How to get to Queen Ethelburga's

[Ladymom]

Hi, We visited and just want to share our experience to save the 'pain' for future parents.
Because Queen Ethelburga's is really remote! A long drive 50 pounds! from Leeds airport!
We took the train from Paddington thinking the train link would bring us to near the school. But even the nearest train station (as advised by the school) is not near the school.
Best book a taxi in advance before arrival. Do not expect taxi queues like in Asia, there was no taxi in sight!
And for return, the school will book a taxi for you but at a premium price. There's this taxi company that serves this 'premium' school and therefore pay premium price.
Impression of school, staff are snooty - we entered the office and the staff chatting did not bother to ask what we there for. So we sniffed around and asked before we were asked to wait.
To us, it is a business as some said.

[bluegiraffe]

Oh, this thread took me into late teenage dreamland. The QE leaflet used to drop tantalisingly out of my weekly horsey magazine and I would look through it and plan how my life would be if a) My parents could ever afford the pony I'd requested on my Christmas list EVERY year since the age of 5.... and b) Would ever be brave enough to go to boarding school.

It was the real-life Malory Towers to me!!

[MrsLandingham]

Ah! Thought it was odd that there hadn't been a thread on this....

[NWgirls]

Multiple (in my opinion) shocking allegations against the (apparent) beneficial owner of the school - follow the link in the previous post.

[HandPickedEklderflower]

Has there been a verdict?

www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/16258389.queen-ethelburgas-school-former-chair-of-governors-brian-martin-on-trial/

[yorkshireyummymummy]

[yorkshireyummymummy]

With regards to the OP

I’m simply staggered that rural Yorkshire isn’t more like Asia!
What a big bloody shock!
So when I look out of my window I see sheep and cows, not elephants.
I’m amazed the village shop hasn’t got a big row of tuk tuks waiting to take people home.

For somebody who is so sophisticated maybe it’s pertinent to check places out before you go in future because -hey! The rest of the world isn’t like Asia !!
Just watch an episode of All creatures great and small. Apart from faster cars and t’internet nothing much has changed here.

[totalcontrol]

How did they send out letters to Talkin and Rosie? How would they know who they were and where they lived.

[Truthseeker84]

If you follow the Foxlow money a bit more, it ends up in the accounts of a certain “Brian Martin;” could it be the same one who is on trial in Leeds? (Source: Panama Papers)

[CatAfterCat]

Who knew? On MN forever and I didn't know QE was like that childcare woman.
We live 50 miles from York and used to get a brochure from them every year. I never knew why as DC went to local comp. They did get A*s so maybe they were being head hunted

[Ta1kinPeece]

[Rosieposy4]

Like talkin, i was also subjected to numerous letters, and due to my current job reluctantly agreedd to the removal of my posts ( under a previous user name)
I actually stand by all of those posts, though obviously they were just my opinion, why would comments on a chat site be anything other.
My current opinion is that the horses will never return, the link above is very old and out of date.
They do have many good teachers, however the vast majority of those would never send their dc to QE, that of course is my opinion and in no way backed up by the fact that those teachers dcs are at every other imaginable school, including other fee paying schools.
It is my opinion that although external facilities appear superb, eg the statue park, many science lessons are not taught in labs as QE have not invested in sufficient labs for current pupil numbers.
It is of course my opinion that their results figures are massaged heavily not only by the two schools issue, but by the fact they offer full fees scholarships to high GCSE attainers, and that if you do not get 3 Bs at AS you are not permitted to proceed to the full A level and must do BTEC in a year (St Olaves anyone?)
Please may i make it very clear to anyone reading this post that this all only my own personal opinion, others may have a different view.

[Hoppinggreen]

Our family member was from a forces family - parents uk based but couldn't be arsed with her
She certainly didn't find it homely poor kid, she used to ring regularly and beg to come to us or other family members at weekends.
When we went to collect her quite a few minutes ther kids would ask if they could come too - felt like loading the car with the poor little buggers and bringing them all home !!
To be fair though I'm pretty anti boarding school anyway except in very specific circumstances.

[user1467835354]

Posted this info in the added-value thread but thought others would be interested due to the QE angle.

Many in Yorkshire and even further afield will be familiar with Queen Ethelburga’s frequent claim that they are ‘one of the UK’s top independent schools’ (sic). They often use league table performance based on A level scores (%A*/A) to substantiate this position. However, if you look at the Department of Education’s very granular data not all of their pupils are entered for A level; on average the College students are being entered for less than 2 A levels and the Faculty less than 1 on average. If all schools carefully selected which pupils were entered for A level and for how many, I’m sure that many would see an improvement in their league table performance!

Sadly, whilst there is a lot of information about schools in the public domain, it often requires a lot of effort to retrieve and analyse it, so it’s understandable that some parents are persuaded by attention grabbing headlines and 'generous scholarships'.

[QuestionableMouse]

Yes, we had lots of forces kids there when I worked there. It was a good job and I enjoyed it. Pay was rubbish though.

[ClashCityRocker]

They're very heavy handed on the advertising.

We receive brochures each year.

We don't have dc, but do live kind of nearby.

They did a heavy local radio campaign around gcse results time - my impression was that if you were a straight a* student they would pay your fees. I think they have quite generous scholarship schemes.

Tbf the facilities do look pretty good and I suspect its the right fit for a lot of kids.

My understanding (which may be incorrect) is that a lot of the boarders (as in a larger proportion than you'd normally find) are from forces families and families who don't live in the UK so therefore perhaps prioritise the facilities and homely ethos over the academic side.

[MaisyPops]

Ta1kinPeece
Fucking hell! (Excuse the language)

Unlimited personal costs?! Because a school didn't like a joke online?
They sound like a bunch of insecure bullies who are very concerned about their reputation (obviously for the purposes of the legal team the key words are 'SOUND LIKE' ). Does make you wonder why they are policing forums when they have a school to run. Surely some daft jokes online can't be that terrible.

This thread doesn't do anything to change my view though. I'd only heard snippets on the education grapevine.

[Ta1kinPeece]

Maisy
I had detailed conversations with MNHQ involving my full true identity and willingness to go to the high court to defend a defamation charge.
MNHQ were absolutely fab by the way
but potentially I was facing unlimited personal costs.
It was NOT AT ALL FUNNY at the time

All for joking about a school I'd never heard of till joining this site

[MaisyPops]

talk
You mean they actually sent letters!

I thought that was a daft mumsnet joke because they'd had threads taken down.
Sending arsey letters because you don't like what someone said on a forum seems a bit up scientology's street.

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

I always wondered how they might try and present that in a court of law Talk.

[Ta1kinPeece]

Rafals
As one of the recipients of the lawyers letters from the other thread, I have a copy of the "unredacted" version on my hard drive.

I was threatened with legal action because I posted that I was of the opinion that they were thin skinned.
They never saw the irony in their action.

[CamperVamp]

Vietnam? Laos? Cambodia?

[WestWithTheSun]

Which bit of Asia? China, India, Malaysia or all those weird little xxx-stan countries? Or the Arab countries and those close by in the near east? I know all of these kind of places, and they are all different from each other, and they are all different within each country. I've worked across most of the continent, across dozens of cities in Asia - such a big and varied place! for the last 14 years. I would hesitate to lump it all into the same bracket as the OP has.

[EssentialHummus]

You know @ladymom, when I travelled in Asia, I checked the guidebook before I set off from one city to another for info on travel, hotels, local customs etc because, you know, not all places are the same.

[MaisyPops]

ladymom
Why do people need to know countries in Asia? You're the one who is blaming a school for your inability to check the travel info.

We get it though:
You lived in Asia.
You travelled internationally and yet failed to consider how you were getting to a rural school despite the school putting travel info.
Obviously because you have money and are so jet set it couldn't be your error so blame the school in order to feel better.

[VodkaPenne]

@Ladymom I have actually lived in Asia.

I don’t get your posts. At all.

I hope you find the right school.