Boarding prep school - King's Hall vs Taunton Prep vs Queen's College Taunton

[tachetastic]

Our DS is currently attending an excellent indie Prep school but we need to move to boarding, from Year 5. His current school only boards from Year 7, so we are looking at other preps in the West Somerset / East Devon / Mid Devon area. DS is super-sporty and could be a candidate for a sports scholarship in a few years, so a school with excellent provision for rugby, cricket and hockey would be a huge plus.

The obvious three in the area are Taunton Prep, Kings Hall and Queens College Prep, so it would be great to hear from anyone with recent experience of these schools, especially with respect to boarding. Wellington School, Blundells, and Exeter don't offer boarding at this age.

Further afield Sherborne and Millfield would also be options, but their boarding fees become a bit rich for our pocket once senior school begins and sports scholarships are limited to 10% of fees (compared with up to 40% at some schools).

While our focus at the moment is the three Taunton schools, we would be interested to hear about any others people can suggest. As well as a sporty focus, I think we would prefer a prep school with a reasonable number of boarders, both in terms of absolute number and as a percentage of the school - so a proper boarding school rather than a day school with a few boarders would be best.

Thanks a lot everyone.

It would still be great to have people's views if anybody has recent experience of these schools.

Sherborne Prep and All Hallows Prep Schools are also on our short list (which seems to be getting longer rather than shorter!). 🙃

I’d say Taunton Prep is the best for sport. Have you been to any open days? You can apply for a sports scholarship at 11+ and again at 13+.

I am not sure how sporty Brymore is in Cannington.

I don’t think it’s as sporty. I know a few boys who go there because they aren’t very sporty. Although it has wonderful grounds and tracks.

Thanks. We have visited a few schools and think we have our short list down to two - Hazlegrove and Sherborne. I may start a new thread with just those too, to see if that will spark any comments.

I liked Taunton Prep a lot when we visited, but DS just did not warm to it at all. His biggest argument seemed to be that it all felt a little down at heel (I'm putting those words into his mouth - he thought it needed a clean and the bins needed emptying and there were dead plants that needed cutting) but I think the truth is he just wasn't feeling it. Rather damning comments from a teacher we know rather sealed its fate I'm afraid.

Oh! I didn’t think it looked dirty, but they are in the middle of a massive regeneration project. Don’t know when you visited.

We thought it looked better than Queens which looked very scruffy. When I told my parents they laughed and said they’d thought the same 30 years ago.

Good luck with your search.

It was about a month ago (September 2022). Just after the really hot spell which I think explained the dead plants.

As I said, I think he was being picky because he didn't warm to the school.