Hampshire secondary schools - Kings, Wildern, Wyvern and Thornden

[mamapama]

Looking at the minefield of what is secondary school selection for my DD. Would love to get some views good and bad on the following schools in Hampshire. Kings, Wildern,Wyvern and Thornden. Thanks

All fantastic schools. Go to the one that is nearest/easiest to get to to make your child's life easier :)

excellent 6th forms in the area and as a former 6th form tutor you couldn't tell which of those the student had come from.

Get a house in any of the catchments and then sit back and relax
BUT
its house first then school place for some of them

and yup, the 6th form choices round here are fab for everything from boat building to medicine

agree with above

Thx for the replies, We are currently in catchment for Wyvern and dd is in Y5 and just wanted to get a feel for the local schools. Have visited Kings and this felt quite academic and Wyvern seemed more relaxed.

We are lucky to have such good schools in the area. We could move to thornden catchment as renting, but thinking would it be necessary as all the schools seem great.

I can only speak about Kings and Thornden. Though they come 2nd and first in the 'academic league', imho, they're very different beasts (though both comprehensives).

To me, KS feels like an old grammar. They stream rigorously so a DC knows exactly where they're at, sometimes forensically so, which is great if you're in, say 1B but maybe not so good if you're in 3C! I gather they also assume an ability in maths translates as an ability in language as I understand they're grouped together when it comes to setting. It's also big (330 DC intake). I have also heard that the school can be a bit divided between the high-achieving youngsters from the well-to-do leafy villages and 'posh' end Winchester, versus the massive social housing estate where the school is situated. It has a large catchment and in the past, DC from quite a long way away have got places but that will change with the reorganisation of the school catchemnts and rampant development in west Winchester. My sources are an ex-head girl and all the parents of Kings going DC I know personally.

Th feels very comp to me and feels to have a more relaxed atmosphere than Kings. It doesn't 'set' as such except in Maths and MFL. They in fact do set but you're more likely to find that personalities come into play, so that a DC who performs better at the top of his group might be getting better academic results as a DC in the group 'above', but that DC was deemed to be better striving upwards in his group, iyswim. If I were to criticise, it would be to say that one reason the school does so well is that it 'streams' by examination course, so only the DC likely to pass well do certain subjects- like Triple Science. They only do 'fast track' (90 DC out of 270) so you're only allowed onto the course if you're considered A- A* material. The intake is quite homogeneous as the school is set in a vair MC area which may or may not put you off! You have to live in the small catchment to get in.

All of the schools in the Peter Symonds / Barton Peverill orbit are big TBH : 300 per year is perfectly normal.

If you are a shoo in for Wyvern, relax and enjoy.

All good schools- we have personal experience of Wildern and really rate it- Ds has now left but DD still there. The teachers are enthusiastic and very supportive of all the intake. My Ds did very well academically and thrived- Dd also achieving well- most importantly though is that both were/are happy there.

I know children at Kings too- these children seem to receive more homework than those at Wildern but achieve similar results.

Ps I would be very happy with Wyvern as my catchment school.

DD is at Symonds with kids from all of the local schools : much of a muchness it seems

Thank you very much for your replies, steering towards Wyvern at the moment, visiting during the day this week.

My two girls go to Thornden and love it there. The school has a very strong ethos of working hard and that every child has potential to do well, no matter what their current level. Re the triple science, yes they tend to only offer it to the stronger pupils because the triple is done in the same amount of lesson time as the double - my daughter is not a natural A/A* for science but she has been allowed to take the triple option because she was very keen and they believe she will work hard.
I personally would not have been happy at a school where they choose their options earlier - I think some schools choose in year 8, too early IMO.
As for catchment, things do change depending on birth cohorts. If you look at the admissions data for September 2014, 32 out of catchment children got into Thornden from Link schools.

"Re the triple science, yes they tend to only offer it to the stronger pupils because the triple is done in the same amount of lesson time as the double - my daughter is not a natural A/A* for science but she has been allowed to take the triple option because she was very keen and they believe she will work hard."

So was my DS. We're now in the storm tossed waters of a DC who maybe should not have done triple, in retrospect..... although one who has not, unlike, apparently 6 pupils, been put 'down' into double!