BeOptimistic
Brace yourself - long post ahead...
It?s a very small school that produces very good academic results (considering they are non selective) and is quite good value for money . As BarNiEn pointed out, it has a very strong PTA that is very active on the fund raising front. All parents are also expected to actively fundraise and support the school and rotas are drawn up detailing what is expected from the parents.
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It has only had 2 heads in the history of the school (which was founded in 1932 and originally accepted Catholic children only) the founder and the current head who does her best to run the school in keeping with the ethos of the founder. It has a Christian ethos but is very welcoming/accepting of all children regardless of their faith.
As the founder was a very strong Roman Catholic, the Catholic children receive Catholic instructions and are even prepared for their first holy communion at 7; it counts as a Catholic school for the purpose of secondary school admission for some Catholic secondary schools.
In most things it is very quaint - they do things the way they have always done it, and I rather suspect not much has changed since the 30s (cursive writing with pen and ink, no ICT in the school, shorts for the boys all year round even on the coldest of winter days etc).The children are well mannered and the boys lift their caps and greet you should you pass them in the lane.
Discipline is certainly not a problem at Reedham, the Headteacher runs a pretty tight ship, and even the parents quake at the prospect of being told off by her ! Her word is law - always, and I?m not sure that is necessarily a good or democratic thing.
In terms of extra-curricular, there is none and if you have a very boisterous or sporty child then perhaps you should look elsewhere. For sports, they offer tennis at the local Reedham Tennis Club.
Quite a few of the children are the children/grandchildren of former pupils, some actually move back to the area in order to send their children back to the school they went to (and obviously must have thoroughly enjoyed).
There is also a sense of isolation for the parents (certainly in the first year) who have no experience of the school in the form of relatives/friends who have attended the school previously as there is a ?Reedham way? of doing things, there are no parent-student manuals - nothing and communication from the school is not the greatest (though you would get satchel-loads from the PTA !).
Should you decide to go for it two points of caution:
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I would advise you to sniff out and quickly make friends with a parent who has gone through the baptism of fire that is the first year and has an older dc or dcs at the school ? I did this and they proved to be a rock to me in the extremely bewildering time that was my dcs first year at RP (I should point out that the confusion was on my part and not my dcs).
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Beware the class rep ! And be prepared to kowtow !. You?re stuck with the same class-rep who, incidentally is cherry-picked by the Head-teacher, no questions asked (though to be fair, it?s usually a parent who has a dc already in the school and knows the ropes, as it were) for the duration of your dc?s stay at the school. The class rep is the go between you the PTA and to a large extent the school ? needless to say, as a result, things get quite cliquey, almost sycophantic ? get on her bad side and you might find yourself ?accidentally? dropped from the mailing consequently missing out on important school/PTA information or assigned to grotty duties at the school fayre that nobody is quite keen on.
That said, it is bound to happen in any other schools as human nature is pretty much the same every where.
My Dc absolutely loves it there, but with no breakfast and after-school clubs, or extracurricular, coupled with the fact that the Reception class which they call Kindergarten (don?t ask, another Reedhamism, and believe me there are plenty) day ends at 12.30pm, it?s very difficult for me as a fulltime working parents to cope.
I hope I have given a fair picture of what the school is like and good luck with your application.
BaNiEn
Having re-read the epistle I have just written, I guess at heart I am quite a ?Reedhamite? after all and have developed quite a taste for Marmite despite my best efforts !
Now hopefully a Cumnor House and an Oakwood Prep parent would come along and give me a similar analysis!