Oxfordshire prep school recommendations

[PurplePickledPlums]

We are looking for a prep for our year 1 son. He has high functioning autism and no need for 1:1 but will need help with social skills. So far on my list is Abingdon, St Hugh's and the Manor although I'm a bit hesitant about the manor as I believe they are only just taking boys. Am I missing any? Ideally we would live somewhere with a good village Primary for baby DD (will pay for her to private at secondary - or so goes the plan!). Any insights much appreciated.

Bump....someone out there must have an opinion

Magdalen Boys is supposed to be fantastic and I know people who have switched from state to private with them v happily.

I prefer central Oxford to the villages, and people I know have been disappointed with idyllic-looking village schools once they got past year 2 or 3.

There are lots of good schools in the city - Jericho, West Oxford (I don't know east Oxford schools as well although there are some lovely house on and around iffley road), where you would have a good state school on hand for your dd and easy access to Magdalen Boys.

Hello,
I'm afraid I don't know much about state schools outside oxford .- heard good things about beckley and Appleton though.

For your ds, Abingdon might be a good- I know someone else who has a ds there with ASD. They do provide 1:1 for him, so I'm sure could manage your ds' needs. We looked at abingdon when we decided to move ds to private. Would have been happy to send him there but distance was an issue for us, realistically we would have had to move.

Manor is a great school, but until recently (or possibly still i am nt sure) they only take boys in the preprep.

St hughs - don't know anything about it really but has good reputation

The smaller preps in the city (new college, which ds1 is at and we love or christ church) would be good socially as they are small, but don't really know if they could manage the asd. New college can provide the social / communication support but less good on behavioural problems. They are fairly explicit about that. Magdalen college starts at yr3 and takes academically able kids. From the teachers i know who work there, they have high achieving asd boys, but again not those who need considerable behavioural support.

I would visit as many as poss and ask specifically about what support they can provide.

DS is no problem behaviourally. He's not disruptive. I don't know yet how academic he is or isn't. MCS seemed to be academically more rigorous than Abingdon and I'd heard they cull quite a few in the senior school as to keep the results pristine? Abingdon now transfers boys from the prep to the senior school without exam so that's appealing. Someone mentioned Buckland primary as a good one so will add the others mentioned here to the list.

Worth adding the dragon to my list?

Another New College parent here - they do seem to be getting a consistent sprinkling of "quirky" boys across the year groups (and I would include my own son in that), and do well by those who are more academic with it. I suspect they may need to be careful not to get too many in any given year as there could be a point at which it would destabilise things. The environment of a small school allows room for each child to be appreciated for themselves and find their own space.

Dragon - only if he is very bright and you are very ambitious.

We don't intend to live in the city itself. Would that make the commute to New College awful? As for the Dragon, it was the ethos of the head that attracted me. DS is only 5 so I'm not sure if he is bright enough or not. He is exceeding expectations "by miles" in maths in his current prep and meeting expectations in reading/writing. He's not a very keen reader and less keen at writing. Our entire family is very academic so I'm not too worried about him. What I am worried about is finding a kind nurturing school.

I used to work at the Dragon and several key staff are still there, so I'm very confident the ethos will be the same. It certainly wasn't super academic: there was plenty of support for less academic children and lots of encouragement for non-academic interests and achievements. The pastoral side was sensitive and again I have no reason to doubt it would still be.

If we were local and could afford it I would certainly consider it for my children.

One consideration is that there are a lot of children boarding. I don't know what the difference is between the day and boarding experience at the Dragon but it can sometimes be difficult to be a day pupil at a boarding school.