ACS Cobham or ACS Hillingdon?

[MrsSchadenfreude]

DD has played football against Hillingdon and was not impressed either with the students or the facilities. She went to Cobham (basketball this time ) and was blown away by the facilities and said the students were really friendly. If she goes to Hillingdon, she can be a day pupil, albeit with a bit of a long commute, but if she goes to Cobham, she would have to be a weekly boarder.

Anyone with any experience of either school for a reasonably bright, sporty 15 year old?

Cob ham seriously Hillingdon is a sh* t hole.

Ah, that is what DD said, but not quite in those terms!

wow, how is www.acs-schools.com/acs-hillingdon.aspx a sh*t hole?

Or is it just bad compared to ACS cobham?

(Seen ACS cobham and it was spectacular so if relatively hillingdon is not nice, I agree, but otherwise Hillingdon (from website photos) looks a lovely old house and fab, as you'd expect facilities inside?)

What about ACS Egham? It has a lovely campus.

DD1 said that Hillingdon looked tatty and as thought it needed a good clean.
Egham don't do the all-important international schools sports tournaments...

I have a child at both Egham and Hillingdon and to say they look tatty and unclean is really NOT correct! We chose Hillingdon and Egham because they are smaller and more intimate schools. Egham due to the IB for my Daughter and Hillingdon for my son as he wants to go to University in the US and AP's are a better solution for him. Egham does do the International Sports Tournaments but they do the ISSA's instead of ISST's and have just had a fantastic new Sports centre built. Hillingdon is an old Mansion house with modern facilities built in large grounds. You don't get many other schools with that much green this close to London! Both my children have said the kids are really friendly as its a smaller school and have been made to feel very welcome, more so than at other international schools they have been to. No one school is going to be a fit for everyone but I would certainly take the time to visit and judge for yourself rather than put too much stock in one persons negative (and questionable!) comment.

Karenjane - it was my daughter - who will be going to the school, who commented on Hillingdon, so I think I need to pay some heed to her views. She has played sports against both schools, and overnighted with families from both Cobham and Hillingdon, and her impressions of Cobham (the school and kids) was more favourable than Hillingdon. We'll also be living in central London, and I'm not keen on the daily schlep out to Hillingdon, so it would be better if she went as a weekly boarder - which Hillingdon doesn't do. We will visit both. The DDs have friends at Hillingdon, and I don't think their parents are wildly impressed with the school, although this may just be sour grapes because they didn't get into ASL, which they had set their hearts on, so nothing was going to live up to it!

Hello,

I am moving to London imid-Aug 2017 and we applied to ACS Cobham for our younger son (going to 4th Grade this fall). Next year, our older son will also join us after finishing his 8th grade in US.

I wanted your advice on housing. My office is in Central London (Waterloo station) so perhaps Esher, Kingston on Thames or Wimbledon? What would you suggest? Many thanks!

TASIS is an american boarding school in the same area, might be worth looking at as well.

Wimbledon and surbiton have fast train services,
Kingston is a slow line.

We went to TASIS and ended up liking it much more than ACS due to the smaller feel of the school and flexibility it offers to accommodate individual learning needs/interests....it will be a harder commute for me though...

Honestly I would go with Cobham if that's where DD likes, (as we always say, go with your instincts!)
I can appreciate it will be a real wrench for you having her board, but let DD think it over at least.