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.

@charlieemmam the ex Eton housemaster Head that @Toots12345 is referring to is no longer there.

Oh actually - just seen that the new Head was also at Eton so ignore me.

Horris Hill is under new ownership I think? I do know that it never had any official association (bar one of the governors being a friend) with Prince Andrew. Great school - nephews went there!

Thank you for your information. HH could be the best option for us as we were late reply from overseas. Looking forward to it!

Horris Hill
Please don't send your son to Horris Hill , we have recent experience. Prince Andrew was the official school visitor and was welcomed many times His friendship with Epstein was well known, it was beyond embarrassing to see the headmaster fawning over him.

I hope Will Young is successful with his case .
My son is not ready yet but I hope one day he will be. Sending DS there will always be our greatest regret. If they have a place for your son and others don't you need to ask yourself why.

Prince Andrew This is just one of his many visits.

Aside from Prince Andrew, it's not a place that you should be considering for your son. As I said I hope Will Young is successful, it would help my family and many others if he is

I have no connection with HH apart from visiting and it being on the short shortlist for DS (who loved the visit and would likely have loved the school). Headmaster and his wife were super kind. But we were spoilt for choice.

I felt I had to post as the picture with Andrew is at least 11 years old (saw it when DS was born) and the association with him has long since ended. Completely irrelevant and plain unfair to the school and current parents, who no doubt want the best for their kids.

The picture was taken when my son was at the school in 2017. Andrew was still the official school visitor when my son left in 2018.. He was the special guest at Horris Hill day that summer and we had to endure his speech. His connection to the school didn't end until after the BBC interview as far as I know. He was due to open their new theatre and I recall receiving an email requesting donations in
return parents would get to meet Andrew..

My son also enjoyed his visit which means nothing.

Talking about 2018 is years ago..!

Talking about something that happened in 2018 is years ago & out of date!

No reasoning here!?

This is from years ago… The school has changed since!

High turnover for staff and students, I heard that there are only 3,4 pupils in Year 5 now. One of them is leaving in next term, 1 is short term student. If there is no new student to join in, next term will be 2 left.

Are you there? “I heard”… All rumours!

Exactly there!

Oh I see, so current parent?

Yes, just different year group. But in my child's year group also less than 10 pupils, there were at least 5 students left within 1 year. Some just came 1 term and paid in lieu to leave.

For teachers, I could remember, at least 5 have gone. Latin, head of English, head of PE, science, art. Not including admin staff.

Is this called rumours?

Why are you so unsupportive when you are there? New staff always come with new management. We have new Head of English, Director of STEAM, Head of PE. Just Latin being recruited for currently..

At the beginning you commented that I was gossiping rumours, so then I told the truth. And you commented I am unsupportive.

Truth is still truth. If you are the staff member or management person, I would like to say that, high turnover isn't a good sign for the school's reputation, particularly changing 4 headmasters in 5 years.

For Latin teacher, I do hope you can recruit someone who isn't coming for 2 months or a term, it ruins our children's education. Or will you sponsor some private tutoring for our own lesson at home? I hope you can hear me.

I do hear you. It is certainly true that Horris has gone through a lot of change in the last 5 years. But it is probably quite normal as there has been a change of ownership (it has been acquired into a group with decent backing/ investment), they have gone Co-ed (also introduced flexi boarding & day) and they have had 2 interim Heads whilst recruiting the Head position. The numbers in the lower school now look promising

All you need is a new marketing strategic plan, don't forget you are a British school with a good reputation, however it has been becoming more than 80% pupils (Y4-Y8) are from another country. My child always feels apart from his peers, because he can't understand what they are saying. We are in an English school, we are not in an international school nor living in another country.

That means, school is losing its core values.

I think lower down the school there are lots more local families so that should filter up through the school as they go through and the aesthetic will change. By the way, I don’t work at the school!

How many pupils at the school? According to ISC only 117 from 2-13. Unfortunately that is unsustainable these days, particularly with the new increase in NMW, NI etc. I would be cautious as a parent choosing such a small school sadly.

Lower school might be better, but for Y4-Y6 could be less than 20 (yes, 3 year groups in total), Y7-Y8 below 30. Just heard a Y8 boy and his bother have left this term.

The school is backed by a private investor so it can bear these costs, for the moment, as the lower school grows