Whitgift School

[Woonmame]

Hi

Can anyone please share any feedback on Whitgift School please? Saw some media reports before on bullying, drugs and sexual assaults that happened. We are from overseas and considering sending our boy to the school as a full boarder, but worried that if these problems do exist in the school.

I was told that bullying is not uncommon in boys school in the UK, is this true?

TIA

as a word of caution, will you visit the school and location before you submit the application?

social life may be restricted to the school grounds for safety, this would a huge consideration especially as there will be various degrees of bullying, playground jostling.

Bullying happens in all schools from time to time. Those who tell you it does not exist are lying. The key is how the school deals with it.

Whitgift would not be my first choice school for full boarding. The vast majority of students are day and of the small number of boarders most are weekly. A full boarder will find himself with a very small group of peers at the weekends..

There are equally good schools with a far greater number of full boarders within striking distance of London.

None of those are specific or exclusive to Whitgift. It is a boys school, renowned for sport, music and academics. There was a physical run in with local state boys school a few years back. The setting is relatively urban and agree limited on full boarding, if that is what you are looking for.

If you Google most good independent schools, you'll find dirt being dished. The same is true for Whitgift and you'll find the same couple of stories regurgitated on here if you do a search. They pop up here every year after offers are made.

Worth visiting your shortlist of schools to get a proper feel for the school.

Hope you find the right school for your son.

@Woonmame , re boarding, the most recent inspection report is from 2017 but you can see the total number of pupils is 1465 and the number of boarders is 107 which will include weekly as well as full boarding.
Have you considered a school like Kings Canterbury which has full boarding and International students?

Thank you all so much for the kind advice, very true that the school surrounding social area, ratio of full boarder would be important considering factors. We very much wish to visit the school in person but since we are from overseas it became rather difficult. Agree that bullying happens in all school just the extent and nature of is. Google search did give us more insights to the school on the concerns we hold.
We are also considering another boy school Bedford School, and the overall impression seems okay although academic may not be as strong as Whitgift, but a safe and happy boarding life would be our utmost concerns as our boy will be away from the family.
Thanks all for the kind and helpful advice, really appreciated!!!
Have a pleasant day!!

Whitgift is just not a sensible choice for your position - you need a full boarding school with a large international cohort. Kings Canterbury has been suggested by another poster and fits your remit (although not my personal cup of tea). There are plenty of others if you want a good mix of sport/academic/pastoral - sedburgh/oundle/millfield/Marlborough the list goes on.
If you are determined to go boys-only route it does get hugely restricted, so maybe you could explain more whether that is a deal-breaker for you? If so then you will need to tell us lots more about your boy for a best-fit recommendation. Tonbridge, for example, is outstanding and seems to turn out frankly ‘nicer’ boys than other big name boys schools, but won’t fit if your son isn’t top-notch academically. Less academic boys schools that are successful thrive on their ethos and turn out boys of a certain ‘style’ which will only suit if that style is what you are looking for.
Co-Ed is definitely the way to go if you want rounded and grounded.

Never heard of Bedford School, by the way. Quick look at the ISI tells that 257/1100 are boarders, which means that maybe 150 will be full boarders. That is a very low number (especially across 11 years as the number covers prep as well as senior schools). Doesn’t mean it can’t be a brilliant school, but the challenges a school like that faces in making the boarding experience a really great one for those boarders are quite high. I think if you are going to be overseas yourself then you should generally look for a school where full boarding makes up at least 60/70% of the numbers.

Tonbridge can be top notch academically, but caters for a range. How old is your dc though? Places at many of the traditional schools are allocated by pretest well in advance.

@TheBlessedCheesemaker

Whitgift is just not a sensible choice for your position - you need a full boarding school with a large international cohort. Kings Canterbury has been suggested by another poster and fits your remit (although not my personal cup of tea). There are plenty of others if you want a good mix of sport/academic/pastoral - sedburgh/oundle/millfield/Marlborough the list goes on. If you are determined to go boys-only route it does get hugely restricted, so maybe you could explain more whether that is a deal-breaker for you? If so then you will need to tell us lots more about your boy for a best-fit recommendation. Tonbridge, for example, is outstanding and seems to turn out frankly ‘nicer’ boys than other big name boys schools, but won’t fit if your son isn’t top-notch academically. Less academic boys schools that are successful thrive on their ethos and turn out boys of a certain ‘style’ which will only suit if that style is what you are looking for. Co-Ed is definitely the way to go if you want rounded and grounded.

We are considering King's Canterbury for our daughter and so far have been quite impressed, though with some reservations about the dual site campus.It would be interesting to know why it isn't your cup of tea since these personal insights are often very illuminating..

Chakri - have sent to a PM.

If you want your child to full board then choose a school that does not allow weekly boarding. Any school offering weekly boarding invariably empties out most weekends. There are lots of great full birding school with no weekly option. Only look at those. They will typically have great airport transport links already in place only if they are a proper full boarding school.