UCS - feedback please!

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Hi

My son has got a place at UCS (11+ intake). I'm from the state school sector so going to a private school is a completely alien experience. If anyone has recent experience of the school, what do you think about it? My impression of the school is that it has a lovely warm atmosphere, the boys seem really happy in their own skin and are personable and confident but not arrogant and the teachers seem to have close working relationships with the boys but not necessarily in an authoritarian way. Is this what other people have found? My son tends to respond well (so far at least) to firm but fair teaching. Do you think he would do well here. He absolutely loves it by the way. Also how are children on the poorer end of the intake treated? All feedback would be very gratefully received!

Hello have name-changed for this to one that does what it says on the tin...

Our son is there having joined in y7 from a very unposh state school and knowing no one. We had a lot of angst about going private but there are various things about UCS that mollified us.

It is genuinely more relaxed about petty rules etc than most schools. I sometimes feel that we're paying for the privilege of allowing our son to wear his uniform very scruffily - our local state is one of those ones that feels that petty uniform adherence is next to godliness.

I like the fact that it feels as though they work them intensively during the day so that they can be relaxed about homework. He seems to get/do very little and they have an official policy of not giving any for the first two weeks (or in reality longer) of y7. There's so much to get used to in secondary that this seems humane and sensible and I wish all schools would do it. I don't know how they get such good results while not pressuring the boys, but it seems to me as if they genuinely manage this. Teachers mostly great and inspiring, one or two lacklustre ones. Head great. Pastoral care was very responsive and sensible when there was an issue.

I don't get the sense that the kids are particularly status focussed or know who's rich or not other than the ones whose parents have a helicopter, i.e. one or two in the whole school.

The one small issue I have is that I feel they could do more to integrate the boys from the Junior school. Maybe integrate is the wrong word. I feel that they come in a small sense of entitlement, which is mostly ignored by the senior school teachers who don't after all know them. Except the sports department - they definitely seem to err to the side of generosity to the junior boys in terms of team captaincy and places etc.

I’ve heard only lovely things about UCS and have very good friends with delightful boys there. The only thing I would say is that there are quite a few of their friends who are very very very rich. My friends are extremely well off (think 4 kids in private school, at least 4 holidays a year, long haul at Xmas, skiing in feb, a month in Europe in the summer, kids doing all the school trips, live in housekeepers ) but don’t even begin to feature on the radar of serious celebs with children there, one of the friends children has flown on his friends private jet several times, others live in £20M houses, most of them have live in staff. Having said that there are obviously lots who are from more modest backgrounds, my neighbours son is there, ordinary house, only child, very nice, modest low key lovely boy but my impression is that there is also a fair amount of absolute jaw dropping money.

Indeed there are some stonkingly rich parents but only a handful and I don't think any more than any other sought-after London private e.g. Latymer Upper, Highgate etc. Even the more grammar-like privates like City have their fair share that I know of.

We don't have domestic staff etc and off the top of my head I can only think of one or two that do. The rest might have a cleaner and obviously anyone who can afford private is affluent in the extreme.

I am very glad, though, that he went to a state school for primary, especially one where the vast majority were pupil premium. Lovely though my sons' friends are they have less awareness of the reality of other people's lives than I hope my children have.

Thanks for all the feedback - that's really helpful. Sounds like there are some V rich people at UCS! I'll have to coach my son re: money not being everything.

Not being privately educated myself, I've always felt that private school children tend to emerge with more polish and confidence. I read an article recently which gave the reasons for this as follows:

'One plausible explanation is the lasting benefit of “soft skills” drummed into private pupils from their first day. Those rousing assemblies about conquering the world; the extracurricular activities that eke the talent and enthusiasm out of even the most unresponsive little brat; that self-assurance that comes from having one’s youthful opinion seriously contemplated by an authority figure. They all leave impressions longer lasting than any of us had imagined.'

Does this capture what happens at UCS do you think??