Coke Thorpe vs OLA

[Pind]

I wondered if anyone has recent views (I.e 2019) on these schools (secondary). I'm looking for a Co-Ed day school with small class sizes and excellent pastoral care for DS who is currently at small village state primary. He is bright and sociable but probably wouldn't thrive in a hothouse environment or a state school with very large class sizes and year groups. We visited OLA and liked it but are not at all religious so were put off by the 6 compulsory masses a year. We are in rural Oxfordshire so Oxford based schools are not feasible due to traffic/travel logistics.

Would have thought Cranford House should also be on your list with those criteria. Better GCSE results from a non-selective cohort than either of Cokethorpe and OLA and not in any way a hot house.

Thank you NeedingCoffee, I didn't know about Cranford . It looks perfect, although maybe on the wrong side of Oxfordshire for us. Definitely worth a visit.

I see that they are only accepting boys to secondary school next year for the first time, which is why it probably wasn't on my radar. I'm undecided if that is a good or a bad thing...

They are apparently (friends with kids in current Y6) planning a cohort of 60 of which 20 will be boys. Already plenty of boys coming up from y6, plus 6th form boys joining at the same time so presume they’ll be all geared up. Definitely not for the ultra sporty boy (Cokethorpe better for that) but maybe ideal for the gentler soul.

He's definitely not ultra sporty but is a very boyish boy. His current school is 80% girls in his year. I think it's done him good but not sure he'd entirely agree

OP - I'd be wary of making a decision based on a simple perception of how religious they are. I think schools vary a lot in how honest they are about the amount of God they peddle and that is very relevant here. I'd also think more carefully about the so-called "hothouse" idea. There really aren't any hothouse schools in Oxfordshire. They are mostly in the Far East where extra curricular program might mean evening maths classes! If you boy is genuinely bright you might have a go for Abingdon which is a very well-balanced place to be and has a multitude of extra-curricular options as well as strong academic focus. I also think Cranford is an excellent suggestion, though I cannot see any classics support on their curriculum, but there is good support for computing and MFL.

Sorry for the slow response, payingfees. We have considered Abingdon but are not keen on a boys only school and, although DS is bright, he does have suspected dysgraphia and dyscalculia tendencies and we worry he might find Abingdon overwhelming (if he even got in). With regard to your comment on schools being honest about the amount of god they peddle, are you implying that Cokethorpe is more religious than they admit? Or is OLA even more religious than they admit (because 6 compulsory masses a year is a lot of god!) will definitely look at Cranford- thank you.

Kingham Hill? Don't know much about it though. But if Cranford is the wrong side for you it might be worth a look?

Isn't Kingham very, very religious?

I don't know much about it to be honest. 2 boys from ds's prep went there. That's all I know!

It does say Chapel every day on their web site.
Having said that, my ds is now at a school where they have Chapel every day, and it is basically an assembly in a beautiful building really. We are not religious at all as a family and it doesn't put ds off the school.

Thought I'd revisit this thread to say that we accepted an offer from Cranford for DS back in November and he's thrilled. We would never have considered it if it weren't for the advice offered here so thank you! It's a strange time for kids to be moving up to secondary, or moving or selecting a new school at all, so I hope we've made the right choice and things get back to something that resembles normal by the end of the year.