Is Peter Symonds worth a journey of over an hour?

[Inthesunnygarden]

My DC is very keen to go to PS for A Levels, but the journey is over an hour. Those with children their at the moment or recently, do you rate the college and is it worth a long journey?

My DD didn't go there (but had a 1hr journey to her college - it was tiring but doable), but I have friends with DCs there currently and who have just left. All are pretty happy with the college.

A few observations:

• it is large, and sometimes finding space to work can be hard
• you only get to go to parents evenings if college has a problem
• it is a good stepping stone to uni and it has been reported that those who have gone through this kind of college are more mature independent than those who have stayed at a school 6th form.

If you need good pastoral care I would definitely check out very carefully. At the college DD went to I felt she fell off a cliff for pastoral care, it was so lacking compared with school, despite their assurances at open evening.

(I also have friends with DC at Barton Peveril who are also happy, if that is on your radar)

My neice travelled for an hour to go there , it was a few years ago now but she loved it.

Thanks TeenTimesTwo and Cocolepew for the information. DC is very keen and it looks like it is possible from your comments.

I travelled an hour to college (not particularly far away, just required two buses) so I don’t think it’s too far.

My children are a way off that stage but my observation from what I’ve heard is that PS is great for academically minded students who are likely to go to university. There are better local alternatives if you don’t fit this model (and, indeed, other local alternatives for this model).

PS doesn't have high entry requirements like some school 6th forms. So if someone wants to do A levels they can do them there, even with 5/6s at GCSE.

Useful thread, have been thinking about this for DS, would take ages though. We’re not Hampshire but some locally go to Brock, DD did (waves at Teen!).

Not at all happy with DS’s current school for science so do need to sort something, have another year luckily. I think he’d probably be better at a College rather than school 6th form and is almost certainly going STEM route.

I think we are lucky to have such good choice. Within an hour from us I have PS, BP, Brock, Richard Taunton, Eastleigh & Sparsholt, plus Salisbury's 2 grammar 6th forms, a UTC and other colleges.
After DD1's experience DD2 will be going to Brock over my dead body (though we were probably just unlucky).

Lucky to have a poorly performing OFSTED rated "inadequate" UTC near you??

I travelled an hour to college and it was quite isolating until I learned to drive, as all my friends were pretty far away. That meant I missed out on the social life.

Cogger Thank you for that nugget. When I looked at the UTC online around a year ago for a couple of friends it hadn't had its Ofsted. I'm glad both of them decided against it.

Yes! Definitely worth it. My two went there and loved it (both now at university). Their journey was about an hour on the train. Lots of friends doing the same trip, all part of the fun and great for the independence. The academic provision is first class. Teachers passionate about their subjects. Pastoral care also good. Tutor system works well. Honestly I can't fault the place.

Also keep in mind that start and finish times vary according to their individual timetables so some days they'll start late or finish early. This is partly why the train is better if possible rather than the college buses as they're only one a day I believe. Train travel is subsidised btw, the college sorts out the passes.

My two both did Symonds by bus.
Up at 6:30 to catch the bus at 7am to be there for the 8:30 start
and then home by 6pm
its a LONG day

but they both loved their time there
are are now at University doing pure science degrees

The bus pass is expensive, but I am really glad both mine went there

PS Symonds "catchment" is MASSIVE
Kids from Wiltshire, Hampshire, Berkshire, Isle of Wight and Dorset all go there
the PSC bus map shows where lots of kids come from
and the tidal wave getting off the train each morning is amazing

parking around Bereweeke is a nightmare by the way

Dd did a similar journey to Barton Peveril and thought the effort was totally worth it because it was what she really wanted to do (drama), so if your dc feels in a similar way about academic subjects, then I'd say it probably is worthwhile.