Winchester schools - state & private, help relocation with little notice

[cranbury]

DH has a new position within his company so we need to move from a London suburb to the area around winchester. We don't need to commute by train, would prefer to live in the country but worried about schools - meant to be good but we havent got a clue. Got the good schools guide - so read about Pilgrims, Twyford and St Swithuns but understand the state schools are good too. We have a boy and a girl. Any advice would be good on primary but also secondary schools that are good to go onto.

All sec schools good, Kings and Westgate probably slightly better than Henry Beaufort. All of the prep schools well regarded. Only Twyford take boys and girls. IMO Twyford more sporty, Pilgrims v academic - feeder for Winchester and musical (cathedral links). St S good at prep and senior levels. More grammer school than traditional public school - no late evenings, Sat school etc. Good state primaries tough to get into - need to be in catchment. Western, St Bedes well regarded. Also some schools in villages outside Winchester eg Compton, Hursley.

Echo what Lucysmum said.

I would add that it is simply not worth paying for schools in Winchester, as there are no bad state schools.

And I say that as a teacher in one of the big private ones. If it is vitally important to you that your children don't mix with children from across the social spectrum, it's worth paying for it. Otherwise, the state will look after them very well. After all, Peter Symonds VIth form college does as well, if not better, than Swithuns and Winchester on the Oxbridge/ Russell Group measure.

Western, St Bede, Twyford St Mary, Compton All Saints, St Faiths etc are well-regarded because they serve exclusive catchments and are less mixed socially than some of the others. The other village schools all do well by their children.

Have chosen private currently as state schools although very good also in current area, its the large class size, lack of sport and music - are the Winchester primary schools different? Practically no sport in the National Curriculum.

Class size depends on the school. Many of the smaller Winchester primary schools will have a small intake, but mixed year classes. In practice this seems to help children to progress well at their own level.

Most schools have opportunities for music lessons and I know lots of state educated children who have played instruments or sang to a high level - just not necessarily at school.

But if your heart is set on lots of organised team sports and shed loads of music lessons on site, you probably will want to pay for it.

King Edward VI in Southampton is a good day school. An ex grammer, it is academic and competitive to get into, but there are buses from Winchester.

Oh, blimey. Must preview. Ex-grammar.

The trouble is that the good primaries will not have places. It's quite London-like in that respect!

When we were looking to move to Winchester the schools with a space were in the more, er, mixed areas.

Twyford is a good school, Pilgrims and Princes Mead very posh. As is St Swithun's. King Edward's in Southampton I wouldn't fork out for because I know that in spite of being selective they took children from ds's state primary school last year who were about two-thirds of the way down the class in ability. Ds's friends' parents (he is at a comp) are all professionals.

A mixed area does not mean that its primary school is not good. Similarly, not all of Winchester's good primary schools are full. And don't assume that the most oversubscribed ones are necessarily the only schools worth considering.

If you are used to London, visit lots of primaries. You may well be pleasantly surprised.

gramercy, it's interesting what you say about KE VI, as its results suggest that it is pretty selective, and I have always believed it to be fairly academic. (I have taught there, but a long time ago now)

You are spot on that many professionals are more than happy with the comps here.

my understanding too is that KE is pretty selective - has own exam, takes the top performers (as opposed to a set pass mark and entry based on registration date). Certainly works them hard when they are there. Maybe there was some tutoring involved with the children you were referring to gramercy ?

Agree most schools are good, but would avoid Stanmore, Winnall and Harestock Primary. Places are hard to come by as they are all catchment-linked, but it's worth trying as places do come up mid-year. If you had been looking for a reception place, it would have been nigh on impossible.

Secondary schools like Kings and Westgate are extremely good and do well in the national league tables.

There's probably no need to private unless there are special circumstances, as state schools here are probably the same as elsewhere in that the average child is catered for. If your child has any specific learning difficulties, for example, you will find little support unless they are on the extreme end.

You will enjoy Winchester, it's a great place to live. Most parents at my dc's schools moved from London!

Daughter at son both at single-sex public schools in Winchester, having attended prep schools in the area.

cranbury dear - I'm afraid that the state schools in Winchester simply do not pass muster when compared to those of the independent variety .... dodgy Dads, dodgy Mums, dodgy kids and focus on academics and "aspirations" to the exclusion of the soft skills, such skills now even being even more important when it comes to differentiating one's children from the masses with 3 As at A level, an addiction to computers and fast food, coupled with an aversion to eye contact........OK then if your children aspire to retail, sales, customer services, IT or even some sort of domestic role perhaps !!

Fionatrust

Nice to know what you really think. Are you real?

Surely can't be real...or she's never met some of the wonderful children who come out of the other end of those schools.

Winchester state schools are fab. If fionatrust feels like that about the Winchester comps, what must she feel about my DC's school!!!
I have nothing against the schools fionatrust has chosen for her children (presumably Win Col and St Swithuns), and know some very decent children there too, but I hope she doesn't pass on her own attitudes to her children, or I fear they will be disadvantaged in life...

fiona trust - music is not a 'soft skill' but you and the government obviously think they are, hence the fact that state school educated children lose out massively in this area.
ah well, who cares, eh?

Hursley primary school has an excellent reputation (I think it's a beacon school or similar) and according to MIL who lives near there, the school dinners are amazing - unfortunately it is a very popular school indeed.

fionatrust must be having a laugh.

I hear some really crummy accents at the very pricey prep school in our road. Big car does not equal big brain. They are forking out £10K a year in order for their kids to wear a kilt/cap. Still dodgy parents, but dodgy parents with dough to waste.

In ds's class is a child who was in the national papers for getting A Level maths at age 9 or whatever. I don't think his parents would have chosen a dump full of kids doing GCSE Feral Studies.

Feral studies!!
I love it.

Thanks for the info - house hunting is going to be a nightmare, so that be a decider on schools going independent means that catchment area won't be so important.

Toss up for me to work and pay the fees or to spend my time ferrying kids to sports and music and for them to attend state schools.

Used to live in Winchester and frankly it's a joke to compare Winchester College and St Swithuns with Peter Symonds. It is a good sixth form college but then it is full of kids that either were at private school or the cream of the state school as the majority have left at 16!

Twyford is more expensive and posher than Pilgrim's and St Swithun's. Know lots of mum's who think pastoral care at Pilgrim's is awful and a good number have left. High staff turnover too.

King Edwards is a very good school and very difficult to get into so the dross that apparently came from the state school were probably being failed at their state primary!

If you want a good school opt for a state village one and then send them to a senior independent.

Er...prayingforbaby, all the kids leave the state schools at 16 in Winchester, and actually lots go to PSC, not just the cream, as you put it. I don't think it's right to say that it's "full of kids that were at private school" either. Some definitely do leave KES etc, but that's because it IS an excellent 6th form college.

cranbury, you are right that going independent will make it easier as far as buying a house in a catchment is concerned. Good luck with finding somewhere to live.

Incidentally, if your children are musical, the county music service is excellent, with superb groups particularly in the Winchester pyramid as well as at County level of course. I suspect that even if they attend independents (except Winchester College) at secondary level, they would want to be in the good HMS ensembles too, so don't wave goodbye to ferrying children around!! Hope it works out.

Yup. Only independent schools in Hampshire have their own sixth forms. (Bar one or two; but none in Winch)

PSC is invariably one of the top five in the country. It gets loads into Oxbridge but serves the less traditional sixth form routes well, too.

The independent day schools provide a lot of the children in the county music scene, as wolfbrother says. Sport is, I think, similar.

It's always been my opinion- maybe I'm wrong- that Winch has no middle of the road secondary independent schools. I regard Winchester College and St Swithuns as 'major league' (ie £25k p.a.). I think the 'independent of choice' for the middle group is King Eddy's in Southampton.

I work at the hospital. Many of the consultants send their DCs to the comps, esp Westgate (bit liberal) and Kings (feels just like a grammar!).

In my social group it tends to be the wannabes who go private (but Hampshire Collegiate or The Stroud, both miles away) despite the presence of 'country leading' state schools at the end of the road as obviously Fenella and Oliver can't be expected to mix with the local riff raff from the £500,000 houses- like they also live in. These women are by and large 'smiled at'!

As always it depends what you value!

This is going back a few years but I went to St Swithuns and absolutely loved it. I didn't have a bad wrod to say about it then and still think ti's a great school. I looked round it again recently with a potential view to sending my own DDs there and I was hugely impressed with it still.

My bro went to Pilgrims and Winchester College and had a shit time at both. Pilgrims was almost Dickension in it's pastoral care, and whilst I'm sure things have improved now I'm interested to see that on this thread that someone has already raised concerns about that. Suffice to say that it knocked the small amount of self confidence he had right out of him and when he went to WC the problem continued. It took until he went to Uni with more normal, less elite (or so the WC boys considered themselves) people for him to be able to be himself. Having said that I did meet some really wonderful guys from WC, who I am still in touch with now so they weren't all bad.

Sorry - didn't do typing at school obviously!

I am reminded of a House Master from WC who was interviewed a year or so back- it stuck in my mind when he said 'It is perhaps fair to say that we imbue our boys with such a high level of confidence that very occasionally it might just be construed as arrogance, of course, we prefer not to look at it that way....'

As was alluded to by another poster I suspect the state secondary schools in Winchester are so good because the only decent boys inde is ridiculously expensive. Therefore the schools are made up with a far greater proportion of middle class parents than the national norm.

Still, Peter Symonds only offers an academic education so cannot really be compared to Winchester.