to be concerned about St Clare’s Ofsted report

[Alanamackree]

According to my dear friend Mrs Blyton, this is an excellent boarding school for girls. Am I being unreasonable to be concerned about rumors of rampant bullying, a French teacher who verbally abuses and humiliated her students, an unqualified substitute teacher and suggestions that the head may have covered up the attempted abduction of a student?

I’ve been considering Malory Towers as an alternative but I’m not sure that’s the best place for dd either.

DB and DSIL sent their DD off to a witching and wizardry school that I’d never heard of. It’s all v mysterious, I can’t find an address to send presents or letters, and they don’t have any inspections that I can find. DB and DSIL have been most peculiar about it. They won’t talk about her any longer, all of her photos have vanished, and they are advertising her room on Airbnb.

AIBU to think they have forgotten about her?

And this, @cafenoirbiscuit, is why I hate boarding schools. Parents just feel they can send their kids off to the school and literally forget all about them... and it's always the nouvelle riche types like doctors and dentists who are the worst!

Oh, my Millicent. It's 'nouveau riche', not 'nouvelle riche'. If only you'd gone to the Chalet School, or Beauxbatons your French would be exquisite. So typical of MN, to criticise boarding. Inverse snobbery at its finest.

Actually according to my Larousse, riche is a noun that can be masculine or feminine. 😊

Though in the example quoted it should probably be noveaux riches unless the doctors and dentists are all female, in which case nouvelles riches.
Mind you the mistress concerned was sometimes Mlle Lepattre and sometimes Lapattre, so what did she know?

I am also quite concerned about the possible drug use at Malory Towers, with those girls requiring quite a lot of midnight feasts

Don't know if you're including universities in your list of concerns, but I'm getting quite worried about the one my DS attends. Being a lovely but rather hippie sort, he wasn't the type to push hard for good A-level results, so this establishment is not what I would term 'top drawer'. He shares a house with two spiky haired punk types and a would-be city slicker, none of whom I would trust an inch, and I worry that they take advantage of his good nature. He keeps talking about 'major personal disasters'. The house is unbelievably squalid, BTW. I swear I heard the toilet beg me for a clean, or maybe there was something funny in my headache pills this morning.

Oooooh, I know the students you mean GallicosCats. I don’t want to worry you but they seem terribly accident-prone, everything in the house is broken or dangerous. They’re quite a volatile bunch too - not conducive to studying for your DS I wouldn’t have thought.

Re the toilet, does he eat a lot of lentils, by any chance?

If you are considering a nanny for the hols, we had a super lady for all too short a time. McPhee - traditional, organised and firm but fair. Don't be put off by her appearance when you meet her - you'll become so used to it that she'll look quite pleasant in the end. There were miraculous changes in our household within weeks.

Have you considered the Assassin's? Co-educational, good on both academic and vocational subjects, and a good social mix. Very good for the gloomier teen, as there's nothing like constant peril to snap them out of the Goth phase. Just don't let them opt for the Vimes elective practical.

One of mine graduated from the Assassin's to the Unseen University, wherever that is. He also won every prize going as he was the only one in his year by the time he did his "A" (Assassinate) levels.
They were very disappointed he didn't follow the career path they recommended for him, but he likes his food and the lure of Wow-Wow sauce was just too great, I think.

Also - he says it disguises the taste of everything, and he has made very rapid progress through the echelons of the university since he started there - he's Vice-Chancellor already.

I wish he didn't hang about with that "monkey-looking lad" though - came home with him for the long vac, and there left ginger hair and banana skins everywhere.

The shower's still blocked.

They’ve been on University Challenge, though, @GallicosCats.

My Pfb has just been accepted into Hogwarts, we were just thrilled. The only thing that concerns me is despite needing a permission slip to visit the twee village right next to the school children are forced to compete in a twiwizard tournament without so much as a letter home informing their guardians. The food is marvelous though.

Do your DC show any promise in classical ballet? If so I can recommend the Dominick Ballet school in London. They also have a residential campus in the Chilterns called Chalk Green.
However good your DC might be they probably won't make it to the top though as there is one girl that (while certainly talented) seems to be heavily favoured by the staff and almost unnaturally lucky in picking holiday destinations. There is a rumor that this girl's late mother was also a dancer, but I'm sure that's just gossip...

I know most of you here are looking at private education, but we just don't run to that.
Any views on Coal Hill School? I know it's become an academy, and I'm a bit wary because of that, but they do seem to have some good science teaching, and some of the trips pupils go on are out of this world. (I've heard the physics teacher Miss Quill is particularly good.)

Have you considered a vocational route? We're looking at Dibblers with a view to hospitality or business studies.

Some of the equipment list is confusing - 'tray' for example. I assume this is for some kind of sport - skeleton bobsled perhaps?

Anyone unfortunate enough to have to emigrate to our major Antipodean colony might consider Appleyard College for their DD. Just avoid any picnic outings.

Hello everyone. Just bumping this to ask whether any of you can remember the St Clare's uniform, please. My daughter is interested for World Book Day! Also, any suggestions for how to make a lacrosse stick most welcome.

Ps WBD is not for a while, I think but it has a habit of creeping up on me!

I would love to send DD to the Chalet School. They believed in inclusion at a time when it was relatively uncommon. My DD will be proficient at MFL by the time she leaves the school. It’s a shame they don’t accept boys though.

Marcia from the deadly silence on St Clare's uniform it looks as though you've unearthed a gang of uniform refusers 😂

For the record, we're going with navy blue and fashioning a lacrosse stick from a long pole designed for opening high-up windows. Not sure how I will do the net prt of the stick.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yG9UhhyBM5A

Marcia does this help?

Avoid Applegate College at all costs. My Edith was never the same afterwards.