Quick Poll - how many of your kids have saturday school at primary (prep) level and what do you think

[PrincessPeaHead]

I'm about to go into battle with our headmaster about saturday school. It is every other saturday for years 5-8 from 8.15 to 4pm. Chapel and visiting lectures and random things (but not classes) in the morning, games in the afternoon.

I think 8.15 - 6.00 5 days a week is enough school thanks very much.

WOuld be v grateful for real life examples of what goes on at other prep schools

thanks!

oui

is it v academic

what are the ishoos

I've paid for several tiles of that swimming pool, I hope it is lush!

DD1 has just had all her vr and nvr tests at school and the lowest one was 126 which apparently means she is v bright - I have no idea what they are all about but he said she could go to "any school she likes - Cheltenham Ladies, Wycombe Abbey" - I wrinkled up my nose and said "but they don't sound like much FUN"

"No, I don't think they are, really" he said

always felt a bit sorry for L girls, they were a bit out of it and had a crap social life compared to us

locked up out of town

yes tis v brainy with excellent teachers

cannot remember ishoos in depth, I dont think anything major, just that she has 4 boys at the Boys School and loves that more

am seeing her on Sat will quiz her if you like

lol (about L)

ex pupils all seemed to love it though

I just think if we are going to prostitute ourselves for the fees I'd rather have somewhere actually academically outstanding rather than jolly and kind

please do, would be v interested. certainly wasn't academic when I was there - musical yes, academic no!

my options up here are st mary's calne (v small, bit homogenous, calne is a dump, but nice and academic and v local) or marlborough (not sure about the sort of girls it turns out, might need to put her on the pill at 13 also sees girls slightly as 2nd class citizens/sex objects I think although this may be unfair. also lots of kensington girls who want to be friends with princess whatsit although they'll be out of the system by then)

would be v interested in your friends views on those too, you know how they all gossip

Just let her be ill every Saturday

yes, would be nice to have all three though (ac, jolly AND kind)

ask your friend if she lived where I live would she send to S or somewhere nearer me

always v interesting to hear these views, everyone is so parochial up here (dorset? oooh no, MILES away)

Oi pph send her to SSG and then she can lodge at ENids and enid can be a stern matron.

ANd she can babysit for Enid

Or Godolphin?
I'll break her out.

bugger off UP, haven't you got a butternut squash to gratin or something

oh she'll have an opinion

she is v opiniated over schools (with 6 she has a right to be)

(she is very nice and funny though [enid worries she has made her sound horrific])

will quiz

Seriously, Ill take her out and buy her.... alcopops.

I liked her a lot and i don't normallydo girls.

I'll send DD to SSG, she can send her DD1 to St Mary's and we'll do a daughter swap

we could probably get C4 to film it and sell our story to OK magazine, too

Is Godolphin no good?

OR make her taket he 11 plus for the grammar school here and then its FREE.

what about the shaftesbury one?

only know one girl there (she babysits) but she is positively evangelical about it

she is lovely
she is v sensible
all the boys like her because she isn't silly-girly and she isn't a flirt - she's about the only one they can stand
in fact she gets on with most people which is a great talent I think

preen

Or Mill Hill and she can take harv

Oi
godolphin

That all sounds very positive PPH

tbh enid she'll prob either go to St M if we decide for all girls, or M if we decide for co-ed

it is just that S is a sort of nice mixture of both, therefore unique, and being alma mater etc adds a bit

but I don't think I'm going to scoot around the country looking at that many other places - I really don't want her to be too far from home

interestingly I looked at Downe House and really didn't like it at all. bit suburban and london and just didn't feel much fun...

it does, doesn't it hula? I was v impressed...

Can confirm that WA is no fun at all.

Looked round with dd1 a couple of years ago just to get a feel for what was available at the really swanky pushy end of the post-11 schooling market, on the offchance she might be able to blag a bursary, but what was true 20 years ago still holds good today. Wouldn't touch with a 10-ft pole.

yup frogs I have never had the slightest scintilla of interest in looking around it
ditto chelt ladies even though that is relatively close

so where are you thinking of for your dd (or is she somewhere already?)

Nice (free) Catholic N. London girls' grammar school. Doesn't have the glitzy facilities of the big players in the London private school market, but suits her perfectly. The girls are all amazingly nice to each other, compared to what I remember from my school days even in 'normal' school. WA was a hell-hole -- made a couple of v. good friends, but turned me against pushy schools (and socially smart schools too, I fear) for life.