Holme Grange School, Wokingham

[SusanEE17]

Hi, considering Holme Grange for my year 8 son. Would welcome any feedback on the school as I don’t know any parents/children there. Are the children happy? Is there any bullying? Are they good with children with ASD? Any information would be much appreciated, thank you!

I wouldn't touch it. unhappy vibe amongst children and parents... number wished they had moved their kids!
large number of bullying incidences that are swept under the carpet. Cyber particularly bad. Police apparently involved several times. Not great rep for a private school! Management are ineffective and don't seem to know how to handle teenagers. Try to hide problems. Seem to think parents and children don't talk to each other.
Large number of special needs, department seems overrun. Waited months for my child to be screened. Removing them was the best thing I ever did.

Oh dear! Thanks for letting me know. Sadly not great news for us, I am at a loss as where to look next 😔

You can try Reddam, LVS, luckley, Leighton Park, it really depends how far you want to travel. All very different schools and so a visit to all is worth it. It is really were you and your son are happy that counts.

How far do you want to travel? Where are you based?

We are in Ascot, looking at Reddam but I’m concerned that it’s too far. Luckley said no due to SEN, not hearing good things about LVS and their SEN provision. I think Leighton is too far unfortunately.

Claire's Court Maidenhead? Not too far from Ascot, plus there are a lot of buses..

I’ll take a look, thank you!

That is sad to hear. My DS went there years ago (26 now) and loved it.

Dolphin school in Hurst?

Hi SusanEE17,

Have you found a school yet? What about Queensmead in Windsor? We're in Ascot as well and it's only 6.5 miles each way for us. Was called "Brigidine" but now going co-ed.

Hi Jaffjaff, that is very concerning. I have a child in prep at HG and I have never heard about or witnessed any of the above issues. Maybe swept under the carpet, but honestly the kids all seem happy to me. We will be facing our options about whether to stay on in to Eaton Grange soon, so if true this would be very troubling.

In the end we decided upon Holme Grange. Son started this Easter and really likes it there in Yr 8 (Eaton Grange part I believe). No issues so far and he's happy. More homework than his last school which may or may not be good depending on your point of view (good in our case) and they seem to be pushing him to fulfill his potential. He's made friends and gets on with all his other classmates.

Thanks for all your replies, we have moved our son and his new school is working wel so far.

This article in the local press is not encouraging about Queensmead School Windsor.
www.windsorexpress.co.uk/gallery/areas/133374/queensmead-school-windsor-fails-to-meet-all-independent-school-standards-says-ofsted.html

I'm seeing mixed reviews about Holme grange school. I'm planning to put my son into Year 3. Any parents with recent experience? Is bullying still a concern?

@rn71 did you put your son into Holme grange? I’m considering putting my into year 4 now. Interested in how others have found it?

I had been on a school visit and spoke to staffs there. Appears to be a very good school in terms of facilities and infrastructure. I've heard good things about school from friends. They have got small size classes about 20 max and hence are able to support children better. I'm planning to put my son for Year 3 two years from now. He is in year 1 currently.

I wanted to update people looking at sending their child to Holme Grange School. I am really sad to say this school has really gone down hill. They are focussing on trying to replace the huge wave of students who are leaving with shiny ads and social media posts. In the meantime behaviour is poor with the excuse that it is 'a very challenging year group' despite them saying that about EVERY year group.

Bullying is a problem, quite a few parents have had to move their children to different schools because Holme Grange will not address behaviour properly. Often these things could have been avoided but the complete lack of discipline from the school means it escalates to the point a child gets hurt. They try to manage challenging children with house points meaning they are the ones who get the most rewards.

Communication is sketchy at best and when you ask them about this they say it is the parents fault for not checking the calendar daily because they change it that often.

In one year group alone nearly half the children have moved on to other private schools because of these continuing issues. When you approach the Senior Leadership Team for anything they are defensive and nothing can ever be resolved.

They failed safe guarding on their last inspection because they were allowing an adult to be around the children on a regular basis that did not have a DBS check which they explained as an admin error but they were lucky it didn't end very differently.

There are so many issues with the school at the moment, I would say if you want to feel like a team working together to do the best for your children definitely do not go to Holme Grange.