St James Ashford Middlesex

[wakeupandsmellthecoffee]

Someone said it had an unusual past.What did they mean?

[matilde]

Do you know what, I wasn't sure about the compulsory sanscrit, meditation and vegetarian food either, but sanscrit my son has surprisingly enjoyed (and it's not compulsory throughout the whole of their schooling), the meditation is about quiet time and actually I think there's nothing wrong with a bit of quiet during a lesson. The vegetarian food am less happy with but can deal with that, he can have meat at home. The main thing for me is my child is happy, the teachers are fantastic and he is doing really well there. I haven't seen any evidence of weirdness and oddities and haven't met anyone yet who has. Go visit and see.

[castlesintheair]

The SES side is something you have to be comfortable with. Personally I am not, so have ruled it out. You also really have to go and look at the school to decide. I know a few people who have boys there who are not SES (as far as I know) and are very happy with it. Apart from the SES ethos, it's compulsory learning sanskrit, vegetarian food and meditation at the end of every lesson. Not my cup of tea but as I said, lots of people are happy with the place.

[Elibean]

Oh - the only other thing that my neighbour says is different, apart from veggie food and Sanskrit writing, is the five minutes quiet time at the start of lessons. Which sounds quite nice, really.

[Elibean]

We have a neighbour with a son there, and a girl at the girls' Junior School. They are very happy with it, and are down to earth non-religious people. They found the Sanskrit learning a bit odd, but the children actually enjoy it and the pastoral care is what really caught their eye - their son had a hard time in his primary school, and needed a bit of peer support to overcome fears etc. He's turning into a very nice, normal-seeming young man, tbh.

As for the little girl, she is a mate of dd's (dd is at the local state primary) and hasn't changed much since changing to St James - still very much herself.

I'm a bit put off by the reputation too, but at the same time know from experience that reputations outlive reality for far too long - and the only way to know is to look around, ask questions, talk to children and other parents.

[matilde]

hi, i would strongly urge you go and look at the aschool and make up your own mind. My son is just coming to the end of the first year there and hand-on-heart we are really happy with how he is getting on there. He is confident, happy and doing well!

[BeingFluffy]

I knew someone with a son at St James and a separate family with a daughter at the girls school in Olympia; while I haven't seen the parents for a couple of years they were generally happy with the schools. Good teaching, nice staff, nice kids. Obviously absolutely horrific abuse happened to kids there in the past but they appear to be more mainstream now. I don't know how many kids are SES and how many are not.

They had both chosen them because the kids did not get places anywhere else and one is very local. The girl's Mum thought they took the religious bit rather seriously but apart from that it was fine. The boy was doing well and predicted A/A* for all his GCSEs. I used to pass the girls' school on the way to work and thought the girls were oddly devoid of make-up and not at all teenagery.

I would have a look at it and make up your own mind if you are still interested, but with your eyes open as to who runs it and the past events.

[takeonboard]

Its run by the SES (School of Economic Science) a religion/philosophy which strangely everyone who is a part of tries to deny!
I have heard that all the teachers are members of the SES and are recruited on that basis i.e. not necessarily qualified. There is a lot of stuff on here and in the press about the SES and the schools, most of it isn't good.

[wakeupandsmellthecoffee]

oh

[majurormi]

Run by a quasi cult

[HilaryM]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_James_Independent_Schools