Salisbury Cathedral School, Sandroyd or Godolphin for pre-prep and prep

[tokajlover]

Hi all,

I am new to the area but my husband grew up around here and we are currently looking at pre-prep and prep options for our daughter.

We will be attending the open days, and already have a lot of information about Salisbury Cathedral School, Sandroyd and Godolphin, which are out top choices at the mkment, but I would be interested to hear if anyone has firsthand experience of these schools, and if so, if you could share any thoughts?

I have some reservations about an all-girls education throughout in the case of Godolphin, so it would be great to hear particularly from anyone who either experienced it themselves or whose daughter(s) did!

I know that ultimately a lot of this is subjective and will be down to each individual child, but in as much as any school can encourage this, I am really really keen for my daughter to go to a school with a real sense of community and where friendships are encouraged, as opposed to just competition, especially as my daughter is and will remain an only child so I am really wary of sending her to an “unfriendly” school that doesn’t prioritise healthy relationships between children. Again, aware this is subjective and will depend on her as well as on a number of factors, but any advice or insight into this would be so appreciated!

Thank you in advance - new mum here with no local acquaintances so I would be so grateful for any insight into any of these 3 schools for pre-prep and prep! 🙏

I can’t comment on the others, although heard good thinks about all you’ve mentioned. But from experience I can talk highly of Salisbury Cathedral School. It has a real community, the headteacher is great and loved by all, each child is seen as an individual and their pastoral care is strong. We joined as a new family to the area and it has been the best decision we made for our child and as a family.

Thank you! We have since been to their open day and are absolutely sold! It seems like such a nice environment!

I have DC at Sandroyd. My DC enjoy it, but the boarding, small classes and limited social events for parents make it hard to get to know other DP. The ban on year WhatsApp groups hasn’t helped either.

All three are great schools, so it slightly depends on what you are looking for in a school. Two have the advantage of being in a city, whereas the other is very much a country based school surrounded by parkland. Godolphin goes through to 18, whereas the other two are up to 13 only. From local reports all three schools are thriving, with very happy children.

Hello, we are moving to Salisbury soon and have visited the cathedral school. We really liked the head and were quite set on it (state is an option if we can get a place in our preferred school mid academic year…) but have just heard he has left. Is this true? @tokajlover Are you happy with the replacement?

The interim head was the deputy head, but he is leaving in December.

The deputy who has just started at Salisbury Cathedral School is temporary, as is the head starting in January. The place seems to have lost its way a bit, which is understandable. Quite a few of us are looking elsewhere, but I hope it’ll settle down eventually, because it was a great school.

Oh no I am sorry to hear that, we loved the feel of the school when we visited! It seemed like a kind place that cared about nurturing the students, but actually now that you mention it I overheard someone the other day also talking about a friend of theirs who was moving their son due to bullying and the school not taking any measures against it which seemed very much at odds with what I had seen/the sense I had got of the school, but then again how much can you tell about it on an open day?

Would you mind, obviously without any outing details, going a little bit into why people are looking elsewhere? My daughter is signed up to go for pre-prep and I have based a lot of my returning to work plans around it so would appreciate so much any additional info as if we were to change our minds I would probably need to start planning now! :)

Unfortunately there’s been a lot of upheaval at the school over the last few months. The Head left all over a sudden over the summer after many years and although my own kids are in the local state primary, I have a few friends with children there who are not happy and contemplating switching to state! Honestly, the state primaries in Salisbury are great - there’s no need to choose private!

Oh and just looking at your earlier post, from what I’ve heard there are very small numbers at Godolphin pre prep so be sure of class sizes before you sign up there. Again, why not look at Wyndham Park or Greentrees depending on where you live?

Our child is at SCS in pre-prep and we are happy. We moved our child from a local state primary school. Academically other schools may be comparable or stronger, but in terms of breadth of education, it isn’t comparable (from our personal experience having moved).

Yes there has been change, but inevitable there will always be change in a school. Sometimes people don’t like change which I understand. SCS is a close knit community so change shakes this.

The minute our child’s happiness and education is impacted, we will review, as we would at any school. But at present it isn’t and we don’t foresee it. I’m sure our experience will differ from those who’ve been at the school for much longer. I can only speak as a pre-prep parent.

I think you need to go with your gut and feel, any school has the ability to alter something at any stage. You just need to read these forums over the years for different schools, unless there is a major issue, they all have different views and experiences. It’s a very emotive subject understandably, it involves our children along with an expense.

I agree, state schools in Salisbury are very good. It all depends on what you are looking for. The shift in mood at SCS is really sad, because there are still many fabulous teachers there who are 100% about the kids. I suppose the leadership now has a totally different ethos, the responsiveness isn’t there, and that leaves parents with few options. Many younger ones have gone to or are looking at Chafyn Grove & FSM (Forres Sandle Manor), older ones at Embley or Warminster. I’ve heard Leehurst Swan mentioned as an alternative and I know parents with children there; they feel that the kids are very happy. You might want to keep all options open. Realistically, which side of town you live on and how far you’re prepared to drive limits the choices.

Thanks for all the replies this is very useful. Are there any specific examples of what’s changed with regards to the ethos of the school etc?

More than being wedded to the idea of a private pre-prep, we loved the feel of SCS in particular, hence my interest in the recent changes.

I think that only the families impacted can expand on detail, but it's fine while everything is fine. If a child is impacted by something at school, the will to sort it out doesn't seem to be there, which is probably what one of the above posts above was referring to. Given the number that are looking elsewhere, it could be quite a widespread experience. Next September will tell what impact it's had on the teaching body, either as moves or redundancies.