Woldingham school?

[sunnysunnysunnyday]

Anyone. A friends daughter is considering this school. It is a single sex RC boarding school. It does look lovely and both mum and girl appear to be positive about it, but she wants my opinion.
I dont' have one. Do any of you have any knowledge of it?

hmm tricky one . Reputation is for the not-so-academic, well-off with a particular emphasis on the performing arts. Having said that I know of some bright girls who seem very happy as day pupils there. Not cheap though and apparently has a fair % of girls based abroad.

I think she's interested in happiness and stability. Her DD is not as bright as her son.

Forgot to thank you.
Anyone else with a view? It does have its own railway station.

Woldingham Station is in the school grounds. Mini buses pick up from the station at designated times, as it is still a fair walk up the drive to the school from the station!

Where does your friend live? There is a mini bus service for the day girls living in certain areas. Certainly from Purley/Kenley, and I think from Sevenoaks area too.

Does your friend's DD want to board, or go as a day girl?

She is based abroad with her DHs job who will be paying.
Many thanks for the input.

I have 2 daughters who board and are very happy. They are in top sets and really enjoy all the extra-curricular activities . The school is known for it's amazing pastoral care!

My goodness, are we still going on about the school not being academic and the arts??!! Goodness me, didn't you see the ISI report from March this year. And the word on the street, at least SW London is the complete opposite. They are in top 1% for value added, their grades speak for themselves... My daughter is loving it, and they are really stretching her academically. The ISC latest census report only states about a quarter of their girls are from abroad, which fairs very well with other schools. I just love their community spirit and that the girls seem so happy and are allowed to be themselves. I know it isn't cheap. But I have chosen to make that investment. Note: investment :)

I have a friend whose DD goes there. She absolutely loves it. She lives in Purley and wants to board! From what I've heard they push the girls academically and the pastoral care is great. It is expensive though in comparison to other independent schools.

Smashing thanks. She is tossing up between Roedean and Woldingham.

sunny we too have friends who had DDs at Woldingham and they were very pleased with it. You mention your friend is abroad. Has she checked how many boarders are actually at school at the weekend. I believe that the boarders are allowed out from lunchtime on Saturday until Sunday evening or Monday morning. That can be a long time if you are one of the few at school.

We found it was useful to ask a current boarding parent what the numbers are like at weekends as schools can be creative in their use of statistics!! Plus also worth checking how many international students there are and the variety of countries they come from as overseas students often form the core of full boarders. A friend took her DD out of another school as her DD was the only DD in the school at the weekend who didn't speak Chinese. The girls were lovely, but the weekend was their downtime and understandably they wanted to speak their native language. It was though a smaller school.

We went to see both Woldingham and Roedean. We had no doubt that Woldingham was a nice school with a caring ethos. Caveats for us was that it did seem to empty out at weekends apart from those who had no choice and they didn't seem to have a lot to do ie we saw them waiting at the station to go the the nearest town but that was a bit boring to be honest. That would worry me if I was living abroad. One other caveat was that I thought the head had a difficult task in having to balance the expectations of different sorts of Catholics (or non-Catholics) from different parts of the world. We knew pretty quickly that Woldingham wouldn't suit our daughter.

We then went to see Roedean - just thinking we ought to see it but with no serious expectation that it would suit. It turned out we liked it a lot and the more we saw it the more it suited. Obviously a lot of that is personal preference but one thing which might be relevant to your friend is that the school has a high proportion of boarders based overseas - some expat and a lot foreign. That's often presented as a disadvantage but I think Roedean has always had (or certainly does now) a cosmopolitan air. On a practical note what it means is that the school does not empty at weekends. There are loads of girls there and the school week just keeps on going over the weekend and even the leave weekends. So no small huddles of girls who are the only ones left in school. Also Brighton has a lot going on and is nearby and convenient for visits. I think the school tries to balance supervision with freedom in terms of heading into town at the weekend (goodness knows if they get it right of course but life isn't easy where teenage girls are concerned!). But at least Brighton has some buzz to it.

Anyway, it's a personal choice but those seemed to me to be two big differences between the schools. I certainly wouldn't get hung up on academics because it was clear that any reasonably motivated girl could do excellently at both.

My children go this school and it is amazing. More academic than people think. Loads of children get only A or A stars in their exam results at GCSE , AS and A level . My children are really happy. Pastoral care is outstanding. Boarding and day girls are completed integrated. I am never sure which of my children's friends are boarders and those who are not. The percentage of international students is not very high. It certainly does not dominate the school. I was worried that an all girls school may be bring out the worse in girls but found the opposite. One of my children was at one stage in a mixed school and I found the girls in that could be very catty. Great fan of the school.

forgot to say loads happen at Woldingham at weekends. Saturday active every Saturday morning . Activities and outings every Saturday afternoon. My daughter a day girl keeps wanting to join them !. The ones at the station are older girls who opt out of Saturday afternoon activities and are allowed to go one stop on the train to Oxted. As they get older they are allowed up to London. The girls see these trips on the train as a big treat and part of gaining responsibility as well as refilling tuck box with all their favourites. There is something every Saturday afternoon such as ice skating, cinema and then Chinese supermarket, blue water, swimming in Olympic pool, tour of bbc studios. Weekly boarders are allowed to leave from midday Saturday but there are still loads of people onsite. About 350 people board. I think it is a matter of view. I did a training course at Roedean school every weekend for two months. All I saw was a lot of bored children waiting for Taxi's to take them into town. There seemed to be nothing organised.

Qwerty - you've resurrected every old zombie thread there is about Woldingham? Why the bombardment?

I'm loving the idea of the older teenage girls excited to jump on the train to London to refill their tuck box. Here's to a spiffing midnight feast in the dorm on their return.

Why are there FOUR threads about this school??

Five, in fact! I'm wondering whether their numbers are down, to be honest.

There were loads at the tests this year, so I dont think so.

Known locally as school for rich but not highly academic girls. Saying that, they get good results. My old boss's daughter went as a day pupil but asked yo board as all her friends were going swimming, dancing etc when she was being picked up by her mum. She also failed her first year of uni - sometimes these types of schools can spoon feed a bit too much. Lovely grounds and facilities. Carey Mulligan is an ex pupil