Secondary school abingdon school or MCS in oxfordshire

[geetamotwani]

Well i am very confused with the choice that i am suppose to make between abingdon school and MCS, well my son is a sensitive boy and average in terms of studies, he loves reading and i personally feel ge can achieve lot if he gets good encouraging teachers, we have just moved in from dubai so it a bit different environment here, abingdon school my husband loved it but my concern is about the discipline since my son had been to open day and the children had gone to science lab where the seniors werw playing with the ball and they were some weird situations happening where the senior boys were passing chits which had words written butt, boobs and stuff like that, i told him clearly he will find different types of people everywhere... but the problem is with my son he forms an opinion very soon, now that makes me worry as well that is abingdon or MCS

Can anyone please help me i feel MCS is for children who are academicly very strong, does the school help them, how are the facilities, my son loves playing different sports but is not competetive at the same time but would love to do one activity a day, i dont know the approach of MCS.

I am not an expert on these two schools but I would suggest Abingdon might be a better fit if your son is average academically. The pressure at MCS is huge and their pastoral care does not match this. Abingdon is more well rounded and sporty.

Any school will have boys being infantile so I would not overweight that episode.

There are several factors that influence the choice. Our DS went for Abingdon largely because of the wide range of options inside and outside the curriculum that cater to a massive range of potential interests, and what we perceived to be a greater tolerance of boys who were a bit idiosyncratic. DS studies German, Mandarin and Computer Science and is heavily involved in music and rowing. Not sure how much of that you can do at MCS. Last time I checked theology was a compulsory GCSE there! Do your homework in terms of what is on offer compared to your son’s current and potential interests.

Do you have places at both? It's not quite the right time of year for that, I thought?
I'd concentrate on making visits to schools you're considering for now. And you might need to consider other schools beyond just those two, which are highly selective as far as I understand it.

Thanks for the response everyone
Why am i paying the fees@ If i choose Abindgon School, will Didcot be a good choice as my husband’s work place is at Baker street.

Secondly i hv read some where abindgon is always looking for teachers and there is lot of turnover .. how did you find teaching quality , are there grades driven by chinese boarders..

I mean their A level grades, is it because of the chinese boarders

@ Somerville , we applied 11+ entry for Habs Boys, MCS and Abingdon. ..cant apply anymore as deadline for applications is over . We have to choose from 3 above .. knowing that DS is avg in studies and sports and sensitive.

Is this a wind up? If he's average in studies he won't get into any of those schools!

Do you understand that they way it works with selective UK schools is that they choose the kids they want, rather than vice versa?!

Assuming this is real, if he's less average than you think and he's offered places at more than one then you should request a trial day so he can see which he prefers.

Has he passed entrance tests /interview and received offers? Boarding or day?

Theology is not a required GCSE at MCS.

If your son is a sensitive person, and you are looking for small classes and nurturing teachers, have you thought about schools which are not traditional boys' schools? A small, friendly, coed school might be a better choice for many reasons. I hear good things about Our Lady's Abingdon, and my kids have been very happy at d'Overbroecks in Oxford.

OP

Didcot is fine and there are school buses from there. We travel on the buses from further away and it works really well. You might also consider the train route from
Oxford+parkway to Marylebone which is an extremely easy way to Baker Street and opens up living in central and north of Oxford, also with buses.

Teacher turnover : it is a large school and has many teachers which inevitably results in some turnover if you count in pure numbers. Not sure in percentage terms that it is unusually high. Key pastoral staff like housemasters are around for a long time it seems. We haven’t experienced much disruption. I only recall one mid year change which might have been maternity. Comings and goings are usually September.

Having a collection of boys from an aspirational culture is a good thing for everybody.

I was indeed incorrect to suggest theology was compulsory at MCS. There was some concern on my part about “theology” being on the curriculum at all when we looked at schools for my son. Emphasising the study of the divine rather than a wide ranging study of philosophy and ethics including all religions and none seemed very odd and about 100 years out of date. Possibly just an idiosyncratic web description but I wasn’t prepared to indulge any pretence that “theology” is a subject. How academically able the OP’s son is remains the clear issue.

OP - so can you just confirm that you have offers from all 3 schools at the moment? What age is your ds?

If the schools indeed accepted your ds, you can be pretty confident that he is academically able enough to fit in with each school. If he is sensitive and not overtly sportive, I personally would choose MCS, especially if he is musical, and likes drama. Music and drama are very big at MCS. They have a lovely rowing club, too, and all the normal sports, teams and individual disciplines. Facility wise, they share with the college and the university, so have access e.g. to the university swimming pool, the university athletics track, the Oxford playhouse for drama and the Sheldonian theatre for music performance. The real strength of MCS is the independent research approach and the link with the university, meaning 6formers get a real Oxbridge tutorial experience. For a truly intellectual kid, it's heaven. For a kid who prefers to be taught, rather than persuing independent research and constructing and defending their own argument, it's obviously all rather a bore, especially as the independent research project is also totally disconnected from any A level grades, so takes up quite a lot of time that could be spent revising and doesn't come with any UCAS credits, unlike the extended project that other private schools do. It's just for the sake of it, on top of 4+ A levels!

I didnt think the interviews for Abingdon had taken place yet.

They haven't. The entrance exam is tomorrow for Y7 entry (12 Jan) and the interview are w/c 21 Jan and first round offers around the end of the month. I don't think the OP said they had offers yet. The post suggested that the OP had to choose but I think that was hypothetical on being given a choice. Neither school would suit a boy who is "average academically".

I thought that was the case with the admissions timetable.

So he might not get a place at any of these 3 schools.

OP might be talking about the juniour schools, or schools take children at any time if they have vacancies in years other than 11+, 13+ or 16+. My daughter is 'average' in her high performing prep, but about top 1% nationwide. I assumed OP means 'average' for the type of pupils who apply to these schools.

Sorry, spotted that it is indeed 11+. Good luck then OP!

Yes good luck indeed. I still shudder when I think of this time in our family life. By the way OP there is not just a yes or no answer but a maybe as well, also known as a waiting list offer. You might steel yourself for a process that could go on for several weeks.

Yes. Didcot will be ideal to commute to Baker street if your DS gets either MCS or Abingdon. As everyone here say, they seem selective though and I was told that there are roughly about 2.2 applicants per seat this year. Not everyone will have Abingdon as their first choice though. Our DS did his exam last week as well at Abingdon, and he just got the invitation for interview. Does the interview means a guaranteed place or can they still reject after the interview..? Any ideas anyone..?

An interview just means your son has not been rejected on the basis of exam performance and does not guarantee that you will get an offer in the first round of offers. I have no idea about current proportions for boys examined, interviewed, offered in first round etc.

Might be different for 11+ but for 13+ this year, anecdotally, more were rejected after interview than after the test. But 13+ was far more competitive this year than usual apparently.

Thank you @WhyAmIPayingFees and @NeedingCoffee. That's making me more nervous now and I was hoping that invitation for interview more or less guarantees a place. Abingdon is really our first choice. Reading Blue Coat is our second choice, which by no way a bad choice but commute is a problem for us from Newbury. Keeping our fingers crossed for now.