Day/ boarding schools in London and South-East

[365ijustwannadrinkwine]

I’m looking for an independent day or boarding school for my ds (12) for next years 13+. He’s relatively sporty and plays both club rugby and cricket though prefers cricket. Due to corona I obviously haven’t been able to look round many schools so I’m looking for opinions. We also have a ds (13) at St. john’s leatherhead although both me and dh have concluded it isn’t right for him.
The schools we’ve shortlisted are:

Whitgift
Epsom (seems snobby)
Reeds
Charterhouse
Blundell’s (too far but dh attending so willing to sacrifice)
Dunotter
Brighton College
Caterham
City of London Freemen’s
Radley (one can dream)
Teddy’s Oxford

Obviously this a long list but we do already have some favourites but would really appreciate opinions to help cut it down so ds isn’t left doing 10 exams.

You are quite late for some of these schools. Some pretest in year 6 or Nov of year 7. There is also quite a variety of schooling's there. If you are at a prep is the head advising?

Schools not schooling!

We completed the admissions process for Radley, Brighton, Charterhouse and Teddy’s about a year ago but have come to realise we might want DS closer to home like our eldest. Currently ds attends the prep division at a through school with little movement at 13 so have done most of the admissions work by myself.

OP, you may get a boarding place at somewhere like Epsom if they are having oversees boarders withdraw due to Covid. Teddy's is meant to be lovely with a heavy London intake.

Cranleigh, Trinity (if you can access Croydon), Hurst, Ardingly, Christs Hospital . Depends whereabouts is close enough to "home". Some may pretest for deferred entry but also have a standalone 13+ exam. If he likes sport Dunnotar probably not best choice and mainly intakes at 11.

we got the feeling that Teddies was changing a lot when we went around and whilst on paper was ideal for our child we decided in the end not to register. It seemed to becoming more London centric

Another vote for Cranleigh here.

Charterhouse for sure.

Avoid City of London Freemen's - it's absolutely awful, huge amount of bullying, it's a really hard, uncaring place. The teaching is pretty poor quality and lots of the children have external coaching. A useful tip if you do decide on it is that many of the staff there will coach for the entrance exams - even some of them actually involved in administering said entrance exams. Obviously useful to have that sort of coaching! And it's not really set up as a boarding school, the numbers of boarders are small. Of the others on your list, Caterham is fantastic. Excellent pastoral care and the kids really seem to look after each other. Inspired teaching and great extracurricular activities, wonderful music.

Charterhouse is very competitive - you know where you rank in your class which can be a spur for some kids or a turn off. Reeds is good and not as rigorous.

Kings Canterbury. A bit further but we knew nice kids who went.

Tonbridge. Really sporty. Maybe they have had some withdraw.

Sevenoaks. Very popular with London parents.

Just on Sevenoaks, read this recently:

www.theguardian.com/education/2020/jun/24/top-public-school-asks-teachers-to-exaggerate-exam-predictions?CMP=fb_gu&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR3pbIOy-QLUvojLiovLT3vf87pSXxGY4DQBH5pTG-U2MR2thB0n5Se3R5U#Echobox=1593001929