Thoughts on The Leys and St Faiths merger and name change

[Denim4ever]

Anyone heard about the merger of The Leys and St Faiths in Cambridge? The St Faiths name will be lost from 2028. The school will no longer be called a Prep and Pre Prep setting, they are opting for Junior, Middle and Senior for the school that's currently the Leys.

So what's brought about the idea of losing the St Faiths name? It seemed like they hit themselves a good headmaster in 2021 and he's staying on so doesn't feel like the right timing.

Any thoughts?

Seems to make sense to me - lots of people apparently didnt realise the two were already connected.

They're probably competing with the Perse brand/franchise

My take is you have other schools that are all through or effectively all through (The Perse, Stephen Perse Foundation, Sancton Wood) and more of the private schools are trying to set their pipeline from nursery and primary/junior school. Getting "into the system" at an early age can be advantageous for both parents and the schools.

It makes sense to link the schools more formally. As a parent, I'd prefer the reassurance that there's likely some continuity of progression. I really liked a particular pre-prep/prep for DS, but what put me off was that, at age 4, we had no idea if he would be academic or not, so it was unclear where we would send him at 13, or how intensive the application process would be for other schools, and it's just another layer of worry that I don't need.

I completely agree. When looking at nurseries and pre-prep for DD I felt very reassured by the idea that if she was "in the system" she would effectively get first priority for a place at the junior school and wouldn't have to go through multiple rounds of exams and assessments at e.g. 4+, 7+ etc.

Even if we later decide to move her, at least we know that assuming nothing goes badly wrong, she has a place and we don't have to put her through that. It wasn't clear to me that would be the case with St Faiths and The Leys when we were looking.

st faiths numbers are dropping - (them lost a lot of year 5 with perse prep adding another class in year 6) while leys is over subscribed for day places at year 9. both schools offering years 7-8 makes no sense, its inefficient. so years 7-8 from leys will be on st faiths site only, allowing more space to expand day places at year 9 at leys.
there are too many prep schools in cambridge for the demand. st faiths has just secured its future... so will it be kings or st johns to go in next 3 years