Landmark international vs Oaks international in Cambridge

[Monkeybutts]

Does anyone have a feel for these 2 schools?

We are returning from overseas with our Year 3 son, and are looking for an international school to ease him back into UK life.

It would be great to hear from those who have made the choice between these schools. Thanks.

I’ve experience of Landmark, the primary is definitely nurturing and warm, however, sadly my lively child outgrew the class as it was too small for friendships and lack of options. I found many of the parents rather too over protective and very involved in all aspects of the school, which I found caused a lack of objectivity when any issues occurred, which they inevitably do, from time to time. It’s a great place if your child has any learning issues, ASD, dyslexia etc as many do, especially in the senior school, which is again rather small. Staff all very friendly, if almost over friendly at times, however, this soon disappears if you raise a concern or decide to leave! There are many good state schools in Cambridge too…

Most state primaries in Cambridge will be pretty international in outlook - the children come from all over the world. There isn't really a need to pay for education here, and very small schools really aren't always as lovely as they initially seem, for the reasons stated above.

Most primary schools in Cambridge will have children from many different backgrounds including international backgrounds, including ours.

According to Gov.uk Landmark has only 100 students, and takes them from ages 4 - 16. That wouldn’t be a recommendation for me, unless your child has learning issues, as @Outofthefryingpanintotheoven mentions.

Neither has been around for very long. Oaks opened in 2018, Landmark opened in 2016. Is there are reason why you’ve mentioned just those two schools?

I’d agree that many of the Cambridge primary schools have children from many backgrounds, as have the private schools.

Hello OP ! Were you able to have some concrete answers to your question? I am in same boat for these 2 schools and will like to know your thought process and if you were able to make a decision ?

Hi, I have two kids at Landmark Primary who are both very happy and happy to discuss more if you wanted. They are now an accredited IB World School which stands them apart from other schools in Cambridge. They have a wide variety of kids including some with learning needs (as do most schools) and lots of international children which makes it a fun place to learn. The kids love the weekly half day forest school activities under their accredited Forest School Program and love the variety of topics they cover courtesy of following the IB curriculum. There are lots of happy international parents at the school who I'm sure would be happy to talk to you as well if you wanted more information.

Hi, I have one in Landmark currently and will move my second there soon. We have lived in a few different countries so an international environment was important to us also. I do agree with other comments that most primary schools in Cambridge will have a diverse/multicultural cohort. Outside Cambridge won't be as diverse. I like that Landmark goes right through from primary to secondary, I think that is a key part of what keeps the students there mindful and respectful of each other. It is a lovely and nurturing environment and very importantly gives opportunities for all levels including the ability to accelerate/extend learning where a child has particular aptitude. Happy to answer any specific questions you may have!

Landmark was set up by people who were at Oakes before it was taken over. It’s some years since my son did a taster session at Oakes. He liked it but they messed us about. We were doing tasters for an imaginary school place. Many pupils left for Landmark because of the new management

The current website shows the head teacher as the same person as it was in 2019. As it goes she was definitely there in original CIS circa 2014/15

Crikey!! I knew of some of those scandals however not the Gloucester school or roof! I know when CIS senior finally closed they handled it very badly. Can't believe they are now back doing it again under same name! I had kids at landmark and there are staff links as many staff were originally from CIS. I had some issues with Landmark however, I believe they are a better run school on the whole although after my kids left they made vast improvements academically!!

I dont understand @Jenny4thewin.

The dates of the scandals don't tie up to the dates that Harriet Sturdy was head at the school. She left in 2015, when it was taken over by ISP. Glyn Knowles was sacked in 2017, and the wrong play igcse happened in 2019.

WHIS in Gloucester has recently passed an inspection, and they are open about the previous inadequate report and the work they needed to put in to rectify the issues.

You've started another thread with the exact same post also. What is your link to the siblings/schools?

My children went to both of these schools and were present when the wrong play and head teacher scandals happened. Both of these schools are awful. Avoid them both. State schools are better than these two schools!

Dr Sturdy recruited the dodgy headteacher and ignored all of the reports from both children and teachers regarding his behaviour.

The wrong GCSE play may have actually been the result of a disgruntled teacher who didn’t get a bonus when the school was sold. (She actually complained to me… a parent, about the bonus!)

Landmark is awful too. My child was heavily bullied there and the teachers dealt with it by leaving them in another room to cry along as they couldn’t resolve the situation. They didn’t bother telling me and my child thought that I knew and didn’t care. They needed counselling after leaving this school and is still scared of going out in case they see anyone from Landmark. The class was small and claustrophobic. My child was bullied for getting good grades and for their race. Please, send your children to any other school but these two!!!!

That's so awful about Landmark, your poor child. I've had my fingers burned there too and they have no idea how to manage bullying and relationships and conflict as there is such a blurred line due to many kids being 'favourites' due to their parents' being so cosy with senior management team. It's just far too small.

My kids are so happy since leaving and are achieving much more, have more friendship options and at schools who actually know how to manage situations and follow their own policies.

I also have anxiety from this school and even seeing the school's name pop up on this thread made my heart thump and chest feel tight!!!

We had to remove our child due to totally mishandled bullying leaving us no choice however the "nice school " mask slipped when we decided (for his own mental health and his best interests) to give notice, however, because we didn't give a full terms notice, only half a term, we were liable for full fees. The responses from the Head were horrendous (don't be fooled by his nice guy demeanor) and other trustees were the same... and not budging. It's all about money. It's a business, please don't be fooled by their altruism and supposedly nurturing facade.

What was shocking is the number of kids who had mysteriously apparently "gone overseas" or some other tall tale as to why they had left, some have been at my child's new school!! They are also terrible at badmouthing any parent who writes anything but positive feedback on questionnaires, I witnessed this at a PTA meeting, awful.
Goodness knows what made up tale they told everyone when my kids left, but it won't be the truth!

Avoid Landmark, please!!! There are so many other schools, the senior in particular is rapidly becoming a very SEN school with a large percentage are autistic

I hope you got your deposit back! I didn’t give the terms notice either. I asked for the balance due after deducting the deposit and other things I’d already paid for and not received, and they tried to claim that I hadn’t paid the deposit that I HAD to pay when we enrolled! They had the cheek to ask me for proof that I’d paid it!

If you look at their statistics now, 1/3 of their children are autistic, but they don’t have the appropriate carers in place to look after them.

Also I agree with you on the blurred lines. One of the worst bullies was a child of one of their parent helpers.

I’ve held back on criticising the school until now as I thought I was the only one, but clearly not!

We had to pay the fees... ☹️, but that's another story!! Ugh, so we were out of pocket really badly. The finances all felt very unprofessional. We bent over backwards to accommodate concessions to the school over lockdown like paying some fees as donations and claiming gift aid etc etc Although I'm not an accountant so maybe that was normal? I'm so sorry about what happened to your child and sadly I'm not surprised by the culprit being a child who felt they had more power due to the parents involvement in the school, this is exactly what happened to my child. Shocking.

I have kept pretty quiet about the school too, wishing to forget those years and move on but it's interesting to know that it's not just us!! I think there are other unhappy parents out there too... so I have heard! For such a small school that's really dreadful.

Re SEN, my child in senior said their class had around 30% ASD at least so that tallies, and I'm talking, one or two of those who were really challenging and isolated, which was sad.

The downside of the "we are all one big happy family" trope is when something is questioned or doesn't fit the mould, no one challenges and they are in disbelief!! It was so shocking how we were treated by a school who we trusted. They need to stop believing their own hype and take a step back every so often!

I don’t know about you, but they seemed to try and “normalise” the bullying and also turned it back onto my child and said it was “their” problem and needed to make friends outside of school. My child was so shocked when they went to their new school. They were shocked that teachers never actually left the classes unsupervised. They were shocked at just how nice and nurturing their new school was! They weren’t afraid to go to school any more and realised that it wasn’t themselves that was the problem, but the school and how the children were left to create these horrible bullying gangs. The children at Landmark tried to strangle my child on one occasion. Racial abuse was normalised. (International school… really?!). I’m quite sure most of the children are local with behaviour problems. It’s absolutely horrendous and should be shut down.

I took my child out with little to no notice. You should have got your money back. Their morals are awful and this is displayed in the children that they supposedly love in their “family” environment.

After leaving, the messages my child received from those classmates were horrible. Swearing, name calling and other hideous threatening tones. We had to block them all on every platform possible.

I’m so glad we went elsewhere, as I’m sure you are. If anyone is considering Landmark International School, Fulbourn, Cambridge, for your child, please look elsewhere.

@weebleswobblebuttheydontfalldown I don’t know you, but I’m sending huge hugs your way! We escaped and saved our children!

@PrancingFairy gosh!!! That's so awful 😣. I'm not surprised though sadly... during one of the lockdowns there was barely any contact from the teacher. But when there was I noticed they seemed increasingly stroppy and short tempered. I'm not sure if they hadn't realised parents were listening? Anyway, I noticed that one kid in particular was being spoken to very harshly indeed. This child was a lovely bright intelligent inquisitive kid. I noticed this happened almost every time when this child asked a question. The teachers tone was awful and practically telling the kid off all the time. After a few weeks I contacted the head about some concerns and actually raised this with him as I wasn't happy to hear this child being spoken to this way so often. The heads response was aggressive and really unexpected. This was one of a few reasons why I decided to pull my primary child out. The bullying of my other child happened after and almost overlapped so ended up with both going at once to different new schools. This child was singled out and without outing who it was, it was a child of a different race to the others so I totally see that this could have happened to your child. I'm so sorry to hear what happened. I'm so pleased to read your child is in a much better school and so happy though 😄. Mine both are too, one of them said after his first day, "I've made more friends today than in my entire time at Landmark"!! Friendship opportunities are seriously limited at a school that size too.

Happy we have both got out and are on the other side 😅😅