All Hallows, Hazlegrove or Sherborne Prep Schools please

[Oldermummy2019]

Think of moving to the area,Son is in reception so want to move from Year 1. We need a school that’s both Academic and Sporty. He is is an only child so the option of flexi-Boarding will be good the spending time with friends when he is older. Please share your thoughts. We want a country house so happy to drive for up to 20 minutes. Please share your Wisdom on Schools are areas to live.

Meant to say thinking of moving..

Hazelgrove is the sportiest and most academic. It’s really thriving at the moment, definitely the school to beat on the local prep school sports circuit. It probably wouldn’t suit a really quiet child as much as it’s quite big and tough but it’s gets great results for all sorts of senior schools. It is also beautiful and has amazing facilities. Sherborne Prep is much more of a town school, it went through a very rough patch a few years back, not so sure what it’s like now. Other schools to consider would probably be Port Regis and Sandroyd. Good luck!

Thank you Newmummy, We used Clifton college in Bristol for our older children but hubby wants to move back to Somerset for more outside space.I will certainly be visiting Hazlegrove, Port Regis and Sandroyd

Our dd has been at Sherborne Prep for 6 years. Has helped her grow into a confident young girl, stretched just enough academically and enjoys all sports. I have seen some negative comments about the prep but that has never been our experience and they have been fantastic during the pandemic. Great pastoral care and any problems nipped in the bud. We have been really very happy and pleased with this good all round school. Very nurturing. Happy to have chat offline if that would help.

In terms of property there is so little available. We ended up renting for just over a year before we finally found a house

This has recently come on the market and is about ten minutes walk from school, not sure what you are looking for 😀

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/111762731#/?channel=RES_BUY

We loved Hazlegrove, Port Regis and Sandroyd. Utterly unimpressed by Sherborne Prep. Highly traditional, unfriendly and a very weird vibe. Stay clear!

Have you considered Wellington School in Somerset? It has a very good reputation. Hazlegrove had some serious bullying issues a few years ago from what I heard at the time, but that may be sorted now. Blundells is just over the border into Devon and is supposed to be one of the best ones in the area, but I don't have much personal experience of it other than that. Have also heard good things about Sherborne.

Just realised this is an old thread!

Hi all still useful.Anyway we decided to relocate to Surrey lots more options

Sherborne Prep was recently taken over by the boys school. Losing numbers quickly. Probably won’t exist in 2 years looking at their accounts on the Charities Commission website and will be subsumed by the boys school. We’re not going to risk it. New head didn’t impress us at all and loads of staff leaving this year. Had an eye on Year 3 but it looks like there’ll only be 4 or 5 kids in that year group in September! Plenty of Dorset and Wiltshire prep schools in good financial state. Bad prep schools are closing everywhere so we reckon it’s only worth picking a stable one.

We had a look at Sherborne Prep a few years ago and were very impressed - we only chose another prep due to proximity to family. So no skin in the game but a few years on and our DC ended up in a prep with a similar scenario - bought out by the senior school (prior to us joining) with half of the cohort moving up to the senior after year 8. In hindsight I would view the connection to the senior school as a major positive (locked in and tied to the financial security of the senior). We looked at an awful lot of prep schools and I made a point of going through every account and not one prep had the kind of financial reserves of the senior schools they were feeding in to. I get the eerie feeling that no prep is safe and this was a very sound move by Sherborne Prep ...

As with any business, the good ones are safe. Sherborne Prep though did not seem like one of these to us. If this was such a sound move, why have they lost a quarter of their kids in the last year. The quality simply isn’t there. However desperate they might be, associating with a super-traditional boys school like Sherborne surely can’t be a shrewd move for any forward thinking co-ed Prep School. The writing’s on the wall for this one. Luckily there’s lots of decent prep schools in the area.

Bubblypig3 - not sure where you are getting your information from
how are you determining quality? So every people who went forward for a scholarship for senior school achieved it
Sherborne Prep has not lost a quarter of pupils - absolute rubbish
there are way more than 4 pupils destined for Year 4 what on earth have you based that on?
they are a thriving prep and achieve much
they have not been ‘taken over’ by the boys school but have amalgamated along with Sherborne International School - shrewd move in being able to share facilities etc
complete scaremongering by someone uninformed but casting ‘an opinion’’ utter rubbish
all normal (not elite) independent schools have struggled during last few years because of complexities if Covid - well done you for bashing them when they are trying to survive.
Our child has achieved much, been happy and had amazing teachers at Sherborne Prep. I resent your uniformed distant reviews clouding anyones’s decision to send their child to the school.
reviews of schools are very personal - having a weird vibe and not liking the head say more about you than the school. It is a lovely happy place where children thrive - it is of course a choice for parents where they send their children, but please do not preach about this from an uninformed standpoint as it is an arrogant stance to take.
yes a number of teachers are leaving for promotional opportunities or retiring and being replaced with equally excellent teachers - people move on, fact of life in the real world
i don’t often post on mumsnet, but your uniformed critique of a school where our child has studied for 7 years, saying how terrible makes me really angry as your views are not supported by facts but yet you give them and this will influence people
All preps are at risk, they tend to be small etc. applaud the resilience of a school that has recognised this and seen the future.
we all want different things for our children, do not tell others what they should or should not do - especially when based on fiction..

I have noticed Bubbly Pig commenting on a couple of Sherborne threads that were pretty old so they’ve obviously been searched for - the cynic in me wonders if they are affiliated with a rival school or have a personal vendetta against someone at the school? Seems weird to be so venomous about a school they’ve only looked around!

Yes quite!