Oxford or Cambridge?

[antoniagreece]

Hello mums! Just signed up on the net. I am a mom of 2 children - aged 8 and 6. We will be moving to England during summer 2018 and here lies the question. We have places in the Dragon school in Oxford and in St. John's school in Cambridge. With no preference in any of the 2 cities, (we will do the move based on the school we choose), which one shall we choose? We have visited both of them obviously and we equally like them. Please, any comments and any experiences shared are most welcome!
Thank you all!!

I am also guessing that people seeing "Oxford or Cambridge" as a title in the Education section, click on the thread in order to comment on which university to apply to, and are not expecting to talk about primary schools.

Total anecdata but I’m not sure I’ve ever known an undergrad at either Oxford or Cambridge who was actually from the relevant city!
Gruach that is not true, for at least one of those a number of students are locals, not infrequently DCs of academics who appear to have decided on the merits of the course rather than the lure of moving away from home.
OP the Dragon school is certainly up there as one of the best prep schools of the country for mixed abilities and talents (including unusual ones) as it is able to recruit superb dedicated and talented staff. Part of that could well be due to its location.
All leavers I have met, day and boarders, have really vivid happy memories of it and are proud to have been there. It is now very much a school for the rich of course due to the fees (compared to the older days) but that is to be expected; any arrogance will come from the families not the school. Despite the fees pupils still include a number Oxford academics' DCs plus there are the DCs of the Dragon school teachers.

So if you have the money, (which you obviously have to consider it) an excellent start for your DCs. One traditional strength of the Dragon is developing independence of mind including more creative originality than in many prep schools.

sendsummer I’m sure that may be so - but I was only talking about people I actually know! (And being a little mischievous. It wasn’t intended as serious information on which to base a decision.)

Yes, I was n't questioning the veracity of your personal experience just pointing out that outside your circle it was n't true.

Not a big deal anyway, especially with all the other variables that contribute to Oxbridge entrance. I hope the OP is not making a connection between living in these two locations and future university entrance for her DCs.
More likely she just likes the idea of living in either place if coming to the UK for schools.

Like some posters have already said, looking at the title I thought this thread was about the two ancient universities. Now I see you have no preference living in either of these two cities but it's only the two preps that will eventually decide where you'd live eventually. When I see 'Dragon' I said to myself, Oh Lord, NO!

You want any school but Dragon, OP. Oxford is a very nice place to live - I've lived there for three years but have only visited Cambridge a few times. I know absolutely nothing about St John's. Based on my experience on Dragon, I'd say Cambridge and St John's is your answer.

But if you must live in Oxford, the prep to go for is Summer Fields, just a short distance north of Dragon.

Why the hatred for Dragon, I hear you ask? For a start, they were totally disorganised - sending my correspondence to another family with the same surname half a world away. And when we visited, they spent more time telling me which big wigs had gone there or had DC attending there instead of telling/showing me more about the school.

Finally, the last nail that went into their coffin was when they asked me for the 4th or 5th time how was I going to pay the fees. If they had known better, fees would be the very last thing they should worry about and in our case should be the absolute cast iron safetest bet that they would be paid. If anything else, just shows you how ignorant they are!

I was put off Dragon when we went to look around and they completely ignored anything I said and lapped up anything my husband said. I felt they were very rude and quite 'up' themselves. dc went elsewhere obviously!

that was 8 years ago though. They have a new head there now.

And Summerfields has its detractors too.

It’s horses for courses.

IMO how good a school is depends on how well it does by its pupils and what the parents and pupils think of it many years later.
It is interesting although understandable how posters draw on their experience of fleeting contacts with admissions teams to pass judgement on the totality of a school. Parents of course appreciate admissions office administrators who are efficientand particularly dislike those admissions tutors who do not seem to pay due regard to how special and unique their DC is and how lucky the school is to be considered .

.

I wonder if schools realise just how many prospective parents are put off by their first contact with the applications department. Ideally one would only pursue applications at places with flawless admin and eager, alert, sensitive people answering the phone. But in real life ... Voicemail not picked up and responded to. Misspelled emails. Misdirected letters. Staff who ignore or forget the crucial piece of information you’ve shared with them. Inflexibility over dates for visiting. Etc.

And so often this apparent administrative flakiness a) hurts the feelings of anxious enquirers but b) has no bearing whatsoever on the experience of actually attending the school.

Gruach you said it much better than I did.
Conversely how many parents make an ill informed choice because a slick admissions department makes all the right noises and the facilities are state of the art.

How good a private school depends on the quality of its teachers and the support for those teachers to do the best job possible for the range of individual pupils under their care, not just one type of pupil.

Its character is defined by the category of teachers attracted by the ethos from its track record as well as present finances and SLT.

Just to add.
Parents like OP usually post on MN because they want more information on what a schools is really like for pupils and parents to supplement their impressions from admissions staff and visits. In that context, others recounting their own impressions from similar admissions visits adds little (apart from reinforcing that Orlanda phrase 'horses for courses' applies even to that initial visit).

@sendsummer I agree about the quality of teaching etc but how you get to that information as a prospective parent I don't know. We chose our school based on feel, our son's enthusiasm while being assessed, and the results of the senior school.

Didn't the Dragon just get Abingdon's prep head? He was very well thought of from what I hear at Abingdon.

Penny I agree that the assessment process with interview is much more indicative of the potential relationship between school and pupil than just a look around visit and admission administrators.
Otherwise apart from exit results IMO
it is from talking to as many pupils and ex pupils as possible. DCs are very good at giving appraisals of a school and its teachers, even if coloured by their own priorities.