Colfe's School South East London

[spurs123]

We are considering moving our DS to Colfe's school for his GCSEs. Does anyone have any recent experience of the senior school?

We went and visited and felt like it was a good fit but it would be a big upheaval for our DS and a big financial commitment for us. The reason for considering the move is that the independent school provide more options at GCSE level, a few of which our DS is very interested in. His current school do all the 'standard' GCSE's and options.

Any advice much appreciated and if people have moved their DS in year 9/10 did they settle in easily in the new school?

In short my advice is to pay attention to local state schools, as we found this worked for us.

Over 35 years ago my Ex attended Colfes School. With that, we both decided the same for our twins.
After 2 years of fee paying, we were advised to take our boys out, as their educational needs were not being met, (our findings were the level of education has since dropped). In contrast, when placed in a state school just outside London our boys both excelled. They are now brokers.

If your child is academic then send them to Colfes, if they are not, go elswhere as they don't dare for the less bright kids and they get left behind. its more about the grades for them rather than the well being of all the children. And if you get caught misbeahving don't ever hold your hands up as punishment for honesty is considerably worse than if you lie yourself out of a situation.

If your child is academic then send them to Colfes, if they are not, go elswhere as they don't dare for the less bright kids and they get left behind

Interesting, I thought exactly the opposite. It used to be a state grammar school (in those days my dh attended), now it's private. I had the impression it lowered its academic standards when it started asking for money and was more interested in facilities. It certainly isn't up there on the league tables.

If your ds wants to do GCSEs that his current school doesn't offer, you could look to see if they are available elsewhere eg via distance learning - if he's happy to do extra work. Otherwise, if they are more "hobby" GCSEs eg photography, why not do it as a hobby and forget the GCSE bit.