Prep Schools - Breaside, St David's West Wickham, Cumnor House, christopher the hall...any others?

[rightherewithyou]

Hi lovely people,

We are looking to send our daughter to a Prep school (please this is not a private vs State school debate). We live in the Beckenham, Shirley and West Weickham Borders. We have visited breaside and St Davids in WW, we know there is one in Purley too but not seen it yet. Next on the visiting list are cumnor house and St Christopher the hall. Does anyone have any experience with thise preps? any Info will be hugely appreciated. thank you in advance

anyone?

Braeside is a bit of a distance from you, no? That's a fair whack of rush hour driving. My kids go to St David's and we live about 20 mins away due to a move a few years back so I would consider how much time you fancy spending in the car. What is it you want to know? You should be able to get a feel of where you think your DD will be best suited. All schools have their positive and negative aspects and I am not going to say what I think about some of them as that's not really fair. I would say go and look and see which ones you like the feel of and talk to the kids who show you around - do you like the way they interact with you?Probably one of the best ways of judging how a school is doing and whether it is for you. And don't underestimate the morning school run either - traffic is rubbish most places.

I don't know much about the difference between prep schools and other private schools, but there's also Royal Russell and Wickham Court school (layhams road, you'll know it if you know the Addington Road). I have a friend who drives to Cumnor House from much closer in Croydon and although she loves the school she finds the rush hour trek to Purley really tedious to be honest. (And all the kids are called things like Jonty and Piers.) I live close to St Davids and it doesn't seem too bad for car dropoff and access - I'm usually passing it on way to my childminder every day. Staff and other parents are often very friendly when we see them, which is a nice thing. We got into Unicorn so no need to go private but I do think St Davids is nice and it also has its own access to High Broom Woods out the back.