Radley or Charterhouse?

[Coroico97]

Can anyone offer a view? We have a place at Radley for our son, and liked it very much when we visited. We have also visited Charterhouse and liked it.
By the time our son is 13 we will be living pretty much between the two. On paper it seems simple as we have the place at Radley so no tests, etc., apart from CE of course.

I realise that Radley is full boarding but it seems there are matches, chapel, etc., that parents can attend so hopefully not as brutal as full boarding meant in my day. I note Charterhouse are also introducing more activities at weekends so there would be a choice between weekly or more full boarding there. The new headmaster was very impressive too i thought.

Our son is at a London prep school. He is not in the top set but is average or above in all subjects. He gets a lot out of pretty much all areas such as art, DT, etc., and is very sporty (although not rugby so much yet, which i know is a BIG thing at Radley).

I suppose what i am asking is, what are the main differences between the two apart from the full and weekly boarding aspect? They have the same CE requirement (which of course we have to meet for any of this to be relevant!) They both seemed similarly impressive! I get a whiff of 'you've got to be tough to survive at Radley', from various people. Is that a fair assumption? Both appear to have amazing pastoral care and both say there is little bullying these days. I know schools change a lot over the years and much 'hearsay' info i have is perhaps out of date.

Thanks for any pointers.

Hi

What year is your DS in?

Don't underestimate the ability to come home for a day and night at the weekends just to "get away from it all". Boarding school is very intense and full boarding suits a certain type of character. I think you've heard the " need to be tough" about Radley because 90% of the boys who go there have boarded, most from 8....so they are tough.

Friends with DC at R are very happy with it - because of the admissions policy (on the list at birth) it makes the school very homogenous - there is no diversity. It is a lovely campus, sport, especially rugby, is big....but music and art are also strong. V strict about CE passmark.... academics are very thorough. New Headmaster so he might make some changes...slowly.

Friends with DS at C are very happy with it - I think it takes from a broader prep school intake, is weekly boarding - everyone we know there goes home at the weekend without fail, although is putting on more activities to give the international students something to do, has girls in the 6th form, does the Pre U. It is a football school (they don't play rugby)

Which one does your DS want to go to? Which do you think would suit him better (diversity, football, girls in 6th form, pre-u, weekly boarding vs very english, rugby, all boys, full boarding)?

HTH....Good luck

A pretty good description of both schools by byebye. Radley is definitely a "man up" type of school. It's not really suitable for the rugby phobic sensitive.
Friends with DS's at Charterhouse say it's pretty academic but there's also more fun in the early years than found at others. The Pre U of course is significantly harder than A levels, I'm not sure it's a great option for the "average or above", I think in your position Id want to know if subjects he might be drawn too are offered at A level as well (they seem to offer both) or even if they plan to continue offering it. It's not universally popular and not been taken up as widely as it looked like it would be when it was in the development phase. I do wonder if the planned changes in A levels mean that in the future all schools currently offering it, bar one, will stop offering Pre U as it is so much harder, getting the top two grades is really difficult.
Radley interestingly does AS and A level at the same time at the end of yr 13, (or at least it did) this has the advantage of there being a break in exams between yr 11 and 13 which IME this is a relief for many children but it does mean that universities scrutinise (I)GCSE results more carefully.

Hello, we are based in Asia and our DS recently got an unconditional offer from Radley and Charterhouse for Sep 2017 Y9 entry. Radley suggested DS to sit their academic scholarship exam in March based on his entrance exam results and interview with the Warden. DS is quite social and well-rounded, plays rugby and hockey as major sports and cello at Grade 6 level. I have been keeping an eye on this forum for quite some time and would appreciate any input you may have. I understand Charterhouse has a larger cohort of international students than Radley, which is more traditional, but that the school empties out on weekends. Is this true, and are overseas students pretty much left on their own on weekends? In particular, I would greatly appreciate your views on 1) the pastoral care and 2) academic standards (i.e. is one school considered more academic than the other) at these two schools. Thank you in advance!