Independent Prep schools in Ascot area

[expatmom1976]

Hello, this is my first mumsnet post after many months of reading!

We are being transferred to London for work and have been looking at the Ascot area to live, given the shortish commute into West London. I have three kids who need in-year entry into grades 5, 3 and 1 (two boys and a girl). Till end 2019 they are at an international school (American) in West Africa, running the IB programme. We'd prefer to switch to the British system and preferably co-ed.

We have been looking at Hall Grove, Bishopsgate, LVS, St Andrews Woking and Reddam Berkshire. We have some school visits lined up for my next trip to the UK, but it would be really good to hear of anyone's personal experience of these schools. It will be our first time living in London and its quite scary. I'd love to find a school for the 3 which has a good balance of academic/ sport/ cultural stuff where they will be happy.

Lambrook is the nicest one in that area I think.

I don't know those schools personally except by reputation, LVS and Bishopsgate being the best of the bunch, but Lambrook and even St Georges Windsor would be within striking distance of Ascot for you and at least worth a visit. I'm assuming you don't want to stay in the American system so TASIS is out.

Depending on where you're commuting into and whether you're already committed to Ascot you could also consider living in Windsor and taking advantage of either the trains to Waterloo or to Paddington (via the shuttle to slough). Windsor is more of a proper town than Ascot is (and doesn't shut down every road each time there is something on at the racecourse, don't get me started about Ascot week, grumble grumble...) and the Ascot line is the same time to Waterloo than the Windsor one without the option of popping up to Slough if the Waterloo line is disrupted. And also the option of driving into London on the M4 on a weekend.

Oh I missed you have Hall Grove on there, that's well regarded as well. But I do think you should have a look at Lambrook which ticks all your boxes and is easily accessed from Ascot, Windsor, Maidenhead or even Bracknell. Your youngest is a bit small for the school bus yet but most schools run their own buses as well.

I have a child at LVS Infants and we've been very happy so far - she's generally very happy with all aspects of school life and they have a wonderful balance of academic and non-academic activities. I'd strongly recommend a visit to see whether you click with it - that's how we decided, it was the one we felt most comfortable with.

thanks for all your thoughts. Lambrook has already indicated that they are full in 2020, which is why I didn't include them.
I have gone over and over the website content of all of the above mentioned schools and will hopefully manage to book appointments to see all when next in London. Issues I am struggling with are...

• do children who attend school daily (rather than board) feel a bit excluded from a mixed boarding-day school? I am remembering my university days where students who stayed in residence seemed to have a lot more fun than students who lived off-campus
• will younger children feel a bit overwhelmed by the bigger kids if the school goes all the way up into high school?
• should I consider how 'locally' the kids are based? ie if we live in Ascot and pick Bishopsgate, are all the Bishopsgate friends likely to live locally in Egham? Playdates would be more challenging to organise?

I am hoping that after the school visits I will have a gut feel for the 'right' option, but for the moment am stressing a bit in case that doesn't turn out to be true!

I’d say the number of borders your children’s age will be small, day pupils will most likely be the majority.
Generally schools which cover a wide age range have different campuses or at least different areas for different stages, so you won’t have 18 year olds and 5 year olds sharing the same playground.
I don’t actually know much about the schools you mention but I’d say the above is true if most prep schools.

Kids at DS's prep (near Lambrook) live everywhere from Staines to Woking, from Taplow to Fleet. Basically you can draw a circle of approx 30 mins drive from the school and people can live anywhere within that. Plus all the London families coming in on the bus.

I have just driven an hour to a school birthday party...20 minutes to the school, then 40 minutes beyond. I assume that's close to where the birthday boy's family live but it was far!! Play dates don't happen in the week on a regular basis as they get older as school goes on past 5pm and kids go home for dinner, bath, bed.

On the boarding v day question - at LVS there are very few boarders in Juniors - more children are day than boarders throughout the whole school. My daughter loves the interaction with the seniors. The schools are separate (Juniors / Seniors) but share some facilities - and the older children have the opportunity to offer pastoral support to the juniors (eg helping with extended day). We live very locally, but there are children attending from within a 45 min drive radius.

Hi @expatmom1976
May i ask what you thought of Hall Grove? Im visiting this month, but had no replies to a thread i started on here asking for opinions. We're also considering Lambrook as our other coed option, though leaning towards all boys' preps at the moment. Thanks :)

It sounds as if you’re not considering Oxford? Admittedly the traffic is appalling, but if you lived on the right route for your commute it could be ideal.

There is a great choice of very, very good schools. And infinite entertainment for children.

There are no prep schools in Bracknell

Holme Grange, Eagle House, Waverley are also worth looking at.