Milton Keynes & Bedford

[MITMExtra]

Hello,

I am in Milton Keynes and I am weighing options for private schools. I am looking at MK Prep, Webber Independent, and Bedford Greenacre. I have three kids, so cost is heavy on my mind. MK Prep is far more expensive than the other options. Bedford Greenacre is impressive but requires a bus. Webber is the cheaper, closer option and seems fine, but not stellar. Does anyone have any thoughts? Given where we live, a state grammar is not likely to happen, so we are looking at the Bedford schools for secondary.

Thank you!

You can get into state grammars from MK. Royal Latin , Aylesbury High or Aylesbury Grammar , Sir Henry Floyd. Obviously the children would have to pass the 11+.

How about the Harper trust schools? Bedford Modern and Bedford Girls are comparatively good value compared to others…

The Webber used to have quite a poor reputation and be very tiny. It may have turned things around.

MK Prep isn't a true prep, it stops at 11. I think you have to have a reading age much higher than chronological age to get in, or you used to.

A few older children from Bedford Greenacre has transferred to other prep schools recently. No idea why. I don't know much about it, seems quite new and fancy.

Agree other Bedford private schools are good.

The other side of MK you've also got Swanbourne House, Thornton (if you have grls) and Aykely Wood.

Very unlikely to get into a bucks grammar from MK. Unless you are the best of the best and live on the right side of the city.
We have been very happy with our harper trust school.
How academic are your children?

I went to Dame Alice Harpur as a boarder...no boarding any more though. It was a good school.

Also went to Dame Alice and love the Harpur Trust. They were great schools. The girls schools have merged now.

Ex Bedford High here! 👋 I agree the Harpur Trust schools are very good, though they are fairly academic which isn’t right for everyone.

I had a long coach journey to get there and honestly, it was fine. That said, I gather these days everyone is just glued to their iPhones the whole time and there’s no interaction with others.

Bedford greenacre is a recent amalgamation of two older schools -St Andrew’s girls and Rushmore boys. Used to be considered slightly less academically selective but I wouldn’t know if that’s true anymore. It would be a reasonable choice for co-ed I would think.

Greenacre doesn’t have a good reputation locally. I would look at the harpur trust schools which are not much more in fees and significantly better all round.

2 children in my family have gone to Bucks grammar schools from MK (not my children)

Ex BHS girl here too - there’s loads of us! I don’t know about the MK prep schools at all but I’d pick Harpur Trust over Greenacre. No entrance exam to the latter and it does result in a lot of children with additional needs and some year groups in particular have struggled with behavior recently.

Lots of good things said locally about BMS, BS and BGS. Slightly sad to hear they just sit on the phone on the bus. The bus girls in my year always had the best boyfriends 😂

It is, of course, not impossible. But it is very difficult. The further away from Buckingham or Aylesbury you are the less likely to get a spot. You have to be the best of the best academically. I teach on the Bedford side of the city and have had some very gifted children, with very high 11+ scores still not get given a place. They simply don’t live close enough to get one. Bucks
grammar schools are not really an option for most mk kids.

I have to go back 5 years to think of a child I know from mk getting into the grammar.

Both my family kids went to the Royal Latin.

Do they live on the Buckingham side of the city? When did they get in??
It is possible but extremely competitive. Anyone can aim for the grammar schools but they need a back up plan.

@Smartiepants79 You don’t have to be the best of the best. No spaces are reserved for the highest scores in bucks grammars. Allocation to the grammars is ultimately about catchment areas and who lives nearer. If you score 122 and live further away than a dc with the highest score, the 122 gets in if there’s spaces in line with the admissions criteria. That comes down to distance in the end, not score.

Ha, I had a lovely BMS bus boyfriend, for 3 years! 🤣. We’re in our late forties now and still meet for lunch once a year. (Sorry to OP for thread derail but your comment made me smile).