Wycombe Abbey 2020

[Wycombe2020]

Hello, my daughter has an offer from Wycombe Abbey to go into Year 7 this year. She was really looking forward to tasting the school out a bit more at a sleepover, however, due to coronavirus, it was cancelled.
Is there anyone out there with daughters currently at Wycombe Abbey.
1.What do they think of the new Head?

1. Do Year 7 girls go home most weekends?
2. They can go home from Saturday afternoon until Sunday evening?
3. How religious is the school? During Chapel service do they pray to God, or talk about day-to-day issues?
4. How would you rate the teaching of foreign languages there? Currently my daughter’s French is almost non-existent, though her school taught it for some years.
5. How big is drama?l at this school? And how competitive is it to get main roles?
6. Is there a big number of Chinese pupils?
7. Do girls meet up in London or elsewhere during holidays?
8. How often are the girls permitted to use their mobile phones?

10. Do they have access to the internet through their mobiles?

Thank you,
Lily

Surely these are questions you need to be asking the school? There was a thread recently about WA and someone said there are strict rules with regards to parents commenting on threads like these so you may not get much help.

I can give you some very out of date info regarding question 4 which will be of no help whatsoever.

In the 1980s, chapel was definitely 'religious' with prayers and hymns. On a Sunday there was a full 45minute religious service including psalms and a sermon from a visiting preacher. Everyone got restless if he (and it was he in those days) went on for longer than 10 minutes.

Catholics could choose not to attend Sunday morning chapel but then had to go to the Catholic service in town (so most just attended chapel.) I have no recollection of any other religions in the school at that time .

There wasn't religion elsewhere apart from a short grace before meals (no crosses in classrooms or anything), but definitely religion in chapel.

However did you get to the point of being offered a place, without knowing any of these things?

@SurpriseSparDay I am not surprised to be honest. It is amazing hoe many people are so focussed on the perceived prestige of a school that they fail to find out basic things or even work out whether it is the right fit for their child or their family. I know a mother who is vocally anti-Christianity, anti-Remembrance traditions like wearing poppies and anti-the British armed forces and British history and culture in general. Yet she was very keen to get her son into Eton. All the schools they applied to have a Christian foundation and some, like Wellington, have military links. While I know this is common in the UK, there are very good schools without either. If I am honest, I think she should fit in better at one of these international schools or a super duper modern school in California. Her husband travels a lot with work, so they could effectively live anywhere, but she chose to live near a Prep School that sends regularly sends kids to Eton. It is not at all clear why she has chosen to ensconce herself in a way of life that she despises, unless she secretly likes what she professes to hate. That is an extreme example. I think the OP is just feeling a bit at sea because her daughter was looking forward to her taster experience and now September feels a long way away and a bit daunting and unknown. I can understand that, but I think she needs to contact the school and ask if they hope to re-schedule it and find out the answers to the specific questions listed here.

I'm just not sure I'd even apply for such an expensive school without having those answers in the first place....it's a bit scary that you've got as far as a trial sleepover, albeit a cancelled one, without knowing.

Mal I don't know. I can seen an argument for applying for a selection, seeing who accepts you, and then looking at those in more detail.

Plus, sometimes you don't know what you don't know. i.e. If you are new to boarding (or just secondary in general) some things might only come out later that you need to think about.

e.g. phone access. Might not even be on your radar during initial look round age 9. Then some schools you visit actively say 'we teach them to self manage so they have phones the whole time' and others say 'phones are removed at 9pm until 8am' and it gets you wondering.

e.g. the Drama. You hear all the spiel about how good the drama is. Great you think. Then when you visit another school they stress how everyone who auditions is always guaranteed a part, and they try to ensure the same pupils don't always get the starring roles. That makes you want to go back and question the first school about how they handle things.

Does anyone have more concrete answers for the OP, instead of going off subject and theorising how she got there? I read the thread and it is derailing....

But at least we're keeping it active.

going off subject and theorising

Oh, come on! This is a MN thread ...

The OP hasn’t been back - and, frankly, I think it’s more useful to anyone else who’s reading for posters who are familiar with the boarding school application process to say that the sort of information the OP requested could / should have been gathered before applying.

It may be / is likely that the OP is outside England and perhaps applied with the assistance of an agency - but the details requested are exactly the things that would influence whether I applied to a school, or not.

@Wycombe2020
We are in the same position as yourself and was looking forward to the sleepover but understand why it was cancelled.
A school we have been interested in for over 6 years now so definitely going. Got all other offers applied to as well.
As to your questions,
There are closed weekends, there’s a calendar online that shows when they are.
Not too many Chinese girls from all the times we have visited. (not sure if its meant to be a good or bad thing)
We aren’t into drama so have no clue
On open weekends, they can go Saturday afternoon to be back Sunday evening
As per religious, we are religious so would want it but nothing struck to being close to enough.
For Year 7 at least, phone usage is limited and i will imagine as in most schools, certain websites will be banned.

Don’t know about meet ups in London but will be interested.
I don’t how competitive it was this year but we are so chuffed DD got in

How times change with 'closed weekends'.

When I was there it was relatively unusual to be taken out for afternoon tea. Apart from long and short leave we had 1 exeat weekend (or 2 separate days) we could take. I remember we also had a 'Clarence weekend' (in UVI) when we had to go out - our Physics teacher was most put out when we all said we hadn't done any extra work that weekend.

We have visited the school twice. Loved it. But you get overwhelmed with information and although you do ask a lot of questions, firstly, other questions to pop up once you have left after year or two and secondly, the answers you get are views of just one girl that shows you around.

With regards to comments about Eton. I don’t think there is any school that would be 100% ideal for anyone, but it could have ticked more boxes for that lady than other school for her son. It might teach great Christian values, but at the same time have a strong lunchtime Debating Agnostic Club, you never know.

Thanks to everyone for your contributions.

Icon:
When we visited there weren't that many Chinese either.
Felt a little odd as I suspected there would be much more (i.e. around a third) to at least reflect the number of Chinese parents which attended the open day and also given the fact they have campus in China too.

I wonder if WA would share figures on ethnic diversity?
By diversity I mean "true" diversity of not just Chinese but the proportion of other ethnicities?

Please can the righteous lefties not go off on one as I am from an ethnic background myself.....save your breathe plzzzz

We’re in the same position as the original post and were looking fwd to the sleep over so DD could get a sense of who she would be boarding with to help the final decision. We’re pretty certain on the school with all it has to offer but the cohort is as important I think. We’re local and could have opted for day, but I’d worry about my DD being a day girl in a predominantly boarding school. She is full on and would dislike missing out on anything. Saturday lessons too would make logistics tough.

We have some remaining Qs about how frequent closed weekends are (DD has some sporting commitments she doesn’t want to give up on Sundays) and how much the school pushes the girls to get results. Our DD is smart, but she would maybe coast if there wasn’t some degree of pressure. Hence the WA preference in the first place. At a grammar, the concern would be she would float through doing ok. My hope is the more individual attention at WA would help her really immerse herself and find her passions vs just getting decent exam marks. All good theory, but I also wouldn’t want the pressure to be so intense as she is an all round fun girl who enjoys socialising and sport as much as doing well in academic subjects.

Any insights from anyone on the mix of personalities that tend to make up the year groups? From what I’ve seen, the school tends towards strong girls who are more than pure academics particularly for the boarding group. But I may just be trying to confirm what i’d like to think

I think Wycombe really needs to do something about this cancelled sleepover issue. We were also planning on attending it, and now feel that our daughter does not have a good basis to choose between Wycombe and a London day school. I think their yield will really suffer this year because of the cancelled sleepover and lack of other options to revisit the school. Plus we haven't received any correspondence from Wycombe since Common Entrance Results.

Whichever way I look at it OP, I find your Question No. 7 highly offensive and racist.

@peteneras Sadly this is a question white Brits ask lately. How many Chinese and/or Nigerians are at a school? There may be many international students boarding in the UK because a) they value a British education and b) Brits are moving away from boarding. If Brits don't want their children to board, how do you expect these schools to continue to exist if they refuse to take international students? There is no doubt that a school that can fill boarding places with home students will take much lower numbers of international students. Getting a place at an English-speaking school, paying much higher fees, having your lessons in a foreign language, not seeing your parents for months on end and having to crawl on your belly for the home office just to get a student visa isn't a walk in the park some people think it is. Secondly, you can't imagine what having an international cohort can do for your children in this new world economic reality. Like it or lump it, China will be the biggest economy by the time your child gets out of school. Imagine what advantages and opportunities knowing Chinese or having a friend in China will afford them in the future. But let's keep being close-minded thinking that having international students at a school or university is detrimental to your British child.

Some schools cap the number of overseas pupils. They don’t want groups just talking to themselves in their home language. They want integration. They are private schools and they can choose who they want in order to balance the intake at the school.

Is it pushy for results??? Yes. Of course. It’s full of very bright girls and they push themselves to achieve. Being robust is a necessity from what I have seen. Lots of DDs friends went from prep school.

Why was the sleepover cancelled? My DC schools cancelled school visits for parents flying in from China and surrounding countries. So does this mean majority of dd with offers at WA were from China and surrounding countries? I am wondering how my DC policy on stopping parents living in China and surroundings is going to affect their financial liability. Boarding at my DC school very China heavy but amazing kids/work ethic/ talents and everyone very friendly and kind, so we def see that as a bonus and now worried about the impact coronavirus has on public schools, esp academic boarding schools. Cant imagine my dd's surviving if they have a hit of 20% boarders for more than 1 year. Are you UK based OP?

• my DC schools'

@peteneras Another possibility is that OP is Chinese and seeking reassurance that her DD won't be the only one ....

She won’t be the only one from abroad and she won’t be part of a majority of overseas DDs either! As I said, schools look for a balance and that’s fair enough..

@BubblesBuddy I really don't think schools have caps, they just don't get that many to the very end of the admissions process. It is a tough process which includes taking certain exams, demonstrating your mastery of English and not only proving that boarding is for you but also that you can cope with being so far away from home for long periods of time. Guardians have to be found and the parents have to prove they can pay the fees both to the school (much larger deposits are required) and also to the Home Office. Schools go to great lengths and spend a great deal of their marketing budgets to recruit overseas pupils. Even schools like Benenden and Badminton which already have large numbers of overseas alumni hold many recruiting events in many different countries to ensure they attract the mix of pupils they desire.

My DD boarded. I know some schools cap admissions from abroad. I know what the selection process is. Yes. They want a mix. They cannot take all applicants and boarding schools are careful about the mix in boarding houses. They don’t want overwhelming DDs talking to each other for prolonged periods in their home language. Any school with a majority of overseas pupils will put off home pupils. It’s a balance and plenty of rich parents from abroad want DC educated here. They have no problems funding guardians through agency’s. The guardians arrived in mini buses as DDs school. Plenty of people maintain houses here too so don’t need guardians. Mum will stay here as required (usually mum) or they send staff.

Overwhelming??? Overseas