Queen Ethelburga's College & Faculty, York

[marley007]

Anyone know anything about this school? Any experience of it? Impressions? Best and worst of QE? College or Faculty? Which is best and why? etc

They also massage their league table position by putting only the brightest (usually a very small number) in as College students. Everybody else goes in as Faculty. Allegedly.

Sister to Eadbald. That's another one for the baby names threads. Definitely outside the top 100.

As happygardening so rightly says, after being threatened with legal action for defaming QE (I said they were thin skinned, they did not like that)
I downloaded the whole unbowlderised thread for if it went to court.
It never did.

There are lots of schools that do not see the need to be two exam centres ......

Sister to Berengaria, if you have two girls.

As a poor lowly state school girl I stared at the adverts in H&H as a teenager. Begged and pleaded with my parents, but there was no money. Showed them the leaflets, pleaded some more, prayed and cried to be sent there.

My well off friends went to Casterton or Queen Margarets. No one I know who could afford boarding school was sent there.

Are they still connected with the people who run E&L insurance? Are they even horsey anymore? I heard they'd stopped that and aimed at the foreign academic market?

Can anyone name any other school that splits like this?

Either state or private.

No. Might still be a few schools streaming but even they report their results as one school, not two.

I don't think many independent schools offer vocational qualifications. Happy to be proven wrong.

I think it would always be wise to google the latest news stories when choosing a school

Perhaps also the name of the school + whistleblower as well to get past the most recent scandal news. Quite honestly with news like that getting into the media trying to bully innocent little Mumsnetters giving honest word of mouth, you could hear anywhere North Yorkshire parents gather, with legal action was a bit like fiddling whilst Rome burns.

For balance I drove past recently and the buildings are more 5* hotel catering to the nouveau riche than school. Lots of development too, though they are probably still cash rich from the sale of the old Harrogate site.

For context,
2015 Maths GCSE
College 84% A*-B
Faculty 30% A*-B

The whistleblower lost his case in the end

I don't see anything which enormously concerns me after a quick Google. I know the rep on here that the school has but as a parent, nothing which comes up on Google would hugely bother me.

When I have visited ( family member there) I felt like it was set up to be impressive and attract parents rather than for the benefit of pupils.
I'm not sure the average 10 year old sent away from home particularly needs so many expensive life sized horse sculptures!!

Downright-as you saying nothing to hugely bother any prospective parent,I certainly wouldn't be bothered that the first three links on google news are-
College given notice to improve.
Former Chair arrested....
Surveillance concern over private school with 500 ctv cameras...
I'm sure those stories are common to many schools...

The surveillance concern is a puff piece without anything to back it up. The inspection didn't go as far as the piece says in being "concerned" about the cctv. As far as detail is concerned, the news article is basically about a few kids reporting to inspectors that they didn't like the cctv. Well, kids complain about a lot of stuff.

The chair of governors is of course a concern, but the allegations are historical and he was removed by the school immediately. The school can't do much about a bad apple except remove him as soon as they find out. I'd be very concerned about any cover up but if it was dealt with in a thorough fashion that would actually be encouraging.

Lots of schools are given notice to improve. Again, for me it would depend how seriously the school were acting on it.

I don't see how senior leadership having a very poor grasp of safeguarding and no paperwork to show that safeguarding training had taken place could be a concern either. Especially when you don't bother to check the barred list before new staff start work.

There were comments on an old thread made by a parent with a boarding daughter at the school whose room was opposite / overlooked by that of a staff member which were..... Enlightening!

I have a child who goes to QE. It always amazes me, how many negative opinions and comments there are from people who have no direct experience of the school. QE has played a huge part in the academic and personal development of my child, who loves going there and we have no concerns about the school, only positive experiences.

I find it interesting that we never hear from former pupils on these threads. Where are they?

Happysoul1234,

Have you posted on any other topic?

(I am not very adept with mumsnet searching and whatnot, my efforts have showed no other posts by you apart from this one.)

The recent ISI report makes for quite scary reading.

TheFrendo,

That was my first post.

Wanted to post about my positive experiences of the school, just so people reading through the thread had some feedback from a very happy parent with current and ongoing experience of the school.

DD has friends that have being there and being severely bullied. a school to avoid imo

The school admitted to having 500 security cameras, so I don't see what extra evidence was required. And the inspection report said "“In the EYFS, it was school policy for staff to cover or stand in front of the cameras to shield the children when the children are changing.”" It wouldn't impress me too much, I have to say.