Oxford schools Dragon/Manor/Abingdon Prep

[Happylittlecloud21]

Hello!

We are moving DS from state primary (bored, bored and bored) and have liked all three (Dragon, The Manor and Abingdon) for different reasons. We would prefer co-ed. Any recent experience or wisdom to share?

DS is confident, academic, pretty geeky and active but hasn't really found his sport yet.

The Manor seems so so lovely, and they are the only school that has really engaged with him as a person. The Dragon looks brilliant and I have heard excellent things from current parents of similar boys, Abingdon struck me as not really any different from the other two....

The Dragon and APS will keep them until the end of year 8. The manor will keep them until end of year 6.

The Dragon is the only one which offers boarding and is a very different beast to the other two. The Dragon will have a good chunk of very wealthy international boarders. Most of the kids will go on to boarding schools for senior school so sitting pretests in year 6 etc. It's a posh boarding prep with a fair number of very wealthy parents.

APS is the only one with its own senior school. If boys are in before year 5 and deemed of the right fit (read clever enough!) they don't have to take entrance exams for the senior school. This is a huge draw for most parents as it means they spend no time being prepped for entrance exams. The other two choices will spend a huge amount of time prepping for exams. If your son is moving on to the senior school this works well. If not it works less well as they aren't prepping the whole cohort for external exams and you'll need to do a lot yourself. The senior school is very well thought of and is a huge draw. Parents are largely professional and far more liberal set than the Dragon.

The Manor is light on boys in the upper years because they used to be a girls school. They have the worst facilities (no pool etc) and are squashed against the A34. They don't have a proper forest school either. They have a pushier feel than either of the other schools and still feel like a girls school. It could be the right fit if you're aiming at a Oxford day school.

You need to start with where you're aiming for senior school and work backwards really to which is the right prep.

St. Hugh's is the other one I'd add to the list to consider.

Personally I would go for APS or Dragon. But they are very different schools. As pp said, there will be more V E R Y wealthy families at Dragon. APS has always had a more working families feel to it. So it depends which school would suit your family best.

If you're looking at boarding schools for senior, then Dragon would be good, or St Hughs. Both Dragon and St Hughs have/will have new heads, and lots of staff have left at St H. In my opinion, I think pupils are spoon fed and micro managed at St H. I don't know about Dragon.

Our DS moved from state primary (also very bored) to APS and he loved it. But that was a few headteachers ago now.
"confident, academic, pretty geeky and active" sounds like an APS boy to me!

The Head of the Dragon is the old APS head. The new Head of STH hasn't exactly gotten off to a good start and loads of staff have left but it's still early days for him.

Thank you all! This is all helpful. The Dragon is getting a new female head in Sept.....Emma Goldsmith prev of Winchester house. Would a brand new head put anyone off?

That was a very short time as head for Crispin at the Dragon. I'd wonder what was up and would proceed with caution. It's a hell of a jump from state to the Dragon. It wouldn't be my first choice.

Emma Goldsmith was Tatler Prep head of the year in 2019, surely this is a good move for the Dragon.

I liked Crispin HD as head at Ab prep. He was super helpful and supportive when it came to senior schools. When he left Ab, the parents arranged for him to go up in a plane and fly over the school.
Has he done 5 years at Dragon? Or less??
I would have thought the career move from Head at Dragon, would be to move up to a senior school rather than another prep. No idea how he was perceived at Dragon.

The other co-ed prep to consider is Chandlings. Great all rounder school, goes up to year 6.

Late to thread, but I would carefully if you want primary (to end yr6) or traditional prep (yr8) as these do influence where you might consider afterwards/ how many school moves etc.

I have dc at new college school which Is a wonderful little highly academic nurturing school.

We also liked Abingdon prep.

I do hear good things about chandlings, summerfields (goes from recep now ), rye st Anthony (takes boys to 11) but latter less academic I think.

Although a little late to this thread I feel I should add, given that other parents may be using it for decision making, as I did. We were in this position last year (2020), trying to decide which school to move our two daughters to from their village state primary. We considered Chandlings, Dragon, St Andrews, The Manor, Cranford, Cokethorpe and went with the Manor.
We started Sept 2021 and are so happy with our choice - what you said about the staff connecting with your child absolutely resonates. The feel at the school is of a happy and positive, nurturing environment. Both our girls have immediately settled in and keep asking to do more before and after school clubs because they love the teachers so much and feel safe and happy there. This is definitely a school with strong academic outcomes but it is done in a completely supportive and all-encompassing way (my DD's Christingle poem was delivered by the class by voice and in sign language to accommodate a boy in her class who signs). It is not the pushy academic environment as described above. Homework is completely reasonable for their age and in the younger years amounts to reading and one short and fun maths sheet per week. There's no swimming pool, but they use a variety of pools within a 5-15 min bus ride. There's also a sport's hall, performance hall, music dept, stunning art and DT rooms, high tech cookery room, SEN 'cottage', library and series of playgrounds and the girls love forest school in amongst the trees and hedgerows at the far end of the games fields. We were put off by the proximity of the A34 but it's really not an issue - no buildings open that way and there's a decent boundary and enormous leylandii that acts as a sound and view buffer. There are fewer boys than girls but all of the parents I know with boys there are really happy. The feel is definitely one of a co-ed school with plenty of clubs and sports for all interests. Boys get a lot of chance to play competitive sport when perhaps in an all boys school they wouldn't have made the team. Classes are also picked carefully to ensure that boys will have a good friendship group in their class and like-minded friends.
I really couldn't fault the school - its events are well thought out and run smoothly, its communication with parents is efficient and the before and after school provision is superb. Many of the parents are a double-working household, with lots in medicine, so this drives the need for flexibility. A few families I have met have moved kids from The Dragon for various reasons (we found, on looking round that it was too much a university feel for little ones - especially coming from a tiny school) and we were put off by horror stories of the Oxford traffic. St Andrews seemed fun and nurturing but very outdoorsy and like a big family/old fashioned/slightly worn at the edges prep school, Cranford had a hopelessly inefficient admissions team who are definitely prioritising boys at the moment to up the numbers, Cokethrope seemed a little sterile and was too far from us, Chandings is rife with rumours of funding problems but does look like a bucolic and lovely school.

Thanks gloxon for this really helpful in - depth review. We are considering The Manor for our 3 DDs, one of whom is transferring from a school she's totally besotted with in Cambridge, which is making me quite anxious, and this is all very reassuring. We want her to be in an environment where there's enough space for her to be herself and hopefully get some good results but not at the expense of her self-esteem.

@AisforApple1- so glad my comments are of help. I certainly think you'll find that balance at the Manor. Best of luck with your move.