Hi,
We are looking for a private school for my younger son who is 9 (current Y4). We are on the Surrey/West Sussex borders.
Went to see Belmont School last week as it is now going to take children through til GCSEs. We are hesitant at moving our son from where he is now (lots of realty great friends and a school that is very local to us) but we feel that in the long run smaller classes, more individual attention and more opportunities would be great for him.
We really liked Belmont but am not sure how academic they are (is it more a nurturing environment? Which we do want for our son 100% but also for him to achieve the best academically that he can) or how sporty they are (regarding them being quite a smell school and how that might impact teams etc)
The main plus for us is he could stay there til 16 so only one big move.
Other options for senior school would be Seaford which I have heard good things about. It is a long way from us but there is a bus pick up point near us. We wouldn’t feel comfortable with him going this distance until he was older so would probably think of moving him to a prep school for a few years like Pennthorpe and then hopefully transferring to Seaford for senior school.
Has anyone got experience of Pennthorpe or Seaford also? He would have two move this way and I know from Pennthorpe the children go off in all directions for senior school. I would worry that my son might find this hard, already having moved from his friends once before. Also what if he didn’t get into Seaford?? Would I be wishing that we’d gone with Belmont??
Any views good or bad would be very much appreciated.
Thank you