a balanced view on the Private schools in colchester?

[mumsworldd]

Hello,

I have three little boys and we are soon to move to Colchester. We have seen that there are a few private schools there, but the websites are obviously great marketing and I was hoping for some honest reviews. The biggest thing I am looking for a fee paying school is mainly learning environment, collaboration between school and parents and the uniqueness of the child being nurtured.

My DS is a bright boy, whilst the youngest in the cohort (august baby) he is already excelling academically. He is super creative but not very much intro sports. He is also quite assertive and sensitive at the same time (yep it's possible) so a nurturing environment is extremely important as he shuts off if he doesn't feel heard/a part of the class.

Any advise or personal experiences would be greatly appreciated. If you have an experience with other schools near or around Essex, we would consider the travel for the right school, up to 45 minutes.

Many thanks

Colchester Prep & High School - Private School in Colchester is a lovely school, well worth a look, particularly if you're interested in an 'all through' school. If you'd prefer a standalone prep, have a look at Welcome to Littlegarth School | Private School & Nursery in Colchester, Essex.

Littlegarth is more Nayland than Colchester.

Holmwood House is quite a good one op l believe

Oxford House if you want a smaller school and the end destination aim to be CRGS, I don't think they do much in the way of sports there, parking is tricky due to its city centre location and I have heard that its competitive academically - I haven't heard that about any of the other schools.

Holmwood House is in the countryside and has lovely grounds, they recently expanded their offering to go up to 16 instead of 13 but I suspect quite a few leave at 11 or 13 for other larger schools.

Littlegarth goes up to 11 and is also lovely and again is in the countryside, its less than 20 minutes from the main Colchester station so its not that far out of town.

I don't know anything about Col High other than that its an all through school and city centre based. Probably worth visiting all of them but definitely worth visiting HH and LG.

Oxford House in Colchester is closing at the end of the year due to low numbers. St Philomena’s is in Frinton if that’s not too far to travel - lovely small school, nurturing and with a great head teacher and teaching staff.

Following with interest as we’re also looking to move our DD into independent for year 2 next year. We’ve narrowed it down to Holmwood house or Gosfield as we’re south of Colchester. Would have considered ox house but it’s closing down sadly. Wouldn’t consider another city centre one due to the parking/ traffic

would love peoples views on Holmwood house!

Out of the private schools in Colchester Holmwood House is known to be the more nurturing one with better pastoral care.

Littlegarth has lovely facilities but it is a large school and class sizes are much larger than other preps in the area.

Gosfield has improved over the last few years. It has also benefitted from the other private school in the village, St Margaret’s, reputation going significantly down hill so have gained pupils by default. St Margaret’s is Cognita owned and rumours have been swirling that it will be closed much like Oxford House due to dwindling numbers.

What are you looking for in a school? An all through school like HH or Gosfield will not be guiding children through entrance exams for other schools if you did only want them to stay for prep years.

St Mary's would be worth a look if an all girls school is an option for you @Ambitiousmama

Thank you - That’s a really helpful summary especially as we were also going to look at st Margaret’s in Gosfield. What sort of things have changed it’s reputation?

we have a DS as well so can’t look at at Mary’s sadly

I got the impression that Gosfield is mainly aimed at SEN pupils? I loved the facilities there.

@Ambitiousmama

Complaints about the head teacher, pastoral care, sports provision, arts provision, forest school. I rarely hear anything positive about the school. Lots of children have been pulled out over the last couple of years due to issues and intake has been small.

Gosfield certainly isn't aimed at SEN children but the pastoral care and SEN provision is significantly better than SM.

If you liked the facilities at Gosfield take a look at Littlegarth. The facilities are amazing I just needed smaller classes than they offer

@Lotsofnoodles thats great thank you.

I think I’m leaning towards Holmwood House - I like the fact they have two small classes so children can still mix etc. They don't seem to offer much in the way of extra curricular clubs in the same way Gosfield does but I’m hoping it’s covered in the day to day curriculum being broad. I have three children so feels like a big decision to sign them all up to a school without knowing a huge amount about it!

I’ll avoid St Margaret’s. Littlegarth is just that bit too far for us coming from south of Colchester. I considered new hall but it really wasn’t our type of school for prep.

If academic achievement is something you’re interested in st Margaret’s might be worth having a look at before ruling it out. Not a very sporty school though

Academic achievement again is something that has fallen in recent years at SM. There is a lack of specialist teachers compared to the other prep schools in the area. It is worth looking at though but it will fall short if you have liked the facilities of other schools.