surrey school for mr sensitive

[groundhogmummy]

Coming to the end of year 5 and am beginning to wonder if the sought after, great results local comp is the right place for ds. DD is there so we know the school well.

He is not RGS material but is reasonably capable academically. Struggles with 'alpha male' type environments if that makes sense. Loves sport but again not A team material ! Not shy, but sensitive.

I know it's rather late in the day and part of me thinks that big schools offer the opportunity to find your own like minded group but equally I am beginning to feel that he will just endure 5 or so years.

Any thoughts from parents of similar boys welcome !! We've had Halliford recommended but it is a bit far, G'ford/Cobham would be better.

If the highly thought of Comp is GA then it might be just the place for him. It's big enough to have a wide range of students, there is a lot of geeky and less sporty students there.

Reeds.

Sounds just like my son who is just finishing GCSEs at Reeds. Perfect. Not cheap though, but quite a lot more is included compared with many others.

Thanks both.

mummytime no it is not GA but the other similar one ! It would be less of an issue if he didn't like sport and was more 'geeky' tbh... He perceives that popularity and friendships are governed by sport in his school and, despite my constant bolstering, sadly this does effect his self esteem.

I suspect at the comp he would not make the few teams put out due to numbers and then training is very divisive between team/non team and i could see him just dropping out, which would be a shame. He could of course keep up out of school clubs but I think to improve you need more than once a week and he'd enjoy more than once a week as well.

Waitingandhoping2015 as a 'sporty' school do you think at Reeds there is a 'pecking order' depending on your team level? ie after a year do those in the C/D teams drop out? It might have been the boy that showed me round, but I got that impression at St John's.

DS started at Reeds at 11+ and they have a small intake of about 40 until 60 more join at 13+. Though this can vary significantly.

They did rugby, hockey and cricket in the 3 terms. Given the small intake pretty much everyone plays in the A, B or C team. DS was only interested in cricket and so was A for that and B for the others. He also did other sports and enjoyed shooting and started golf. By the 3rd year with the new intake less boys play for the teams but they usually have a D team also I think. So at that stage you do find yourself dropping down the pecking order, but as DS did you find your own things to do - he was never that keen on rugby or hockey anyway (and had never played them before).

I wonder if he's at the junior school my DC went to? It was described to me by someone who sent her DC there as a 'free Prep school" and certainly was in terms of sport.
I've found senior schools much better, especially as other primaries don't take sport as seriously. One of my non-sporty DC is thinking of joining Orienteering.

At St John's I know one boy who didn't enjoy it and transferred schools, and he wasn't sporty. I did think Reeds was a bit sporty, but that might suit your son. Have you looked at Salesian in Farnborough?