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Winchester State Secondaries: Experience please (not academic)

7 replies

ShortHamstrings · 21/06/2020 12:40

Hi, I'm trying to get an up-to-date idea of what Winchester's 3 secondary schools are like, not in terms of their academic success, but day-to-day experience for non "alpha/sporty/extrovert" types. If anyone has any experiences to share that would be great. Because of Covid I've only been able to visit Westgate, which I liked, but did get the impression that the outgoing sporty type was viewed as the "best" way to be but the school. My eldest daughter who will be starting secondary in September 2021 is not that interested in sport and is definitely not the outgoing sociable "cool" type. Are any of the secondaries in Winchester good at encouraging the kids to be open minded to different types of kids? We've not had a great experience with her primary school where there is a big group of "mean" girls who are sporty/intelligent/grown-up who are viewed by the teachers as kind of "ideal" but who bully the other less cool girls in the year. The school aren't interested and we were hoping to find a school which was a bit more diverse and not just valuing the typical Winchester attributes of fit/sporty/winner/cool. I don't mean to offend anyone, I'm not saying these are bad but would like somewhere quite diverse if possible. I've heard on the grapevine about a few bullying issues at Westgate but not sure if this is true or just gossip.

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Lemonsole · 24/06/2020 09:50

I've got kids at one of them, and friends with kids at the other two.
All types of kids; all happy. The schools are all big enough for a child to find their crowd.

I'm surprised at your impression of Westgate as being home to alpha sporty types - that's an accusation more usually levelled at Kings.
All three schools have thriving arts and music scenes.
I think that other factors are probably more significant.

SunflowerProsecco · 24/06/2020 16:47

Also have a look at Perins in Alresford as some children from Winchester attend there. It's a friendly caring place. I have 2 shy children and one outgoing, none of them sporty. All are doing well there and we have found it excellent.

Miljea · 13/07/2020 16:46

Did you make your mind up?

Historically, Henry Beaufort was seen as 'the weaker' of the three schools, but my friends with DC there really rate it.

Kings is a bit of a school of two halves: the DC from the posh, well to do villages, or big houses in Winchester; and DC from Stanmore, tho felt very 'grammar school' to me. All the DC I knew who attended tended to be story and bright (and a bit 'alpha!).

Westgate is now a 'straight-through' school, 4 (?) to 16. I don't know what it's like now, tho I met a young teacher from there a year of two back who said she really liked it but sometimes felt the parents wanted a private school level of involvement on a state school budget...

Mom69 · 14/05/2021 22:15

Henry Beaufort has gone downhill and so has the behaviour of the students!
The Head is focussed on getting the school results. The children are not her priority and the children’s wellbeing plays second fiddle to this. She likes ‘yes’ people and ignores those that disagrees with her. This includes the turners who get removed from focus groups if they fall out of line!
If you want a child to have a balanced education and be happy this is not the school to pick.

Mumof3cherubs · 17/05/2021 23:05

I have a non-sporty nephew who is very happy at Henry Beaufort.

Sidneysussex · 29/05/2021 21:27

I have a very high achieving STEM type nurd son ( not into football) at HB who is happy and doing well.
I have friends with sons at Kings and Westgate all are doing well and enjoying school and it go’s on catchment anyway.
What I will say though is the ones I know with children at Kings are struggling more with some issues around behaviour and they are not overly happy with the school at the moment. Yes they do feel the Alpha sporty type is favoured. I also know Kings have recently refused ( strongly advised the parents they are not suitable) a child with some SEN needs so be careful when you look at those results! But this could just be a few normal minor blips. Basically 3 very good schools with a slight variation in catchment and self selection by catchment. All 3 have children doing very well. All 3 feed into PS. H.B. is know for better pastoral care.

ShortHamstrings · 18/06/2021 22:08

We went for Westgate in the end. Didn’t really consider Kings as I don’t think it’d be the right fit. Only got to see HB on their Covid promo video. Really gutted we couldn’t look round the school in person as I didn’t feel I got any idea from the video so we went with the safe option of Westgate which were in catchment for and most kids from the primary are going there. This was my daughter’s main concern!

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