for GCSEs last year and is more selective than Oundle. Many co Ed boarding schools are less selective than predominantly day schools. Rugby and Oundle got similar results at GCSE in 2019: 61% and 59% at 8 of 9. Plenty of schools would die for that.

Boarding schools always get leavers at 16. DC want day schools nearer home. They find being in the middle of nowhere limiting for their social life. Parents get upset about schools where they feel things are not right for their DC. But Oundle hadn’t been top of any league table for academics and it’s not selecting the brightest and the best. There are other schools that get them in greater numbers!

@georgesilk I recognise nearly everything you say about Oundle, we have removed our DCs for 6th form.

@TattingerFizzer Wish someone had given us the heads up a few years ago when we first considered sending our kids to Oundle. Then again, you live and learn

@NewSong2020

Hi Hulamum My daughter is joining Oundle this September (if Covid19 permits). Please can you share how your daughter is getting on and if you have any tips you could share. Thanks

Hi NewSong

How’re you getting on?
Have you ordered uniform etc yet?

I’ve done nothing which dh has just reminded me about. I may have sons there already but I feel out of my depth with the girls stuff.

If you email the house matron, she might have some second hand clothes. It can save you hundreds of pounds!