Horris Hill / Calidcott/ Summer Fields/Ludgrove

[Thisthatandtheothers]

Are there are current or recent parents who can share their DS's experience of these prep schools ?. DS is 8 and the hope is Winchester or Eton for senior school.

I would discard Horris Hill, you have to question a school's judgement who.appointed Prince Andrew it's school visitor in 2018.I realize that was under the previous headmaster. Friends of ours DS had a dreadful time there , things may have changed under the new regime but I wouldn't risk it.

Calidcott or Summer Fields would be my choice DS has a great time at Calidcott, great atmosphere , fabulous teachers.DS remembers his prep school days very fondly , which is just how it should be. My two nephews also also loved Summer Fields and one went on to Eton and the other Winchester.

I don't have any experience or knowledge of Ludgrove , hopefully someone with more knowledge will come along.

Thank you@Goodwillhunt I wasn't aware of Prince Andrew's involvement with Horris Hill , what a bizarre decision for a school to make.
His ' friendship' with Epstein and Maxwell was already widely known by then. Sorry to hear about your friend's DS"s experience there.

Calidcott and Summer Fields will be at the top of my list .

Thank you @Thisthatandtheothers the boy has now moved on and is thriving at senior school. HH still can't be mentioned in his presence though 😥.

Good luck with your search and beyond. You might want to add Papplewick to your list, I have only positive things about it.

We are planning to visit schools in the next few weeks ..I will add Papplewick @Goodwillhunt.

Papplewick is amazing and a very big Eton feeder. Ticks all the boxes in my view . If you're up for boarding then maybe add Sunningdale too.

Thank you@Legoninjago1 Papplewick is definitely on my list and I will add Sunningdale.
DS will be boarding.

There's also Cothill House then

@Legoninjago1 Thank you. Do you have personal or family experience of these schools ?

Another vote for Papplewick. My DS was there since the last days of the previous Head. Present Head, Tom Bunbury has been headmaster there now for almost 20 years. Tells me he must be doing a good job there. I chose Papplewick over literally the very best preps in the country which DS was almost certainly guaranteed a place anywhere . . . serious!

Yes I do - but only one of them - current parent (and family attended)
Know a bit about some of the others just from looking around and / or friends . Feel free to PM.

Thank you@nightvision . We are really looking forward to visiting Papplewick , it's such an important decision.I want to make sure I get it right.. Papplewick does seem wonderful !

If it's Eton you want for senior school in the future, in my books there are only two preps to consider; in alphabetical order:

Papplewick (Ascot)
Summer Fields (Oxford)

@nightvision We would hope for Eton or Winchester. I realize at 8 it can be difficult to tell.

@Legoninjago1 thank you, I will pm you.

I have considered some of the schools on you list, have friends with DC who attended and have visited and enquired whilst helping others too. In the end my own DC went to central London preps, but I can tell you what I know.

HH- A friend had her DS there, but never recommended it for us, she also did not send her younger DS there. She did not say anything bad about the school, but her older DS ended up at one of the top 5 boys boarding regardless.

Summerfields/Ladgrove/The Pilgrims - big feeders to Eton/WinColl. Pay lip service about taking clever DC, but they mean gifted if you are not rich. I mention as I helped a few DC apply - did not get in, but ended up on Westminster/Winchester scholarships later.

Cothill House - recommended by a parent whose DS ended up at Harrow.

Dragon/Sunningdale/Papplewick/Aldro - all have been recommended to me by former parents.

I mention these things as for me, a diverse environment is important (and a bit hard to find outside London or big cities).

Good luck

We did a lot of research with these schools ( we have still all the prospectuses and hand wrritten letters from the heads somewhere!) There is a lot of “window dressing” to tempt you, who has the newest swimming pool, who has the nicest flower beds….

But we thought the most important thing in a boarding school is that the staff must be approachable and engaged, both for boys and parents. My son has gone to Cothill House and he loves it. He likes the boarding activities best but he says that the teachers make learning fun, which wasn’t so at his last school. From my view, I find Cothill staff to be very friendly, helpful, really trying to getting the best out of every boy.

We don’t know where he will end up going afterwards yet but the most common destination from Cothill is Eton, followed by Radley, Harrow & Winchester.

Thank you both @SW1Mummy and @GoTerrapins . We are looking for a diverse community , we don't live in a very diverse area.
In London you have a great choice of schools so I can understand why you made that choice. I think I would do the same in your situation.

@GoTerrapins Cothill sounds wonderful !. We will be new to boarding so a welcoming environment is very important to us. I'm looking forward to visiting.

Cothill is wonderful. My two DS each spent five years there and I can’t recommend highly enough. It’s not a hot-house- for instance it’s mixed ability on entry, but our boys made amazing progress academically and for those boys for whom Winchester or Eton are realistic aims they will.get them there. Last year’s leavers included ten to Eton (including a KS and Music Scholar), seven to Wincoll and they had the winner of the Townsend Warner prize. Because it’s all boys and all boarding everything is geared around how boys learn and what makes them tick, and great efforts are made to ease them happily into boarding. The junior year groups are very small so they form a tight-knit community, and the teaching and pastoral staff are quirky, fun and inspiring (and demanding). It feels quite ‘free range’ as there are always boys wizzing around, bowling at each other and playing German Spotlight in their pyjamas. It’s the people rather than stellar facilities that make it. Do please visit. I’m unashamedly evangelistic about Cothill because I’m so grateful for everything they gave my DS and us as a family.

@Hameldown thank you for sharing your experience of Cothill , it sounds absolutely wonderful. It's heartwarming to read, the headmaster and staff must be so proud of the school. It's sounds absolutely perfect for my DS and I can't wait to visit.

@Thisthatandtheothers The Headmaster is an old boy of the school. He loves it and remembers what mattered to him as a small boy there. You should have seen how he and the staff kept the ethos going through lockdowns- full days of live teaching, choirs, sports and art challenges, natural history club… and the Head doing his address from a different location every week; in the tree house, on the roof, in a kayak….

Please don't send your DS to Horris Hill @Thisthatandtheothers .

Summer Fields is just paradise for little boys. It's not a guarantee into Eton or Winchester (my son failed to get either, even though he is now at Cambridge) but that has more to do with pre-test performance than with the teaching which, with a few exceptions, was excellent. It's a fabulous, kind and exciting place to be at school

My son goes to HH. We have never met Prince Andrew and it is rather disingenuous to judge a school on a relationship that was ceased as sons s the allegations arose.
however, HH is a beautiful school where boys florist and grow to confident young men. Feeding into the too schools, but is not a hot house, individuality is embraced and the boys are all very supportive of each other through the years.
i am a mother of 4 boys three who have left school. I have experienced a fair few independent schools and HH is certainly a contender for excellence.
discount the school for illogical and misinformed reasons is short sighted.

Thank you@Jaxhoward927 ,we have visited all the schools on our list now. We have decided on our school , Horris Hill was not for us.
I'm glad to hear that your son is enjoying his time there.

I feel confident that we have made a great choice.

Just on HH - over 60% of all boys there for over a hundred years have got into Eton, Harrow, Winchester or Radley and its success rate for the last five years with scholarships has been the highest ever.

I think it has the best record of any Prep School as a feeder to the top boarding schools in the UK. Fact not rumour.

The Head is also about the only Prep Head in the country that has been a Housemaster at Eton (he was there 19 years). Check out all the other Prep heads mentioned on this thread and very few of them have even been near a secondary school, let alone at Eton for almost 20 years!

We are very pleased with the school and the huge investment that has just gone into it (sports, music, performing arts and outdoor education).

Hi, do you have a child at HH? Could you please share more about HH? As there are some comments about changing the new head.