Thomas's Fulham vs. Fulham Prep

[nsozsoz]

Hello - we may be in a position to pick either one of these schools. Can you please provide feedback / share your experiences?

You may have read other threads now but I'd say it is a no-brainer to go for Thomas's. Much better reputation, 11+ or 13+ or senior options and more academic but not a pushy powerhouse.
Fulham prep has currently got a very poor reputation and high pupil turnover.

I don’t think the comment above is fair, accurate, or helpful. They are both good schools. If you look at where children are heading to school in Fulham in the morning, those closest to FP tend to go there, and those closest to Thomas’s tend to go there. I would follow this and go for the closest school, where the schools are similar, because it makes life much easier. When you assess these two schools, there is a difference for DSs or DDs. Ken Prep and to a lesser extent Bute House will hoover up 40+ of the brightest Fulham girls, which has an impact on Thomas’s Fulham and Fulham Prep. There isn’t a highly selective boys’ equivalent in Fulham, although some boys will head to SPJ or WUS. Also remember that Thomas’s Fulham is selective, whereas Fulham Prep is non-selective. Thomas’s Battersea is the best regarded of the Thomas’s schools and some Fulham parents will prefer to send their children there. For a non-selective school, Fulham Prep’s results are very good. A friend with a Y8 DS this year says they are sending 4 to St Paul’s, 3 to Eton and 2 to Winchester, as well as several to Hampton. These are both good schools. Go to the closest.

agree with Globaliser, Thomas's Fulham results are nothing to brag about and in most years worse than Fulham Prep - shame that FP stopped publishing now that they have the senior school. Especially given that Thomas's Fulham is a selective school, it is interesting they hardly get kids into Latymer Upper & co.

I have children at FP, and we have relatives at Thomas's Fulham. The schools are similar in their curriculum and both offer relatively the same thing - arts are a bit fancier at Thomas's in the younger years but that's only because the lower and upper school share facilities. FP gets slightly better results than Thomas's. But both schools are good schools with mostly the same types of people going to both - people who live mostly in Fulham, which is an international mix of people.

I think its important to note that the Thomas's 'assessment' is not an academic selection and the school has a sibling policy so the school also has all types of children like FP.

Because the Pre-Prep is separate from the Upper school at Fulham Prep, it means the environment in the Pre-Prep is quite sweet. The head, Mrs Steven, has been there for 17 years and is very experienced in early years education. There are some amazing and creative teachers in the Pre-Prep - they do a lot of interactive and imaginative work to teach the children, eg one teacher had an alien's space ship crash land in her classroom and taught lessons around this. Mr Lunnon in the Upper school is amazing. He's very involved in all aspects of the school and knows the children very well. There are tons of activities going on and the student body are very engaged.

What I have found is Fulham Prep tends often to be understated in some of what it does. Its doing everything you would expect a good school to be doing, but it tends to not talk about it as much (they could talk about it more). So for example, they start prepping the students for 11+ exams very gently early on. They don't make a big fuss about it but seem to ease the children into the next steps.

Also, we have found the children to be overall quite sweet and kind at Fulham Prep. My children have lovely friends. The parents are also quite down to earth, friendly and engaged.