St james school Olympia - is it a cult?

[MissTS]

I was recommended st james school in Olympia for my child by their nursery due to our family being vegetarian. I looked on their website and like the fact the factor meditation and philosophy into their curriculum. However I then stumbled upon lots of information about the school being part of a cult?! SES kept coming up. Other than the fact I dislike cults as a whole I can’t actually find specific information on what makes SES so terrible.

i’m particularly keen to hear from people about the junior school. Does anyone have children who attended? Or know people who did? Were they happy there. Also how academic is it?

TIA

My DD spent one term there in the Senior school. I would be very cautious with the decision of enroll your DC at St James, especially if you’re thinking of the future and perhaps will want your child to remain through to senior. We also were sold on what is packaged to look like a school with a holistic and mindful approach to education however that’s not the case. My DD was served a great lunch for the first week and it quickly declined after that. It is most definitely not an academic school and this is one of my issues when it comes to consortium schools that there isn’t a standard across of the board for academic attainment. Please feel free to DM me, as we’ve been through the thick of it.

The previous poster seemed to have had a bad experience in a short time at the senior school. I cannot offer experience of this, because my son has only been in the Prep school for two years. But I have lots of experience of schools both state and independent, and I can say with some confidence that St James’ Prep is indescribably brilliant. I’m not sure what previous poster was ‘sold’ but it is the most wonderfully nurturing and authentic place. The education IS holistic, and they also are hugely successful academically (see results/future schools/universities). I also read something online about the ‘cult’ thing and I’m not sure from where it’s derived. The school does have a (nowadays unique) community feel - a parent choir, after school art lessons for parents and children together etc. The parents here have done their research. And the food is amazing?! Chefs come and go, I suppose, but son eats more variety at school than he does at home. Probably advisable to have a look at the Prep school for yourself.