Prep schools Caterham

[Windersneedcleaning]

Hi there MN'ers - just lOoking for some advice on schools near Caterham.

My DD1 is on the lists for essendene, Caterham, Oakhyrst and reed ham for Y3 entry in September.

We know which one we are leaning towards - wont say just now - but would appreciate your advice on these schools - they all offer something different. We just need the final seal.

Depends what you want and partly it will depend on where you are thinking of for 11+. E and O are small and have more limited sports opportunities than C and I've known several families move their dc for that reason. Not sure about R. O has a strong musical reputation, C perhaps more all-rounded.

Caterham prep feeds into the senior school, and doesn't prep for other 11+ schools. That said entry to the senior school is getting quite competitive ( I know several strong candidates who didn't get offers). More expensive than the others but lots going on, plenty of sport and music, good pastoral care. There seems to have been lots of movement away from Essendene recently in the higher forms so I would check the class sizes there as obviously harder to have the sports/music opportunities if you don't have enough children to put a team together. O children seemed to do very well at 11+ this year. Given that everyone coaches for 11+ anyway, if you felt C was a likely destination at seniors then go to the prep, otherwise O.

By Reedham I assume that you mean Reedham Park in Purley. Different kettle of fish to the others.

Thanks :-)