St Paul’s School, Barnes - what’s it really like?

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Can anyone tell me what this school is really like? I have heard so many whispers, rumours and hearsay. It’s pressured, it’s intense, the boys are cold and aloof etc etc Yet it’s wildly popular and hard to get a place.

Can anyone with actual direct experience tell me about it? We have an offer but are very unsure.

DS joined SPS at 13. He has thrived academically and loves the variety of extra curricular activity. The teachers are inspiring and motivating and treat the boys as young adults. With most of the building works at the senior school now complete, the facilities are excellent. DS is definitely not cold and aloof and has in fact developed into a very responsible, mature and sociable young person. It’s assumed that the boys are all academically capable and are therefore given the opportunities to take their other interests such as music, sports, engineering, languages etc further. In terms of pressure, it depends on the individual and how well they want to do for themselves. We don’t see any pressure from the school although the boys are kept on their toes with regular blocktests and reports twice a term. You’re welcome to DM me if you have any specific questions

I am full of questions! Is there a lot of homework?

Do you have to excel at something? I.e sport? A friend told me that she often wondered how a boy would get on at St Paul’s if they had average interests and skills and didn’t stand out as being a top footballer/rower/musician/actor etc That is, can a boy be happy to be fairly clever and enjoy kicking a ball around but not make it into the first team or win awards for debating?

Are the boys kind and respectful? This matters to me more than most everything else. How they speak to each other, the sense of camaraderie and community. I am conscious that at my son’s school, the handful of boys I know with offers to St Paul’s are what I would consider to be the alpha males who are not, in truth, the nicest boys at the school.

I don’t mean to offend. It is obviously a great school and the making of plenty of boys. I just wonder if there’s more of a risk of it going bad than with other schools.

Thanks so much.

Have you read the Everyone's Invited website? Some mention of St Paul's boys culture there and in other threads current on here.

My DH went to St Paul’s, I’ve known him and his group of friends since I was a teenager. They were the ‘average’ group at school. Not the alpha males, not the super academic ones, not the sporty ones. Also not the really geeky/specialist areas of interest or hobbies ones. They were all clever, lovely, respectful boys who are now wonderful men (late 30s) and godfathers to our children. Obviously this is out of date information, but if we still lived in West London and could afford it, I wouldn’t hesitate.

To be fair @Lightsabre - WI now mentions nearly every single school in the area including Tiffin, The Oratory and Dunraven.

I have read the media around boys private schools recently. Of course. I don’t think it will affect our choice as it is surely a problem at all schools.

I heard the same too . “Alpha male” “ bro culture “
really?

Building construction still going on or comes to an end now this year or still another 2 more years? Asbestos issue all solved ?