Reed's school Cobham

[NoushieMin]

I would love to find out more about Reed's school in Cobham. I would love to hear from parents who have children at the school. Are you happy with the school, is it the type of environment that helps every child thrive at the things they are good at, or is it a particularly pressurised academic environment?

We are considering applying for this school for my son, but you never really know if it will be a good fit. He is currently in a normal state primary school. He is bright but he isn't good at pushing himself without encouragement, so would really benefit from being in an environment where great teachers can coax his best out of him and help him reach his full potential, but of course I don't want him to be in a school where he is academically struggling to keep up.

He isn't particularly sporty, he enjoys lots of extra curricular activities such as coding, street dance, drums etc but a school where sports is the main focus would probably not be right for him.

Is the entrance exam really hard? He generally achieves between 70%-80% in his end of year assessments, but i'm sure with more encouragement he could be scoring more in the 80s. The private school sector is very new to us so I really don't know anything about the entrance tests.

Thank you so much

@NoushieMin , you need to find a tutor who can assess your ds and advise on the level he is working at. For the schools you are mentioning on your threads your ds needs to be prepared re how to sit an exam etc. Ask on the local east Molesey facebook page for a tutor recommendation.

You don't choose a school like Reeds at the start, they choose your ds at the end of a long process - at end of year 5 there is a summer of preparation, the grammar exams from Sept of Year 6, then all the independent schools exams, interviews after Christmas, results at Feb half term and state school offers around 1stMarch.

@tennissquare thanks for this advice. We will definitely look at getting a tutor in September to figure out which schools might be suitable for him. At this stage I’m just trying to get a feel for the schools that we think might be worth applying to.

@DaniCK , Reeds is a good school, easier to get into than Kingston Grammar but harder than Claremont Fan / Halliford. It's very sporty, Tim Henman went there and the tennis and swimming is an elite level. There is virtually no football and lots of rugby.

The sooner you get your ds assessed the easier it will be to view schools as there are many in the area and they cater to all academic levels and types of education ie Hampton Court House.
Radnor / Kneller Hall and Thomas's in Richmond are the newest (Thomas's is very expensive and not easy to get to from Molesey).

How do you go about getting your child assessed? Would a private tutor do this?

@NoushieMin , either ask a current year 6 parent who has a dc going to a local private school in September if they know anyone. Or google a company like examberry or search on the local facebook groups. Due to Tiffin the area is awash with tutors etc. (You can't get into tiffin without preparation outside schooling because the exam is so near the start of year 6).

Hello OP, I’m a parent of a current student at Reeds. Happy to chat in DMs if you want to pop me a message. We have been very happy with the school since the start and glad we chose it above others in the area.