Which prep school to choose?

[Blossom8]

First school is a christian school. Has amazing grounds, extra curricular activities, school dinners. Does not prepare for grammar school entance.

Second one is a roman catholic convent - limited space, no school dinners, pupils are required to bring in a packed lunch. Does prepare for grammar and independent secondary school exams but class sizes.

Both schools have received good inspectorate reports.

First schools works out initially £350 pcm more expensive rising to £500 pcm more expensive than the second roman catholic school.

We are not religious but looking for a good school with high aspirations for their pupils within a happy and caring environment.

The one you and your child like best.

That is a lot more money a month for the first school. Can you see where that extra money is going?
What are average class sizes for both schools?
Do both schools have specialist teachers and rooms for music, art, science?

I guess the extra money for the first school goes towards school dinners, swimming pool, have specialist teachers for teaching mandarin and learning to play a musical instrument for a year.

Second convent school has bigger class sizes, teach them Spanish from Reception and children to have music lessons.

How important are school dinners? I work full time and feel comforted that my child has had a good hot meal during the day than sandwiches.

As Pagwatch says, whichever you like the best and where you think suits your child best.

Looking at it on facts only, I would be disappointed that the first one doesn't prepare for grammar entrance - would you need to pick up this shortfall in tutoring or is the implication that the standard education is sufficient? Do they prepare for independent secondary entrance? Where to the pupils go on to at Secondary level and is this where you want your child to go?

You are clearly paying a lot extra for the grounds and extra curricular stuff with the first school - are these worth the extra cost over and above the value of the education your child will receive? Many extra curricular activities are available outside of school and would, most likely, work out cheaper than the school fees.

Thanks. We have not taken a tour with the second convent school yet but it will be difficult as we were amazed by the first school's grounds, class rooms etc. I should have mentioned that the reason the first school does not do grammar school preparation is that they have a senior school where most of the prep pupils transfer to.

Yes it will be likely I will have to pay for extra tutoring for grammar school entrance if my DD wants to and is grammar school material.

I guess there is an option for my DD to get into the first school for secondary schooling. But I do feel abit awkard sending DD to a convent school when we don't go to church and there is the factor of no school dinners.

Personally, my instinct would be to go for the first, but it is a lot of money, Maybe you need to factor in the extras at the other school and work out the 'real' difference. I too like the fact there is a hot meal and the grounds and pool would appeal. How much smaller are the class sizes?, too small is just as bad as too large.

I would however be looking at their results and how many children do progress onto the grammar school, whether or not they teach for this. Also, is the school sustainable for the future?, too many smaller Preps are closing due to financial issues, larger may mean more secure in the long term.

Also, although you are not bothered about religion, what faith are you? Only my dd went to a catholic school for her first two years, (we are not), and although there were other non catholic children, I personally felt there was a lot of masses and other catholic stuff going on and dd was coming home crossing herself after prayers etc., which was all a bit different (although I never said anything). If I was catholic, this probably wouldn't have even been on my radar, but at times, I did feel a little uncomfortable with it, even though we go to our own church occassionally, so I certainly wasn't anti religion.

In the end, we went with what we felt was right for our dd and her personality, not easy if they haven't even started school, as you just don't what kind of learner they will be!

At the end of the day I think you have to go with your 'gut instinct', even if it means more expensive.

Paddlinglikehell - We are both agnostics so I'm concerned if my DD questions us about religion and as you say carrying out prayers. Also what impact will it have on them if they spend their primary school years with a catholic ethos and none when they go to secondary school. We are only choosing the convent due to the cheaper fees and grammar school and secondary school preparations. Both schools appears to have high achievements.

I guess I need to view the convent school and see whether we like it.

Blossom

If they are a convent, they will definately have daily prayers and go to mass on certain occassions in the religious calendar.

Our school was supposed not to have a particulary strong Catholic ethos, but they had group worship in the class each day and at least once a week an assembly where they lit a candle and had reflection. They also had a lot of 'sharing' assemblies where parents came in, but I believe other faith schools have these too.

We should have known this would be the case when we went for our induction/welcome evening before Reception and they had a little ceremony of saying each new childs name and lighting a candle for them, whilst a religiousy tune was playing. DP particulary was a bit squirmy about this, but I thought it quite sweet and made me a bit teary!

They generally followed the 'Here I am' programme for religious education. The Priest was in school on a weekly basis and very involved with the school, which was adjacent to the church.

It wasn't a problem though, we were never made to feel we didn't belong to the 'family' of the church, we attended all the Christmas Masses etc., However, we didn't tell our dd not to cross herself and say in the 'name of the Father etc. etc.', as all the others were doing it and we didn't want her to feel different. She was only Reception and Year 1.

I wouldn't feel worried about when she grows up either, my friends dd's both went to this same school, they are both agnostic now - one of which is an RE teacher herself, at a local grammar!!!!

Just be prepared for it if you do choose this school.

DD's school is roman catholic attached to a convent but majority of pupils are not catholic. No nuns teach in the school. Have a look around and attend an assembly to get a better feel for the make up of the school and how religious it is.

Also ask about school dinners. Our school has introduced them recently due to parent demand.

Depends on where you want to go for secondary. Ds has just moved from a prep that is linked to a senior school. 80% of the children went on to the senior school so there was no 11+ prep and no interest on prepping dcs for other senior schools.

In fact there seemed to be a huge push towards the senior school to the exclusion of everything else. Teachers and head coasted, lesson plans were the same year after year so those with children higher up the school knew exactly what their younger dcs would be doing every term, even if there was a 5 year gap between their dcs. Little interest in innovation or progression as the head and staff knew pretty much all the pupils would go on to the senior school.

Ds moved to take up a scholarship at another prep but I'd reached the stage that I would have moved him anyway as I wasn't interested in him going to the senior school and wanted him to go to a school that prepared him for senior schools suited to him.

I would be concerned that there is no 11+ preperation in a school charging that amount of money if you are in a grammar catchment area. We are and every prep school preps for 11+ and 13+ regardless of whether or not they have a senior school.

Is entrance to the prep selective?

Poodlepower - yes that was my reservation by them not preparing for grammar school entry but they said it is because most of their prep pupils transfer to their senior schools. We have 2 indies that have attached senior schools and do not prepare for the 11+.

Both these schools are selective at 4+ and 7+. Both schools goes to Year 8. There are other prep schools (like the convent one) that do prepare but do not have the same facilities as the 2 schools that do not prepare for the 11+ so I am in a dilemma as to which one to choose.

My dd goes to an independent Catholic school - it was much cheaper than some of the prep schools as is part funded by the church. They have also limited facilities as they feel they can do everything they want to without increasing fees to provide them. We chose this school as after several taster days my DD much preferred the atmosphere of the Catholic school. They do pray daily, have mass once a term but mainly i find the religion aspect is used to teach kindness and understanding between the pupils, how fortunate they are blah blah blah.

They still have huge outside areas, sports facilities etc but i would say the buildings are much more "state school". Can't quite put my finger on what i mean by that. For things like swimming they use the facilities at the nearby prep school - and regularly thrash that school in swimming gala's.

I would really concentrate on results (especially if you are looking to grammar as opposed to senior independent) and the pastoral care. It's all very well going to one with great facilities, but sometimes when they are run as businesses the pastoral care can fall by the wayside.

What do the other school do to make up for their lack of facilities? What in particular does the second one lack that makes the first able to charge up to £500 more per month?

Thanks Poodlepower. That's very useful to know regarding the religious part of the school.

Both schools have excellent pastoral care and results seems much of a muchiness. The no school dinners is an issue but I may be able to overlook this if my DD and I like the feel of the convent school.

My dc go to a prep school with no school dinners provided. Whilst it is a pain for me to make pack lunches, I quite like the fact that I know what they have eaten during the day and I can pack the lunch full of healthy things which they like and will eat. if they had school dinners, dc2 would definitely avoid any fruit and veg on offer and go for his own slightly bizarre concoction of stuff. Any uneaten food comes home so I know what they are eating at lunchtimes. Children with kinder mothers than me have hot pasta/soup etc in flasks on colder days.

We toured a few schools before making our decision. A key thing that helped our decision was not initially going to the official Open House events. With the prep school we eventually picked we were won over by the fact that the Headmaster took over two hours on school day afternoon to give us the mother of all personalised school tours ending up with tea and biscuits in his study (ok I was 8 1/2 months pregnant with DC2 so mayyyybe the cuppa had an impact on the decision).

Ring the schools and ask for a private tour. I felt we got so much more out of it than at the Open House events. Then go with your gut feeling of what would suit your child best.

LordGiveMeStrength i totally agree - i did not attend the open day but had a personal tour with the Headteacher who showed me everything and introduced all the teachers personally. I also got to see the classes being taught etc and to speak to the children myself.

They then arranged for the taster day to be when another child was also attending in that year, and when the classes were moving up to their next year groups so my DD would meet her Sept teacher too (didn't start that long before end of term) and would get a feel for the school without being pressured into doing too much work.

At the end of the day they arranged for the teacher to talk to me for 20mins to let me know how DD got on and where they thought she was academic wise etc. They gave me helpful pointers on what she could do over summer to get up to speed. They also rang me at lunchtime to let me know she was enjoying herself etc. All the effort they went to made a big difference to me and they equally made a huge effort for her.

Blossom8 do they not provide hot lunches at all? My DD has packed lunch but can have school dinners but they are extra? (just like at state primary)

Thank you for the responses. Helpful. After reading this thread, it has swayed me towards the cheaper roman catholic convent school albeit no school dinners, bigger classes and limited facilities. I am thinking I can save the money for when DD goes to grammar or secondary school.

Poodlepower - no school dinners. I guess due to the lack of space. I think they recently refurbished to include a small library but that's about how luxury it gets. However, if these faith schools teaches their pupils to be well manner, thoughtful and prepare for the 11+, I guess that's a bonus. Not sure whether going from 4+ to 18 at the same school is a good thing?

My DD has her 4+ assessment at the indie school so it will be difficult if they do offer her a place.

I guess only you can weigh up whether the extra money PCM is worth it for superior facilities .... If they both have good results etc I can see why it is difficult. But in my own experience just because 1 school has a swimming pool it doesn't necessarily mean for example they will produce more confident swimmers iyswim.

Perhaps the extra money in your pocket would mean you could do more extra curriculur things. However, I think you need to go to the second school to see how Catholic they are in their teaching. For us it isn't a big deal and our DD1 loves all that lol!

She also gets taught a musical instrument and sports clubs with a qualified external sports teacher are subsidised by the school or free whilst the higher cost prep school near us charge quite a lot for these things.

Good luck with your choice, it's such a minefield and it's near impossible to know what to do when it comes to schools!