Oxford High School

[Demelzaza]

My very first Mumsnet post, so please be kind! We are thinking of sending our daughter to OHS Senior School, have just attended an online Open Day, and were very impressed by the new Head's values, energy and emphasis on wellbeing. We don't currently live in Oxford, so aren't connected to local parents or students or have any insider knowledge. She referred to the school having had a rocky five years. I have found some reports of the previous permanent Head leaving speedily and suggestions of the girls being under too much pressure. Has anyone any direct experience of the school and/or any thoughts on how long it can take a Head, however inspirational, to win over the staff, pupils and redirect its ethos if there have indeed been problems? Thanks

Hi, 2 daughters very happy at OHS, with happy friends. The previous head Philip Hill was a disaster, the interim head was wonderful but couldn't stay, and from what I've heard the girls and parents by and large think the new head is doing a good job.
My daughters are quite different to each other (one v studious and a bit of a worrier, the other more the opposite) and the school supports them both in different ways. They have a great bunch of friends. The teachers are very interested in the girls and they get a first class education. Also find it surprisingly benign about pressure to work - the pressure comes from certain peer groups and presumably from their parents. Pastoral support pretty good. Music and drama very strong but I have been disappointed in art, and sport not great if you're not first team material.
Different schools suits different families, and unfortunately some posters on here have not had a good experience for their daughter at OHS. In addition it's a bit of a thing on Mumsnet for parents with kids at other schools to dismiss it as a hothouse but that's not the experience of our daughters or their friends.
OHS, Headington and St Helen & St Cats are all great schools and probably more similar than people realise.

My sister is in year 13 at OHS and has been there since year 7. She has had a wonderful experience, seems to have thrived, and all her friends (that I have met) have come across as happy, confident young girls.
I went to OHS many years ago (we have a 13 year age gap between us) and had a very different experience. There was a huge amount of pressure to excel academically and I observed a very high incidence of mental health problems amongst my peers, which I think was a result of this pressure. Possibly the reports of pressure you have seen could be from past experiences, as from what I can tell it is quite different now to how it used to be, and I have heard good things about the latest head. I also think the pressure was very much peer-to-peer, as opposed to coming from the staff, and judging by my sister’s experience the culture within the school has changed a lot. They seem to be very supportive of each other and I haven’t seen evidence of the toxic competitiveness that I witnessed back in the day. Perhaps it depends on the pupils from year to year.
There are always going to be some pupils within a school who have a negative experience, and I think the parents of the unhappy ones are often the first to chip in with their experiences on forums like this.

Thanks to you both for such helpful and balanced responses, and apologies for not replying sooner as I didn't receive an alert. We are also looking at the schools you mention, chocolatorange. The Head didn't want to spell out minimum academic attainment which might make it right for the students, though it's clearly an academic school, but she did emphasise they look for a sense of curiosity. My Y5 daughter has always done well at school, and is at Greater Depth for most subjects but isn't stellar, and isn't currently particularly academically curious. Would it be cheeky to ask how you/your daughters were doing at school at entry? Please don't be modest! And how do you decide on whether to go for a girls' school? BingamyThob, how was that element for you? Trying to work out whether a single sex education might suit our nine year old as she enters the teenage years is tricky.
She has just moved from her tiny village school to St Hugh's near Faringdon and is thriving there. Our plan has always been for her to change school at 11 with the main cohort, but she is already so settled, and the journey would be so much easier, that we are tempted to keep her there until 13. Of course it can depend on the year group but do either of you have any experience of how the girls generally adapt, make friends and fit in if they start later? Thanks again.

Don't discount the Wychwood either! It's great - small and welcoming, excellent pastoral care and boards too, so occasional boarding is an option.

Thanks, astoundedgoat, I will take a look. We live on the Oxfordshire/Gloucestershire border about 30m from Oxford and might move for the right school.

I am keenly reading the comments as my DD has been through Abbey Reading, SHSK, and Oxford High - and we are ready to move for the right school. The senior school term starts in Sept 22 and by beginning of March we have to make a decision and we feel so lost.

@2022schools I am very keenly following this thread. My daughter’s entry to year 7 is in 2024, so we are shortlisting the schools now. If you don’t mind sharing which school did you choose finally and why? We have the similar schools in mind, OHS, Headington and just started thinking about Abbey though thats not the first consideration. We are also in Bucks with catchment of 4 grammar schools. We are keeping all options open including moving for the right school.
My daughter is academic and musical, she loves netball and swimming too, plays in current school team but won’t pursue sports as a career.

Hi @MitHolmes
We decided, even after securing multiple scholarships both at Abbey and Oxford High (they are more recognition so please do not think of a financial help here) in Academic as well as Drama and Arts, we went ahead with SHSK purely from Logistics aspect. We have first hand experience of Abbey, it's a brilliant school. We did not allow her to sit in grammar schools so we cannot comment on anything else. From what I can see, if you daughter is sound, she will do very well in either one of these schools. My child is very happy at SHSH, I have no regrets, yet

Hi Mitholmes,
Apologies, I have only just seen this. I hope the other posters have been of some help. Our daughter (would be in Y7 2023) has passed the 11+ and had offers from Wychwood and Oxford High School, with the SHSK exam in January. Unfortunately, family health issues and therefore logistics may be a deciding factor, but those apart I think at this stage we would be happy with any of them: none of them absolutely perfect for her but all with their own strengths. It can be a tough few months taking the exams but an unexpected positive has been that it has helped our daughter form her own views about her favourites, which she hadn't been able to do so much with the school visits. As we said to her, however exacting the process, she is also trying them out for size. She would, however, be happy with any of them. If we are lucky enough to get an offer from SHSK as well, I think we will be weighing up her learning style as a major factor, and how she might cope with being surrounded with girls who are very bright indeed. Finally, I don't know your daughter's temperament, but OHS was supportive and prepared for her possible Big Day anxiety (she was fine) and she absolutely loved the SHSK taster day and found the teachers very kind and encouraging. If either had been less supportive that would have told us it wasn't the right school for her. Good luck in your decisions.

Thank you all for sharing your experiences and views. Very helpful!
We visited OHS and lived it. We also visited SHSK and loved as well. However, put off for logistics and also couldn’t understand why they don’t have a swimming pool! My daughter loves swimming. Though she is an academic scholar in her current prep school, she enjoys sports, art and music, equally good in those. It’s important for her to keep the activities she like’s ongoing along though she would pursue an academic career.

We need to move to be in Oxford schools so a big decision, still undecided but we registered her with Wycombe Abbey as first choice , OHS as second and as backup in Headington. Still thinking about another school either St Helen or Abbey still couldn’t decide!

I would have another school as backup as well @MitHolmes. The word on the street is that Headington has upped its entrance criteria and a lot of girls who had Headington as their backup last year didn't get in.

Best of luck to you and daughter. We have moved our child to SHSK and she is very happy, that's all that mattered to us. We are also moving to Henley so the journey is better than before. We did not take our place at OHS as that needed us move much close to Oxford which we were not ready to, SHSK seemed to work well from all ends. Swimming lessons were not even in place when she joined, but they did Lacrosse :(

One year down, do not join SHSK without fully checking what motivates your kid and the support available. There are a lot of instances we are feeling the school does not encourage strong kids and is very biased in cases. WE are not best pleased and think we made a mistake

Curious if anyone has their daughter in OHS. My daughter got a scholarship at OHS and we are deciding if we shouod go ahead with the school!

Sorry to hear that. May I know more about what's happening there?

Hi daughter got multiple scholarships at OHS and Abbey as well. We need to move from Beaconsfield towards Oxfordshire if we finalise on OHS. Any suggestions on good locations on Oxford so the commute to school is smooth. I travel to London and Heathrow every week for work and my husband travels to Windsor, so someplace suitable where the locality is good for families. Thanks in advance. X

I can confidently say Summertown was best in terms of our search, but there are other commutable areas too.

Lack of key attention to children or their motivation, biased teaching, odd incidents at times with teachers showing partial treatments for no good reason, no listening ear or rational will be provided just blanket answers which helps no one, Bit odd honestly.