First time mum - private school information (Cambridge)

[JinAndJuice]

Hello all,

I posted this yesterday and I think I posted it a tad late to get replies. Kindly one person did reply, but I thought I would post it again to get a few more responses.

I'm a first time mum and I'm looking to send my little ones (not of school age as of yet) to private school in Cambridge. A few my husband and I have taken a keen interest in,
are, St Faiths, The Leys and Perse.

We are both keen on a school environment where a child can explore and learn in different ways rather than just being glued to booked and are expected to sit for hours. We also want a school that has a good sports facilities and will push children who are good at sports.

A few things we don't want.

• All the children come from snooty parents (good and bad everywhere re parents).We want him to see people from different walks of life and not be in an environment that moulds children to judge others and whilst we can't control who are children are friends with, it's nice to have a variety
•Very strict teaching in the sense one soze fits all education
•Lack of sports facilities

What age also would be best to apply? I heard mixed things about what age to apply, some being when the woman is pregnant 😶

Thanks for your help!

In private schools you don’t tend to get a range of backgrounds. Everyone is very similar.

I ask as I attended private school myself and saw a few people from different walks of life, it was a lovely school. However, each school is different.

Kindly, the mix of children in a room private school do not represent all walks of
life. By definition they are fairly homogeneous. Of course there will be children whose poor parents had to “save” to get them there but they really don’t represent much variation really, do they?

IF exposure “to all walks of life” really is a priority for your children then maybe you should be looking for extracurricular activities outside of the middle class bubble of the private school.

The Leys school is a Methodist foundation school but very inclusive of different faiths

Friends are very happy with Sancton Wood.

We have children at st johns and have been happy enough up to now. we moved from state so expected the better facilities (they use university pitches which are amazing to have), but mostly we have been impressed with the quality of the teachers and their kindness so both my NT and ND child have been thriving. but the main thing I came to say is that the school has just got a new head who has really impressed us and DD is coming home talking about little things but important things. we were 50/50 between faiths and st johns and now so pleased we chose st johns. for us we see her as a really strong role model. if for any reason you didn't consider st johns or ruled it out before then go back and visit again under the new leadership.

Yes some parents save and go without holiday, second car etc to send their children to private school - but to generate £20,000 plus pa per child means you are already far better off than the majority of parents. Your child will be mixing with well off, very well off or obscenely well off. Don’t delude yourself your child will be mixing with kids from al walks of life. The kids my own children have benefitted most from being educated alongside in state school are immigrants or children of immigrants with superb work ethic and resilience.

Agree, for all walks of life, you need a state school.

Not sure where you are up to with your thought process but I wanted to add that we have had our boys at KingsEly.

As a teacher in the state system, I don't think there is a huge difference in the quality of teaching. The main difference is the ability to focus on teaching the children in front of you alters when there are 12-15 children instead of 30.

What has been different to friends with children at other Cambridge private schools is the development of the individual child. Kings are known to have incredible musicians, sports people, academics, and artists including an brilliant textiles department. The awards at the end of the year championing such a vast array of skills equally.
I would also add that it was a lovely addition for my eldest who tried hard at everything but didn't excel at any specific thing that he received an award for being an all-round good guy (that wasn't its name but it was the essence of the award).

Good luck with your decisions, :-)

We really really wish we had chosen SFCS rather than SF.

Hi JinAndJuice, suggest you ignore the snarky comment or two above. You’re trying to make the best decisions for your DCs :)

One factor that hasn’t been mentioned yet is whether you have a DS or DD. Some of the schools have serious problems with misogyny. While any parent may be concerned with misogyny at their DS or DD’s schools, clearly it’s a greater concern if you have a DD.

Feel free to PM if it would help, I’ve put three through private schools in Cambridge with varied experience.

We’re lawyers and went to private schools ourselves (one old fashioned public school, the other more modern) and then one to Oxford and one to Cambridge (with stint at Harvard). I say that not to show off but to point out that we know what it means to be “very academic”.

My personal view is that hothousing young kids has disastrous effects. Cambridge has a problem with this that goes beyond just the Perse. And the consequences (self-harm, depression, anxiety, substance abuse) seem to be becoming more pervasive rather than less.

happy to help if send me a DM. But I expect you’re all set up now.

I think this poster is going to be at Stephen Perse. Please update us OP where you choose.

@RecoveringLawyer72 i couldn’t agree with you more about hothousing. There are real costs. We put ours into a non selective 3-18 to avoid this.

SPF, in my first hand experience and some second hand experience, is wildly different across age groups. The diamond model offered real benefits but that was scrapped.

In the middle years they do take some of the children who are “asked to leave” from the prep schools who exhibit some of the most extreme disruptive behaviour.

I suppose one could say that’s a good thing if you wish for your children to be schooled alongside a very wide range of behaviours and to experience quite an extreme range of experiences. On the other hand you may decide this isn’t beneficial.

At Sixth Form I can’t honestly say I have any experience of SPF and would not wish to speak out of turn.

OP happy to discuss if you wish to, especially if you have a sense of your educational values plus the extra detail of DD or DS - as this is crucial in my experience.

When is your child going, at which age?
Are they male or female?
Are they playing sports at a high standard already?

Does it need to be Cambridge center?

To some respect this is your job as a parent.
Teachers aren't going to treat the poor kids differently, youre going to meet like minded parents at private school. Whether they live on an estate or an estate you wont see a huge difference because you have many more things in common - ie your children's education.