Pipers Corner, Buckinghamshire

[Hotdoughnut]

Looking for current views on Pipers Corner in Buckinghamshire, please. My daughter would be starting in Y7 next September. She's quite reserved, a follower, but so lovely and makes friends easily. Slightly above average ability but probably not enough for Grammar (sitting 11+ next week!). Think she'd be very well suited to smaller class sizes to reach full potential. Thanks.

Great if you’re ok with the ‘yummy mummy’ set, IME

This is one of my concerns. We both work and I am very much not a yummy mummy!

I don’t know any girls there currently, but I know a few who are starting Y6 this week (so would be in the same year as your DD if she joined next year in Y7) - this group are all really nice girls with really nice normal parents!

Tbh I’m not heard great things. Have heard there is a fair bit of bullying but i don’t have children there so it could be rubbish. Have you considered St Mary’s in GX or RMS in Rickmansworth?

Both my DDs went there, left 4 and 3 years ago now, but both me and my DH worked and there were many working mums.
Being able to drop them off early and staying late was really helpful with pick up and the girls loved it. They were both happy there and are still great friends with their mates from there.
i was really glad we chose it for our DDs.

We're further west, so they would be 30min without traffic unfortunately. I think the choice would really be Pipers or Berko Girls to stay within 20mins.

That's great to hear! Did they stay for 6th form?

Yes. One did an apprenticeship and is working in London sharing a flat with a Pipers friend, one is at Uni of Edinburgh.

I’ve heard good things about berko x

We looked around both and I have to say I much preferred Berko over Pipers Corner. But I have no firsthand experience of Pipers and I don't know anyone with children there. I know girls and boys at Berko and they are happy there. In the end we opted not to apply to Pipers and she had offers from Berko and RMS, we chose RMS and she absolutely loves it.

Thank you. RMS is further out for us, do you know of kids there from Wendover direction? I worry about having friends hours away!

What did you prefer about RMS vs Pipers, and vs Berko?

We haven't visited Berko, I had heard it was a bit of a hothouse so wasn't sure it would suit my daughter, but maybe that info isn't correct/outdated.

It was just gut feel, we felt RMS and their ethos was more suited to our daughter's personality. RMS seemed to support a wider range of interests, had much more in the way of extra curricular outside of sport (Berko was more traditional with sport, drama and music and not much else), and RMS seemed more about getting the best out of your child and focusing on their individual strengths and talents rather than striving toward a "finished product". Of course, this is all on gut instinct and we did really like Berko a lot. RMS was also much more diverse which appealed to us, as Berko has almost zero diversity. We spoke to as many parents as we could from both schools as well. Our daughter is loving school and actually looks forward to going every day! Our experience is that RMS has such a wide variety of girls with different interests and talents that there's no competitive atmosphere which is exactly what we wanted for our daughter.

We just didn't get a good feel for Pipers and the atmosphere amongst the girls there, but I couldn't say much more, it was gut feel and it just wasn't for us.

In terms of where people live, there are some from further away such as Tring, Hemel, St. Albans, and plenty coming in from within a 30 minute radius. A lot live around Rickmansworth, Chorleywood, Harrow/Pinner, Kings Langley, Little Chalfont, Gerrard's Cross and Beaconsfield. I think you will find this at any private school, it's pot luck where their friends end up living. I think it's more about whether the commute is doable for your daughter and is worth it for what the school offers you. We live much closer to Berko but felt that the distance to RMS was okay and it was worth it for us.

I would choose RMS over Pipers these days. Pipers was our second choice for my eldest six years ago. Absolutely loved it then (very creative, inclusive sport etc). Revisited two years ago for my youngest and the vibe had totally changed - very yummy mummy and seemed to have lost the oompf.

RMS has always been good. A bigger school, greater diversity, excellent pastoral, lots of people to “find your tribe”.

If you like RMS and Pipers though, I suspect Berkhamsted will not be your cup of tea.

Thank you, we've only visited Pipers so nothing really to compare to. How does Berko differ to them both? RMS is really too far away from us.

@Hotdoughnut Berkhamsted feels a lot more traditional and more of a “sausage factory”. The school seems to create a product - a very admirable and impressive one - but they very much do things their way.

Children are asked to leave at various points if they aren’t cutting the mustard academically and only allowing them to sit GCSEs / A-levels as private candidates if they are predicted below certain grades.

I have numerous friends with children there and they are unanimously happy with it and their girls are thriving. Not a bad word to say about it. These same people hated Pipers Corner and it was never an option for them.

It’s honestly just a different vibe thing.

In the Berko area there’s also Abbots Hill (very well known for pastoral) and Westbrook Hay (which has recently changed from a prep to going through to 16). I think Pipers is a better bet than those though but if you want to see somewhere to compare against then Abbots would be a good one to see.

Thank you. Very interesting. I'm not sure Berko sounds like a good fit for our DD to be honest (reserved, very innocent/slightly immature, creative, not sporty, slightly above average ability). I see they have an open day next week, may pop along. I loved Pipers, have viewed twice. But I can't ignore the negativity that seems to surround it. I'm coming to the conclusion that we'll just go with state if DD doesn't pass 11plus! For £30k a year it really would need to be an utterly outstanding experience and academic opportunity.

@Hotdoughnut I would honestly go and see Abbots Hill - it sounds like a perfect fit. Straight down the A41.

Also engage with Pipers Corner. You don’t have to commit until offer day. Honestly your gut reaction is always the right one when it comes to schools.

Assuming your local secondary modern is John Colet? My friend’s daughter has just gone into Y8. She had a difficult time at primary and has gone there and totally thrived. Her parents are very happy.

Yes John Colet, a 10min walk from our house. In many ways it would be fab to go local so she can stay with majority of her friends and have more independence by walking to school, friends houses etc. That's so wonderful that you have heard good things about the Colet - that has really made my day, thank you! Honestly we'd never have bought in Bucks if we knew what 11plus madness was like. It's so sad that many going to state feel like failures at such a young age. And in turn us parents are panicked into private as state painted in such a bad light. 11plus in 2 days time!

Will check out Abbots Hill too.

Good Luck for the exam! Honestly, not getting the pass mark is not the end of the world and a lot of kids thrive being towards the top of a much less academic school.

Also, not all schools are equal. My daughter passed the 11+ and we really wanted Aylesbury High - loved everything about it. I can remember standing in the school asking myself if the private schools we had been looking at were REALLY worth busting a gut and making compromises on family life to pay the £30k a year fees. The answer was a resounding no!!!!!!

I don’t think you get a better education at a private school. You are paying for smaller class sizes (so more attention), better facilities, better extra curriculars and less classroom disruption. The downsides are fewer people to find your tribe, friends located over a wide area (often without public transport connections), usually a longer commute etc.

In the end we got offered a place at Chesham Grammar which we just didn’t gel with on open days. She ended up at an independent school as we came into some inheritance.

Things to remember:

• Apart from the most sought after independent schools, places are available in most in Y7, 8 and 9. If state doesn’t work out you can always move her
• You only need to consider a school that will get her through GCSEs. You can always move somewhere else for sixth form (and many do!)
• Your daughter’s future really won’t be determined by the results of one test on one day. If she doesn’t pass then grammar is just not the route she is meant to go on. Having motivated, enthusiastic and supportive parents at home and being in an environment where the child is happy, are huge contributors to success!

I would go and see Berkhamsted and Abbots just so you have a comparison for Pipers. I think you’ll still have Pipers as your top independent choice after that but you’ll feel much more confident in your decision on where to go.

Can't thank you enough for your lovely posts, it's actually made me cry (I am that unhinged mum 24hours before the exam, lol). Really good point re moving for A levels, I have heard of quite a few Colet kids moving to Grammar for sixth form. I wonder if many in private move to non-private for sixth form, that would be a way of justifying less expense (we have 2 younger children too!)...

AHS is also our preferred school, we absolutely loved it when we visited, it's like a dangling carrot! But what will be will be, and I can totally see that being top of a less academic school could do my daughter wonders. Thank you so much for all your advice!

I wouldn’t send my daughter to the current Pipers - it’s a sinking ship - my friend has more than 1 child in the school and pulled 1 with no notice - says it all. Bullying is out of control. 1 mother who did have x4 kids in the school is “poster girl” seriously her or her kids appear in every school promo - they are all toxic and have caused so many leavers - bullies - mother and kids! Look seriously and don’t believe all you hear!

Oh gosh I'm very sad to hear that. My DSis sent her three daughters, my nieces, to Pipers and they all loved it in their different ways - three more different sisters you couldn't hope to meet, and Pipers drew out the best in all of them. That was ages ago, though, because they're in their 30s now! Sad to hear it's going downhill.

We have been in Pipers for 6 years. Unfortunately, the comment above is correct, it is a sinking ship. There are some great teachers but they must be pulling their hair out under the current leadership team - its disappointing. I wouldn't pick it again but we are stuck now.

Honestly, would not recommend. Pulled my daughter out in year 9 after joining in year 7. Teaching facilities are alright, however, pastoral care was awful. Bullying was, unfortunately, very common in her year. We had asked for help to stop some of the bullying, but the head of year did absolutely nothing (I suspect this was an attempt to not upset fee-paying parents).Thoroughly upsetting and disappointing. Subsequently, my daughter’s grades had fallen quite badly. Fortunately, we were able to take her out before her GCSEs, and at her new school she was much happier and it definitely showed up in her grades that was she finally reaching her academic potential. Overall, a truly upsetting experience - I had sent her there with the idea that it was a somewhat ‘nourishing’ school, yet it was more like a negligent haven of anguish. It also seemed that the head mistress never had anything positive to say, all she could do was trash-talk other schools grades to make pipers seem a fraction better; like shiplake, for instance. On top of this, almost every time she had given a speech it was about the dangers of phones - which I agree with, to an extent - but I think making it the pipers only topic of interest is rather, uninteresting.