Cokethorpe

[Howtodoparenting]

Does anyone know anyone who has or themselves have any young children at Cokethorpe School? Do you know anyone who has been in reception or pre prep who has left?

Ha - no not at all. I don’t work there or have any affiliation! Just a passionate parent.

@Howtodoparenting
what did you not like about The Manor, St Hughs, and Abingdon Prep?
They are all co-ed preps with much better reputations.

It tends to be known as where you go if you can’t get in somewhere more academic. This is all changing though because of VAT and I am sure academics will go up as demand for day places in a mixed school go up. New head looks brilliant and has a great CV. I think it’s on the up.

That is still my opinion I'm afraid, having looked at other schools locally and seeing their position on academics (not just the results, though that plays a part in it).

I think we've narrowed down to Chandlings and Manor, both seem lovely, friendly schools with a good mix of pushing for the best and also pastoral. We'll narrow down our final choices after a few more visits at each

CT is now on our list as a 3rd reserve, should we not get accepted to our first choices, though to be fair, we probably would aim for a good local state primary and intense Tutoring if that was the case

Both of those would prepare your children for entry into their next schools whereas Cokethorpe will not be teaching children for CE or for 11+ entry to alternative schools.

Could I please ask how Cokethorpe supports its more able pupils? I know it has a broad range on entry, and I’ve also heard that the school isn’t very academic. I’d love to know if that’s just because of the broad range or if the standards are low across the board. Also, I’m a little anxious about their focus on sport: are non-sporty DC treated as lesser in some way, by staff or kids? Other aspects of the school really appeal, so I’d like to know what it’s really like!

Won’t miss the departing head at all.

Cokethorpe is well behind Abingdon, MCS, HellKats, OHS and HRO academically and in extra curricular.

good if you want smaller class sizes and willing to pay for it so you don’t have to go stateside.

nice campus though.

My son got into Abingdon on a scholarship but we still chose Cokethorpe for it's amazing pastoral care and it's approach to learning. We are thrilled that we did, we all adore the school and know that the more traditional private Oxford secondary schools would not have suited him at all. Abingdon gets great results but a lot of these results come from it's boarders. Cokethorpe actually had an incredible 'value added score' and from our experience gets the best out of the less academic kids while also nurturing and celebrating the talents of the brightest who get some amazing results. Cokethorpe all the way- and the new head is going to be incredible.

The departing Head once said to me during a rugby match "there's no bullying at Cokethorpe."
What kind of HT says things like that?
I also know for a fact that at the time my friends son was being bullied there.
That put me right off the school. I hope the new head will have a more realistic view.
I just don't know what Cokethorpe does better than the other schools?
If you really want pastoral/nurturing, go to Wychwood. I think that's the only school that can honestly say they know every single pupil. (because it's so small). At all other schools - including Cokethorpe, there are cracks to fall through.
I've just never seen it's USP.

I have a tour of the school scheduled for beginning of June. Our Daughter has recently been diagnosed with ADHD and despite being very naturally bright, is struggling academically at her current primary school - which is a fantastic state school, by the way, but I feel she really needs more nurturing and appreciation of her other talents (riding, gymnastics, emotional intelligence, strong will and huge empath).

If offered a place we will have to apply for 100% bursary, so we're not holding out too much hope. Does anyone have any experience or knowledge of Cokethorp's policy on bursaries? Are we being incredibly naive to even think she has a shot at one?

@DancefloortragedyBoarders only make up between 10-13% of the students at Abingdon. They’re certainly not responsible for a majority of the grades. It’s not just the grades either. Have a look at the level of Art, Music, DT etc and there’s no comparison at the amount the kids are achieving. If I had to pick one school to fold in the area it would be Cokethorpe. They’re attracting more than their fair share of SEN kids and behaviour isn’t great. They just don’t stand out in any particular way.

@dstoat but it’s a fact that Abingdon boarders are almost 100% high achieving students from China/Hong Kong and they account for a disproportionate amount of the A*s.

@laundryhamperYour maths needs work. 70% were A/A* and the boarders make up less than 15%…They aren’t all high achieving boarders either. We know quite a few with SEN who were sent here for the pastoral support. They aren’t all superstars.

@dstoat. Your English needs work. Do you understand the meaning of the “disproportionate”?

I thought it would be useful to add another perspective for balance as our experience with Cokethorpe wasn't very positive.

I've NC as this could be outing.

Our DS started in reception at the school and whilst the first year was brilliant, the experience went down hill rapidly from there.

We found the teachers unsupportive, which was surprising given their SEN marketing angle. When we tried to approach them they were patronising and dismissive.

The kids spent too much time on the extras such as prepping for the endless plays and not enough on the core subjects (English and Maths). Everything seemed to be geared around marketing rather than academics in the primary school.

We ended up relocating to another part of the country and put our son into state school having decided we'd go back to private for secondary.

The state school assessed his academic level as being below where it should be and expressed concerns about the standard of teaching he'd been receiving at the previous school. Luckily it was an excellent state primary and they worked hard to bring him up to speed to the point where he was allocated greater depth in maths and above the standard in English.

He's thriving now and very STEM focused with a view to do maths at university.

In our experience, the problem with Cokethorpe was there was no real focus on academics it was more on just having a nice experience. So I'd agree with the previous posters that this isn't the school for an academically bright child to go to.

Driving through the lovely grounds used to make me quite cross thinking this is great but what about the actual learning! When we got the feedback from the state school I was furious as it was really clear where the money was going!

Plus the comment that there's no bullying there is laughable. I had to break up a fight where 3 senior school boys had one on the ground and were kicking him and laughing.

Re The Manor prep school, we visited there recently and the nursery had a plastic chair against the wall on it's own, in the middle of the room, with Thinking Chair written above it. I was so disappointed as I wanted my son to go there, but can't send him anywhere where they think that's appropriate at age 3.