St Gabriel’s, Newbury vs St Andrews, Pangbourne

[Alice0350]

Hi all, I’m after some help please!

We live in Aldermaston and I’ve started looking at school for my little boy who starts school next September. He’s very sensitive and quiet and we’ve decided that he’d benefit from the smaller class sizes of a private school. We don’t want to force him down a highly academy route and want him to have the confidence to grow and discover what his passions are.

After going round to visit we’ve narrowed it down to 2 schools.

St Andrews (18 mins away) would be the obvious choice as more people in our local area go there so more likely to have local friends and the facilities were miles ahead, however I’m worried about the long school days when they get to prep (and early starts!!!). My biggest concern of all is the secondary school options as I don’t want school to be his entire world and most secondary options would have long school days and Saturday school.

What I loved about St Gabriel’s (17 mins away) was that it felt really homely and supportive and is fairly normal school days with access to better facilities and co-curriculars than he would get at a state school. It’s not highly academic or sporty so I worry we’re not getting good value for money as the facilities aren’t even comparable with St Andrews but I like the fact he can go all the way through without worrying about Saturday schools and long school days. Not many people from this area seem to choose St Gabriel’s as most seem to have gone to St Andrews so I’m worried his school friends will be quite far away if he were to go there.

Any help or feedback on either school would be much appreciated!

Thanks!

These seem quite different schools to me.

My main feedback would be that St Gabriel’s still doesn’t seem to have enough boys yet to form some of the team sports.

Less of an issue at reception but will be more apparent as he moves through.

I wouldn’t be thinking about if the school will be a good all through option just yet as you just don’t know yet what sort of school might suit him when he’s 11 or 13.

St Andrews has a very certain connotation locally - very aspirational middle class status/ destination school and in my experience the parents are ‘encouraged’ to play an active part in ‘the life of the school’. It wouldn’t be for me but it certainly suits some.

St Andrew's parent here and I can honestly say that it is a fabulous school. Happy vibe, ambitious but grounded kids, great facilities, and really excellent staff who take the time to get to know the children really well. I like the head a lot too: super high energy and ambitious for the school but also a really decent, down to earth guy.

I actually see the lack of an attached senior school as a positive thing, as it means the prep can recommend the ideal senior option for your child rather than simply pushing them through to the senior school. Note that St Andrew's does now have a (fairly relaxed) tie-up with Bradfield, which has always been a popular choice in any case, but children still apply to a whole range of senior schools tailored to their own particular talents/interests.

Contrary to stilll's thoughts above, I've actually found St Andrew's much more laid-back than some other local prep schools in terms of the expectations placed on parents. You can get as involved as much or as little as you want to get involved, and no one really bats an eyelid either way. In general, I'd say the parents are pretty laid-back and down to earth (although every year group can differ, I guess).

I wouldn't worry too much about the long days. It can seem daunting at first but the children soon get used to it and many quite happily stay on for clubs with their friends after school. Plus, like most private schools, the holidays are pretty long, which gives the children time to chill out a bit.

I'm sure St Gabriel's is great too, but you definitely won't go far wrong with St Andrew's.

Does anyone have more info on St Gabriel's?

Sorry - late to the game here. St Gabriel's is the only private school I know much about so no use in comparison.
I have kids at the secondary school, but have been to the primary school Christmas events. I can tell you it's a stark contrast from the local statec schools. The poise and confidence in these young kids is astounding.

In terms of sports, they are working hard to address @CrustyOldFrump s concerns. At the moment this looks like a big focus on competitive "traditional" male sports, rugby football and cricket. Prior to this it seemed to offer much more choice and be more focused on fun.

It's excellent and well known locally for us SEN support. It's very supportive, has good music, drama and art facilities. Excellent GCSE choices.

Uniform is no more expensive than anywhere else, and there's a brilliant second hand uniform shop.

I'm happy for you to message me privately if I can offer any more help.

We visited st Gabriel’s and were really underwhelmed with it - the facilities in our local state were almost as good and it seemed extremely expensive for what little extra benefit you got. And in terms of sports I think such small numbers of boys will hold them back for a long time. I don’t think you can compare to St Andrews. Even the head of at Gabriel’s seemed a bit underwhelmed by their facilities when talking about them. We’re now looking at a secondary school almost an hour away vs 20 mins to st Gabriel’s.

I agree that you can't really compare the two. St Andrew's is a classic country prep school mainly feeding into 13+ senior schools. St Gabriel's is an all-through town school going up to 18.