Haileybury - Any experiences please

[oftenlurkingrarelyposting]

Just as the title says... Thinking of DS1 starting at 13 (prep school until then) DD at 11 (senior school transfer for girls). Have heard great things and heard less positive things but mainly by hearsay so am looking for first hand experiences. Thanks.

My brother in law went and loved it! That was about 10 years ago though ...

I lived very close to the school as a child and it seemed at that time to turn out nice, well-mannered boys. At that time there were lots of overseas students/forces families - it may have changed now I guess, I'm going back 30 years. More recently the Matron of my ds x2 old school had her sons there and is very positive about it.

The facilities are amazing, I must admit I can't help having a good old look every time I drive past to see my parents.

Thanks for the replies - looks like I may have to go with my gut reaction.

My nieces went to Haileybury as day girls and it was one of only two schools my son applied to for boarding. On our first visit we didn't like Haileybury as much as we expected (which surprised us but it could just have been that it was a very gray and wet day!) but subsequent visits and contact really won us over. In the end it was a close choice between Haileybury and the other school and I'm sure that had we chosen Haileybury my son would have been very happy there. It seemed a well balanced school, sensible head. The teaching has always been at least good I'm told and the teachers care - special mention for outstanding classics department. No doubt that children will be able to achieve whatever they are capable of. The facilities are indeed excellent (eg amazing sports and DT) and I remember being very impressed with the high standard of maintenance and cleanliness. Food good too. We would certainly now be considering it for our yr 6 daughter but if she chooses boarding it would probably be to the school her brother goes to. I understand that there is a new boarding facility for the Yr 7 and 8 girls which will make them part of a mixed junior house - that is an excellent development in my view as a cosy mixed house (obviously with some separation) makes for a good boarding experience for the young ones. After Yr 7 and 8 I think it may work better for boarders because Saturday morning school kicks in and there is an array of after school stuff to do. Any child who wants to get involved would love that but the opposite if they just want to go to school and then slope off home. There is a one week residential summer activity holiday/programme which could be worth considering to give you a better feel for the place.

Thanks Dustylaw - I am going to look again and take a another look at Aldenham. I will be relieved when we finally make a decision!

They have a very large outdoor swimmimg pool (50 yrds or even 66 yrds) or did 35 years ago, that I swam in when our school had a swimming match against them. The architect had, apparently, not liked the idea of perspective making the other end look smaller so he made it wider to compensate. It meant that if you were swimming in an outside lane and you followed the edge of the pool rather than the lane rope, you swam further! It also meant that from the other end, the pool went to a point!