The Perse Prep and Pelican

[VesperLindt]

I have two children, one Perse Prep age and one Pelican age and thinking of applying for spaces for them for next Sep. Can any current parents advise their thoughts and feelings on the school and whether they produce well rounded individuals? Concerned about it being a very alpha hot house environment from previous threads on Perse vs SPF vs St Faiths.

Anyone got any experience of the Perse?

Bump!

Pelican main entry is at 3 rather than 4, unless that's changed. If you have a young in year they will probably still be a young 2 at the assessment day.

The 'Perse Prep' is years 3-6, so different from the traditional prep transition set up. However, there's quite a lot of follow on independent senior schools locally that an accommodate this. Even The Leys has limited places from Yr7.

The Perse schools are quite hot house, but not uber focussed on sport like St F and some of the other more trad prep schools.

Hey there. Not sure if you’re still looking for views but I sent two of my three through parts of the Perse system.

I’ve mentioned this elsewhere (I’ll dig up the note) but you’re spot on about alpha hot house.

• The Head of senior school speaks internally about his pride in Perse being “the alpha school”
• Anxiety, depression, eating disorders are rife. Drugs too. You may think your child is not going to be one of those affected and even if they are not directly, the indirect effect is profound. Your child will be the one supporting these other children (I.e. providing the pastoral support that the school fails to provide). Several recent job posts for additional child therapists should be warning enough!
• Very serious incidents (child died during hockey session, and unrelated staff member at prep took her life more recently). How does the school deal with this? Classmates told to “suck it up”.
• More tellingly, the children who do achieve high grades here often struggle at university. Absence of social skills, lack of resilience, inability to work in teams or groups or lead etc.
• the current head of the prep (who I do rate highly) didn’t send his daughter through the Perse (foregoing £100ks of fee discount over the years!) but instead sent her to another local private school where she was (I know firsthand) very happy and got straight A stars at A level.
• I have many friends whose children are at the Perse. One set of parents was reviewing their finances as they were considering sending their children to board elsewhere. In the scenario where they kept their children at the Perse they budgete an additional £400/month for psychotherapy for their children(!).

It’s telling that you’re already concerned before joining. The reality when you’re there is probably an extreme version of your concerns!

The academic success comes largely with pressure and application at home, not through exceptional teaching. If smart and compliant kids are made to feel very insecure, enough of them will work obsessively to try to make up for this. The ones that “succeed” will have excellent grades but many will be fragile people. Those that don’t succeed will have dropped out or otherwise had their confidence hollowed out of them.

Others will have different views and experiences. I expect a current Perse parent will now jump in and disagree with much of this in defence of the brand!

The school does have good facilities - theatre, sports, STEM. However, practically all Cambridge private schools have access to an Astro, pool etc. And any kids playing at county level (one of mine did) play more outside school than inside anyway.

If you’d like more info I’m happy to share via DM.

Do you have other schools in mind?

How old are your kids?
Boy? Girl?
Academic or less so?

This is so alien to our experience there. No longer there so no need to protect the brand.

The assertion about the child who died of natural causes and how the school treated it is total bollocks.

Staff do not get automatic places for their children as they do have to pass the selection process. So if the child of a senior staff member went elsewhere this may well be why.

The assertion that Perse kids don't do well at uni is ridiculous. Indeed you may have one anecdata tale of someone who hasn't. A quick look at LinkedIn of those in my child's cohort suggests the opposite where they show their uni and degree classification and their current employment status.

I can only assume that this is a negative view from a parent whose child did not get in or who was not offered a senior school place. I often find it is parents of children who don't get places that refer to it as a hot house. This person clearly has a major chip on their shoulder for some reason and should be treated as an outlier.

Pleased to meet you @HugoSpritz. It is so telling that you have not read the content of my post and instead, made a set of assumptions about me and attacked me instead. I hope you are a happy and fulfilled individual, with a happy and fulfilled family 😀

Addressing each of your points in turn:
"The assertion about the child who died of natural causes and how the school treated it is total bollocks."
Really, is it total bollocks? How so? Please elaborate. Because I heard these words reported by another student while my DS was at the Senior School during the period when this happened. Care to ask any of the hockey coaches about their view of this?

"Staff do not get automatic places for their children as they do have to pass the selection process. So if the child of a senior staff member went elsewhere this may well be why."
That staff member's child went to another school and achieve straight A*s in highly academic subjects at A-Level. While it's possible they would have failed to satisfy the entry conditions, this seems a little unlikely.

The assertion that Perse kids don't do well at uni is ridiculous. Indeed you may have one anecdata tale of someone who hasn't. A quick look at LinkedIn of those in my child's cohort suggests the opposite where they show their uni and degree classification and their current employment status.
If you are interested enough, please go back and re-read the message I actually sent. It is quite laughable that "a quick look at LinkedIn" should reassure you of anything. On the other hand, if you are simply looking to choose a school that will deliver the most compelling LinkedIn profile, then....good luck to your children 😀

I can only assume that this is a negative view from a parent whose child did not get in or who was not offered a senior school place. I often find it is parents of children who don't get places that refer to it as a hot house. This person clearly has a major chip on their shoulder for some reason and should be treated as an outlier.
As I explained above - my DS was at the Senior School and did very well there - in the top 10% of his year group for about half the subjects, then top 25% for the remainder. We removed him and it's probably clear from the above why.

I acknowledged in my post that others will have different views and experiences. You are welcome to express yours. Please do not do so in a way that aims to attack or belittle others. It's not becoming of MNers.

It's also not very helpful for @VesperLindt who is just looking for advice about the schooling of their DC. Specifically, they asked whether the system produces "well-rounded individuals". And they were concerned about it being a "very alpha hot house".

My experience is that the school is "a very alpha hot house" that does not produce "well-rounded individuals". Your experience, it seems, is that it produces excellent LinkedIn profiles. We are in agreement! :)

Sorry I forgot to mention they are all well rounded and very likeable individuals as well as employable individuals. Thank you. Yes I am very happy and fulfilled with a wonderful family and we aren't "recovering" from anything.

As I said you clearly have a massive chip on your shoulder and quoting your alleged anecdata is even less helpful to @VesperLindt . I too am happy if the OP wishes to DM or even speak to me about our very positive experience of the school.

I am sorry if your experience wasn't the same. I hope you found a school that was the right fit for your child/ren. It was the right fit for ours and very many others we know which is why I guess it remains so popular a choice.

@HugoSpritz thank you - such a useful addition to the thread! 😳

Mine is as useful as yours as we each have had different experiences.

Some kids are going to thrive at schools that are more competitive and alpha and some won’t.

Personally we didn’t want to take part in that lottery and went for a nurturing 3-18 for ours, which has had some Perse leavers over the years.

The school chosen just has to be right for the dc concerned and families are going to vary in how much hot-housing they and their child want or can tolerate.