Culford / Thetford Grammar, Suffolk

[diabolo]

I'm favouring Ipswich School for my DS at 13, he is at a good, small Prep at the moment.

I've only ever heard negative things about the above 2 schools. I will visit them nearer the time but wondered if anyone on here actually had personal experience of either and could offer me an opinion?

They are nearer to my home than Ipswich and I don't want to discount them merely on the opinion of people who don't actually have children attending.

I would go for Culford over Thetford Grammar to be honest.Are you thinking of boarding or day?

I know Ipswich school well,pm me if you like.To be honest academically it is in a different league to the others and facilities wise definitely would wipe the floor with Thetford.It is not for the fainthearted though and is academically strong ,what about the Cambridge schools?

My DD, was offered scholarship for Ipswich for yr 9, this coming sept. She also was offered scholarship for woodbridge. We have chosen Woodbridge, DD actually made final decision. Results are pretty much similar, both offer similar excellent extra curricular, but somehow Woodbridge has a completely different feel to it. It isn't as academically selective as Ipswich, but that doesn't seem to have affected their results. (94% a-c).

Thanks for your replies.

I do prefer Ipswich and my DS is academically strong, as well as loving his sport (hockey especially), which Ipswich also excels at. It is likely that several of his friends will go there too, which always helps.

delillah247 Ipswich run a bus from near my home which is why I can't really consider the Cambridge schools or Woodbridge, Framlingham etc - just too much of a faff to get to.

We're not the richest of parents either, so a day school is our only real option.

It sounds like Ipswich would suit very well!

Not sure where you are, but Woodbridge has lots of bus services, lowestoft, hadleigh, bury st edmunds etc. We are quite a way from Woodbridge, (much closer to Ipswich) but the bus service works better for us, than the Ipswich service. Ipswich seems to be a fab school, so good luck to your DS, I am sure he will love it. We too are not rich parents, luckily DD was awarded a scholarship, if not she wouldn't be going. If DS academically strong, presume you are going for scholarship, 13+ tests at Ipswich are tough, so best of luck to him xx

Thanks again. Not sure if he's quite scholarship material, it tends to be mainly girls from his Prep that get the academic scholarships, some of the boys get "all-rounder" which I think will be our best bet.

We can just afford the fees without a scholarship if we continue as we are and I work p/t which also helps. A scholarship to Culford would bring the fees down to around Ipswich level, so we might consider that too - but I've heard that a lot of the parents there are super-mega-wealthy, so it might not be for us.

Guess I'll be going to lots of open days / evenings come the Autumn.

Thats the impression we got from Ipswich, super-mega-wealthy, felt a bit out of our league. But I know that some of children are there on bursaries, so that can't be the case. It was just our perception. DD is OK with the fact that some of her peers will undoubtedly have access to more funds than us, but as she says she hasn't got half the stuff that her friends at state school have, so nothing will change! I think I have more of an issue with it, I would hate for her to feel left out because we can't afford for her to do what her friends are doing. But like I say, thats my problem not hers, she is just so grateful to be given this opportunity.
One thing to look at when you go visiting, is what is included in the fees, ie. woodbridge fees, more than Ipswich, but include lunches, day trips, school books etc. I am sure you have already thought of all these things. Most schools seem to have cut the amounts they give for scholarships and seem to give more to bursaries, (charitable status?). Some are more generous than others, Ipswich cut off at about £40K i think, Woodbridge £57ish. If you don't ask, you don't get !

Don't know whether it helps, but I was actually at Culford for 5 years and, genuinely, I'd say that most of us had the time of our lives! On paper it's not as 'academic' as Ipswich but that's simple to understand - it's smaller, in a rural rather than urban area and pretty broad in its intake (deliberately - it's a Methodist school and therefore tries to create as 'normal' an environment as possible!). The 'value add' is more important to look at than the headline grades IMO. Certainly when we were there, there were some amazing teachers and, out of 80-odd in our year, 12 of us went to Oxbridge with a full clutch of 'A' grades to boot. So I'd say, if your children are academic, then there's no reason why they wouldn't do just as well at Culford as anywhere else, particularly with the scholars' programme which is open to everyone. The key things about the place, though, are a) the atmosphere and b) the location and facilities. The former is friendly, supportive, energetic and conducive to developing lifelong friends (we still probably retain more friends from Culford than anywhere else). The latter is unrivalled - beautiful parkland, outstanding facilities and loads of opportunities for extracurricular activities. My parents were just average middle class folk who forewent holidays etc. to send us there, as were most of our friends' parents - the megarich were definitely in the minority! All I can say about Ipswich is that, when we used to play them at sport, they were renowned for being very aggressive and not very nice! They were also a bit pretentious considering that they were only in an ex-grammar school in a horrible town (meeow)! However that's quite possibly bias as interschool rivalry was very strong :) Best wishes with whatever you choose but I'd definitely give Culford a visit.

sianf - thanks, I've been to Culford loads and know how amazing its location and facilities are, so I appreciate your thoughts on being schooled there.

Culford is an easy 20 minute drive from my home, Ipswich is 75 minutes for DS on a bus, but the fees are circa £15K per year (day), opposed to £11K for Ipswich. Finding the extra £4K would be hard.

I wish I had a magic ball to tell me what to do!

delillah247 we are well above the threshold for a Bursary so can't consider that - but I will look at Woodbridge, I haven't so far as it is even further away from me than Ipswich.

Cheers everyone.

As a mum myself, I have followed with interest this thread because my own daughter is a pupil at Culford. I am also the Registrar at the school! It is wonderful to see the lovely things that SianF has said about her experience here and I think that what she has written speaks for itself. I did, however, wish to say that the best way to make your mind up about any school is to come and visit. We, along with most schools, welcome visits at any time and I am especially keen to dismiss any thoughts that we are stuffy or unapproachable. We pride ourselves on being a friendly and caring school. We also have a variety of scholarships on offer, as well as bursaries, so please do get in touch if you feel you would like to know more. And we always encourage people to visit other schools too; we want choosing Culford to be exactly that - a positive decision, having weighed up the options! Good luck with your search.

KarenTompkinson - thanks for your reply.

I will definitely visit nearer the time. I find it very odd that the people I know who make critical comments about Culford, DON'T actually have children attending.

I'm not a "sheep" and will certainly make up my own mind. My DS knows a lot of boys from Culford through his hockey club, and they are all, without exception, really nice kids.

Bare in mind how tired your ds will be with such a long bus trip every day especially in winter. Dd and ds3 took months to get used to an hour long journey from our home to Norwich every day.In winter they were leaving for school and coming home in the dark and by the time we had tea and they did their homework it was time for bed. If your son likes sport and is likely to be playing in matches at weekends you are likely to have to get him there very early on a Sat morning too. School completely took over our lives and we ended up moving nearer to the city.

ona - we have considered moving nearer to Ipswich if that is where he ends up. It is worry to me that he'll be leaving the house at 7am and not getting home until 6pm every day (if he goes to Ipswich) and then having to do hours of homework.

And the state Upper schools here (Bury St Edmunds) are good as well - I will certainly have a look at those. I was accused on another thread of being "elitist", however both me and DS have got friends (some from his current Prep) who will be attending those, so as long as I'm assured when I visit, that bright, sporty kids get every opportunity available, that is an option for us too.