St Edward, Cokethorpe or other Oxford Schools

[Dinkydoos]

Hi there

I am helping a friend relocate to oxford with her children. They are hopefully going to The Dragon but my friend is unsure where they would go after. The eldest girl would much prefer a co Ed school but they mostly seem to be Boarding options like St Edwards. Her daughter wouldn’t mind Boarding a couple of nights a week but not really beyond that! Is there a big divide there does anyone know between Day pupils and boarders?
Cokethorpe is an option as can offer flex boarding but some of what we have heard isn’t that positive although it does seem like a nice school. Anyone got any recent experience they can share?
Any advice on other options would be great!

By locally I mean Oxford. There is a great bus service across the county. There are even collections from as far away as Swindon and Lechlade.

I would also add that D’Overbroecks is (imho) a weird one. Quite spread out geographically with an admin office and satellite classrooms on Little Clarendon Street and other buildings including boarding houses up and down Woodstock and Banbury roads. It also seems to be rather like a college rather than a school in this respect with a lot of foreign students. I don’t know anyone locally who would consider it for their own local kids.

Thank you. I'm from that end of cokethorpe catchment too

It's true that the sixth form branch of d'overbroecks is huge and has a wide curriculum but you can't actually study all those subjects lower down the school.

I think that for kids of around average ability who are also into traditional country sports or drama you might do very well at Cokethorpe. Just do your homework on culture and provision inside and outside the curriculum and make sure it fits your kids’ needs. It’s a small school and its limited resources are not, by a long way, focused on the needs of the academically highly able. MFL, computing and classics all under resourced or non existent, no proper orchestra and those 140+ acres contain no pool or proper running track but they do have 6 rugby pitches. Our nearby comprehensive is better for bright kids. Check the fit very carefully indeed.

I will have to disagree about the local secondary schools, I am afraid. Nearly all of the people who went to either of the two local to us have few positive things to say. Large class sizes, limited resources and poor communication with home are recurrent concerns.

My child is in the top sets for languages, maths and science at Cokethorpe. She’s studying Latin and will have the opportunity to study all sciences individually. Classics is also offered at GCSE. Spanish and French are also taught.

Opinions here reflect outdated views of Cokethorpe. As a parent to a highly able child, her needs are being met. Pastoral care is outstanding too, a complete contrast to the experience we had in a local primary for 7 years. It does depend on the child, but to be able to attain their very best Cokethorpe is a perfect choice. My opinion of course!

Check out their results and don’t take my word for it!

As a Cokethorpe parent in 2018 with up to date inside knowledge and several years' experience of the school there is nothing "outdated" about my views.

I won't be a 2019 Cokethorpe parent. I failed the parents' senior school entrance pre-test. Especially weak areas included: having no hostility to academic focus; thinking that learning a life-saving skill like swimming is more important than putting my kids at risk of head and spinal injuries on a rugby field or horse; being unable to process dodgy statistics like accepting that it is OK to claim 100% A*-B in A level Latin when one kid took it and got a B. I'm so crap I couldn't understand that this wasn't statistical charlatanism, and to make it worse, wanted to look at hard data for A level results in facilitating subjects rather than hear nice stories. I even thought my kids should study Computer Science and maybe Chinese. Silly me. That would take too much time away from rugby and horse-riding. And then there was me thinking the should have study leave to revise properly for GCSEs and A level. I am just not Cokethorpe material. Poor kids have to leave.

Shame, this hasn’t been my experience at all. I guess we are both ends of the spectrum......... not every school is the right fit.

As for the sport, nothing has been pushed as far as my child is concerned? Children can opt for fitness options over competitive sport?

It seems we have had very different experiences with our children. My views are my own, too.

Sorry you are so angry, hope the next school meets your expectations 😊

Hi - just wanted to add a couple of things to this discussion. First, Cokethorpe doesn’t offer boarding of any kind - hasn’t for years. Second, I think it is important to be aware that different people look for different things in a school. What is great for one is not so for another. It’s a market so rather than aggressive nonsense (earlier post), my view is that, if you don’t like what the school offers, look elsewhere.

From my perspective, the comments made about Cokethorpe not catering for the brightest kids seem rather alien. Quite apart from the normal diet of lessons, there are so many other things to stimulate them, from writing in the student newspaper to learning about dissection and attending some great lectures. It is not as selective as some other local schools, but this makes it more real in my opinion. Looking at destinations information and recent results, I’d say there’s good evidence that it caters well for a whole host of children. Anecdotally, everything I see supports this. Teachers are great - very professional and engaged.

I was just going to say that Cokethorpe is a day school. No boarding options as far as I know.
What about Headington?

Wychwood offers flexi boarding, but is a tiny tiny school - it doesn't suit everyone. But for the ones who like small schools it's brilliant.
Teddies - co-ed weekly boarding an option

What did you like about Cokethorpe?