Surrey Independent Schools for Boys

[Iwishiwasonabeach99]

Hi! Have just started process of looking at senior schools for DS1 and trying to get a handle on the lay of the land.....what do you recon is the current view on how do the following senior schools rank in terms of how "academic" they are:

Kings College School
St Johns Leatherhead
Epsom
Reeds
Hampton
Claremont
Halliford
RGS
St George's
City of London Freemans

I grew up around here so I have very outdated views which I think I need to shed!!!

Thank-you!

Eyeroll

Doh! Just realised you were referring to the new GCSE grades.....clearly I am still stuck in the land of primary education!

So (as a teacher) do you think that kids at independent schools (and good state schools) are going to get the same grades no matter where they go to school? So basically we are all getting ourselves in a flap about going to the "best" schools when actually it does't really make that much of a difference? In which case we should be looking at journey times/extra curricular/cultural fit etc?

School is not all about academics.

GCSEs aren’t that hard for a clever student, so they can do well regardless of the school.

What a poorer school may not deliver is the oportunity to study the subjects they want, or the number of subjects given curriculum balance, timetabling and staffing constraints.

Gosh - I'd never even thought about that. I guess you just assume that an expensive independent school would offer all the GCSE/A Levels that a child would want to take. I think I'd be pretty cheesed off if my DS' couldn't sit a subject because the school couldn't fit it into the timetable?!

But I guess what I'm really getting at is the fact that there is a lot of hysteria (at least there is at my prep school) about getting into the "top tier" schools - almost as if their DC's future will be ruined if they miss the mark for say, KCS, RGS or Hampton etc....when in reality I would have supposed that a fairly similar quality of education with a similar outcome can be achieved in the tier below. I can understand if the child is very intellectual and needs to be surrounded by lots of similar intellectual types but although DS1 is very bright (mean CAT score of 137) he is not like this - his free time is spent playing sport at a very high level and he also loves his PS4! Yet other mothers look at me in horror when I suggest that I might NOT sit him for KCS or similar type schools and that I would be happy with a Reeds/Epsom type option as his brother could go there too. It makes me feel like I am in some way failing him as a parent.

Gosh - I'd never even thought about that. I guess you just assume that an expensive independent school would offer all the GCSE/A Levels that a child would want to take. I think I'd be pretty cheesed off if my DS' couldn't sit a subject because the school couldn't fit it into the timetable?!

There are always going to be limits at any school, independent or otherwise.

I would expect a top public school to be able to recruit specialist staff for all subjects, and expect subjects to run wit just a handful of students opting for them. You won’t always find this in the maintained sector.

What area is your prep school in?

Reading this thread with a lot of interest as we've been mulling all this sort of stuff over recently.... I wish, I think you are absolutely right about the hype / peer pressure / HM's ambition that surrounds the school choice. I've been doing some reading about the possibility of VAT on fees, and came across this eye opening article in Spectator. It's from 2017 and a lot can change in a year, but it made me think about who these schools are gearing themselves towards and serving. Thought the HM from Kings was spot on and v. interested about the value added data, which backs up Crafty's observations. I have this nagging and growing doubt about the bubble.

Location and logistics / a school that can broadly suit all my DC / outstanding pastoral care / inspiring teaching / school demographics. My priorities are shifting. Not sure where that leaves us with school choices though. .

Surrey

Sorry, link didn't work.
blogs.spectator.co.uk/2017/04/vat-fees-greedy-private-schools-coming/

Ruggles - ditto that about HM's ambitions. They have to get a certain number of children into that "top tier" otherwise they won't be able to attract children in the future....when I met with my head to discuss future schools I felt I was given a list of schools that were in a certain category of "selectiveness" as opposed to a list of schools which suited my DS' personality.....

Why do you think these selective schools would not suit your son? Are they in the top tier of selectiveness or the bottom?

I’ve worked in two Surrey prep schools and felt that they both wanted to match the boy to the correct senior school.

You can’t really force fit a boy into Eton, for example, for your own marketing purposes.

CraftyGin - the issue is I have two sons. DS1 has been steered towards KCS/RGS/Hampton and they all look like great schools. However DS2 who is in the year below is not as academically talented as DS1 and and my gut feel is that he would probably be borderline if not an outright "no" for this same set of schools. For lots of reasons I want them to go to the same school so I was trying to get a feel for which school in the next "tier" down might fit the bill for both of them.....

Just to clarify, DS2 is bright too - just not "top of the year" type of bright.

Are you looking at only day schools? Is it for 11+ or 13+.

Do your two boys have to go to the same schools?

Just spotted 13+ - that’s what my DSs did.

Is your DS getting ready for pre-testing?

We had a similar issue with our 2 DS, except DS1 was the slightly less academic. Luckily both got into RGS and both are doing fine and going to the same school is a huge bonus.

My younger DS did the exams for Hampton and would agree they are hardish as our the RGS.

In terms of Reeds, I think it is a fantastic school (headmaster ex RGS and seems very switched on to academics) and definitely not as easy to get into these days. Boys who got into St Johns didn't get into Reeds. I can totally see why people would like St Johns, beautiful grounds and Co-ed along with lots of wealthy parents all very happy with the school (I know quite a few of them). I would visit both if you are keen for your boys to go to the same school. I would not get hung up on league tables as your brighter DS will achieve in a good teaching environment (Reeds and St Johns are clearly good). Halliford which I haven't heard much good about-it also seems to be for children who didn't get into any of the other schools? St Georges is back on the up from what I've heard and not as hard to get into. It is definitely easier than the Hamptons/RGS level, worth a look at too.
I am sorry I don't know about the others only visited Epsom and thought it looked amazing.

They don't HAVE to go to the same schools but I would just prefer it. They are very similar in personality type, extracurricular interests and get on extremely well together - they even have common friends as they are so close in age.

Of the list in your OP, which could the boys get to, easily, by themselves?

You might be happy to drive them in Y9, but will grow tired of this by Y11.

Even if they take a school bus, what happens if they stay late for a club, training or rehearsal?

I know I hark on about independent travel. It comes from having five kids.

The travel point is a good one - we aren’t walkable to a train station or decent bus routes but we are walkable to where most of the school buses go from....Ideally the school would be close enough to a train station so they could get the train back (5 minute drive away) when staying late. I work from home so quite flexible.