Boarding School Caterham vs Epsom vs City of London Freemen School

[DadInstead]

Dear Parents, I am a returning expat Dad with two kids, minus a mum (long story) for 2014. Thus am keen to put my children, daughter and son, in a healthy/well-being boarding school (Y9+) with good education standards to help take care of my precious. I may need to commute to the city (earn the fees :() and thus thinking about SE part of G. London Short listed these three and my kids are already taking entrance exams. I am keen to hear anyone experience on these. Appreciate kindly.
(PS: I am chinese, made in HK but was brought up in sunny SE of England)

anyone for Dad?

I have no direct experience of these schools but my DCs have played Caterham at lacrosse & have been to camp with Caterham girls. My dds liked the sporty girls
& were happy to room with them.

A little bump for you.

No knowledge either but bump for the evening crowd.

We are returning expats from mainland China - I have no knowledge of the schools other than Epsom where my daughter will attend as a day boarder. We were very impressed with the school and my daughter is really excited to start there. The admissions team have been more than helpful and very patient with our repatriation worries!

I hope someone else can give you better advice and good luck with the move back

Everyone thanks for replying. This short list of schools came from several 2012 ranking tables (like BBC) narrowing down based on location=Surrey, type= Co Ed, Boarding for Y7-8, proximity to London and of course relative performance in A/O Levels. Appreciate for more feedback, thanks.

Is there anything specific that you want to know? All 3 schools have happy parents, and little movement (which again indicates that parents are content with their choices). In terms of boarding community all 3 schools have a significant number of HK children (as do many day/boarding schools). Caterham and Epsom are both a short walk from the town centres. As a place to hang out I would probably rate Epsom town centre ahead of Caterham town centre.

Unless you definitely need Y7&8 boarding (your op mention Y9+) I would add Brighton College and Sevenoaks to the mix, possibly in favour of Epsom College, though I haven't studied exam results recently.

Hi, our daughter boarded when we were expats, we are now back and settled in the UK.

Have you visited all of the schools with your children? Your children may have quite strong views and that will really help with your decision. Also look at how the boarding works, is it Monday to Friday, or is there Saturday morning school with matches in the afternoon? Do you have to take them back on Sunday night, or can you take them on a Monday morning. Don't underestimate how far the school is from home, as you will need to do the whole trip ie both ways, twice a weekend. If it is only you doing the driving, that may be quite a lot of driving.

If you are in the UK, your other option would be a local day school and a really good, live in helper/ student. There are pros and cons to both.

Any questions please pm me.

Hi everyone, sorry for late reply, as you can guess by now, I am in HK timezone :).
The town centre aspect is good to know, thanks Ladymuck (we from HK tend to like that too). Y7/8 is for my son and boarding is essentially a must, since I would be a single-working parent in effect with next to no relatives around (so if Epsom, they may have to be in separate schools, not ideal I know). Hi Lalamumto3, as from HK, generally most family with kids have domestic helpers (live in) as we are currently. This would be a good option but I heard it is expensive/difficult to setup in UK (correct if I am wrong), good thought though, thanks. I have considered Day options with helpers/baby-sitters, but with my situation minus a mother, I am siding with the boarding option to try to give my kids the best. No doubt I have heard advice that it would be tough for kids to start boarding Y7/8, but I guess it is what it is, option seems limited for us. fyr: I too was boarding in Macau (near HK) when I was 11-12, so am familiar with the feelings. As such more specifically, it will be good to learn more on these aspects of the 3 schools:-

1. Weekend leave for home options, flexibility (assuming full boarding); (I plan to have them home as many weekends as possible.)
2. Pastoral care; generally is it a happy place for boarders?
3. Facilities quality; cleanliness and tidiness (my son's a bit fussy :( ).
4. Handling bullies; I understand this is reality, but good to know of their severity, and promptness in remedies in these schools
5. Academic discipline, last but not least; HK kids are used to high workloads, whilst I disagree in principle hence part of the rationale to repatriate, I do prefer some degree of healthy-academic discipline rather than leaving to their own device, hence the choice of achieving-boarding schools like these three.

My children and I will be visiting the schools this month and will definitely be tentative to review their reactions and feedback. Lastly, if boarding works out, I plan to stay somewhere between Epsom and London area, so hopefully commuting both ways be ok.
Thanks again for inputs.

BTW: I glad to have found Mumsnet.... :). Very useful for me "DadInstead" :) LOL.

Hi Everyone, sorry been quite for a few months, as busy visiting and settling with final choice of schools. Good news is, both my kids are now accepted by Caterham and due to start this coming Sep. Moreover, I was happily surprised by a small scholarship for my daughter, a nice little bonus. Thank you for all your advice.
Happy Chinese New Year - Gong Hei Fat Choi (^^).

Congrats Dadinstead.

Caterham is a great lacrosse school, if she has time this she could do a week's lacrosse camp this summer to help set her up for the autumn. She would probably meet some other Caterham girls. There is a residential camp at Wycombe Abbey run by Shooting Strings, first week is 14 July. Another company runs a day camp in Chiswick for the last 3 weeks of the holidays. Send me a personal message if you think she'd like details - the school may also have some suggestions.