Berkhamsted Boys

[boysmuminherts]

My DS2 has been offered a place at Berkhamsted Boys for Year 7. He is from a state primary and our DS1 goes to a state secondary. We just thought we would give some independent schools a go and this is the first one back. Does anyone have a son at the school currently? What's it like? Many thanks!

Places for boys at 11+ are thin on the ground so your son must have impressed them. A lot of boys get waitlist places in December and then when the grammar and Merchant Taylors offers are made (and are accepted) then more boys get offers. There are more places for boys at 13+ than 11+.

It’s a great school but a bit marmite. Very monied and they ask children to leave regularly if they don’t make the grade (something I strongly disagree with outside normal exit points). Boys will do very well there. Their facilities are superb, academics great, numerous extra curricular activities to get involved with, brilliant sport.

However, have you thought about the impact of sending one child private and the other to state? It can cause great resentment between siblings unless there is a concrete and justifiable reason for doing so.

It can be a great school for some, however there is a bullying issue which the school does not deal with very well at all.

@Zodlebud

Places for boys at 11+ are thin on the ground so your son must have impressed them. A lot of boys get waitlist places in December and then when the grammar and Merchant Taylors offers are made (and are accepted) then more boys get offers. There are more places for boys at 13+ than 11+.

It’s a great school but a bit marmite. Very monied and they ask children to leave regularly if they don’t make the grade (something I strongly disagree with outside normal exit points). Boys will do very well there. Their facilities are superb, academics great, numerous extra curricular activities to get involved with, brilliant sport.

However, have you thought about the impact of sending one child private and the other to state? It can cause great resentment between siblings unless there is a concrete and justifiable reason for doing so.

Thanks zodlebud, we are impressed with the facilities also.

Yes we have thought a lot about it - we would have sent DS1 private but thought state would be ok, it appears we were wrong and don't want to make the same mistake!!

@ciencien

It can be a great school for some, however there is a bullying issue which the school does not deal with very well at all.

oh dear - that doesn't sound good :(

@Zodlebud

Places for boys at 11+ are thin on the ground so your son must have impressed them. A lot of boys get waitlist places in December and then when the grammar and Merchant Taylors offers are made (and are accepted) then more boys get offers. There are more places for boys at 13+ than 11+.

It’s a great school but a bit marmite. Very monied and they ask children to leave regularly if they don’t make the grade (something I strongly disagree with outside normal exit points). Boys will do very well there. Their facilities are superb, academics great, numerous extra curricular activities to get involved with, brilliant sport.

However, have you thought about the impact of sending one child private and the other to state? It can cause great resentment between siblings unless there is a concrete and justifiable reason for doing so.

We have a son there - I completely disagree (as usual) with Zodlebud. It's really not overtly monied.

Extra curricular activities are really sparse on the ground, especially for a private school. They're less wide ranging that my other son's state grammar school for example. They didn't even have a chess club. They have stuff going on during the school day on a Monday afternoon, but there are no other (non-sporting/music) clubs on other days of the week.
Sport is fine as long as your son likes rugby, football, cricket or swimming. There are no racket sports, no hockey for example.

Having said that though, the teaching is really excellent. DS has had covid recently and was mainly online and lessons were universally excellent. Teachers were enthusiastic and dedicated.

@underneaththeash

that's good to know the teaching is so good but less good about the clubs. thanks for the info. My son does love football, cricket and swimming tho.

Depends what clubs you are looking for. My nephew did CCF (leading into DofE), performing arts (he was in numerous plays), played an instrument in the orchestra and represented the school in his main sport, albeit not on the A team. Not sure what other extra curricular activities he needed?

If you are looking for a wide range of niche extra curricular activities then it might not be the best, but all mainstream activities are provided for very well.

As for the monied aspect there are a whole fleet of Fiat 500s parked in the roads neighbouring the sixth form centre every day, a great number of which are brand new. I also used to work with the school in a non teaching capacity. Perhaps “monied” is the wrong word. Maybe “entitled” would be a better description but this suggests more negative connotations. Any private school will have an element of wealth attached to it I’m not disputing that. There always seemed to be requests to parents for £10 for lunch at the sushi shop for example. Or a trip to the ice cream parlour after school. There is an expectation amongst the children that things will get paid for without question. The great majority are taken away every school holiday, even if it’s just somewhere in the U.K. There’s not that many parents scraping the fees together let’s say.

@Zodlebud
Do have a look outside many Bucks grammars and you will see new cars driven by 6th form pupils. My neighbours DD had one and they live in a semi! They didn’t pay for education but they bought a car!

@boysmuminherts
I’m more concerned about DS1 being left in the poor state secondary provision whilst you lavish money on DS2. Why would you not pay for him too? I would never have done this to my DDs.

@TizerorFizz

good point but unfortunately DS1 didn't pass any entrance exams :( DS2 is much more academic.

There are non academic schools. How will you square this with them when they ask why the clever one got all the money spent on them? You can always find a school that will take the slightly less academic if you try. DS.2 has won the lottery in your house!

@Zodlebud

Depends what clubs you are looking for. My nephew did CCF (leading into DofE), performing arts (he was in numerous plays), played an instrument in the orchestra and represented the school in his main sport, albeit not on the A team. Not sure what other extra curricular activities he needed?

If you are looking for a wide range of niche extra curricular activities then it might not be the best, but all mainstream activities are provided for very well.

As for the monied aspect there are a whole fleet of Fiat 500s parked in the roads neighbouring the sixth form centre every day, a great number of which are brand new. I also used to work with the school in a non teaching capacity. Perhaps “monied” is the wrong word. Maybe “entitled” would be a better description but this suggests more negative connotations. Any private school will have an element of wealth attached to it I’m not disputing that. There always seemed to be requests to parents for £10 for lunch at the sushi shop for example. Or a trip to the ice cream parlour after school. There is an expectation amongst the children that things will get paid for without question. The great majority are taken away every school holiday, even if it’s just somewhere in the U.K. There’s not that many parents scraping the fees together let’s say.

I don't think racket sports and hockey, stem clubs or in fact extra-curric on a day other than a Monday is 'niche'.

D of E Bronze is done before CCF.

It really is not monied or entitled at all. It's quite down to earth (which is why we chose it).

@Zodlebud
The families I know who send DC to Berko were well enough off to pay the fees but used Bucks grammars if they could. Everyone I know used if if DC didn’t get 11 plus. The results there are not amazing. Of course that area has money but it’s not all like that. We went on regular holidays at school holiday times. There are seriously wealthy people in very many private schools, as I’m sure you know!

Without going into all the specifics of our family, in y7 we (including him) chose the state school over the non academic private school for DS1 believing it was the best school for him. Now we are 4 years down the line and DS2 is a different child.

DS2 is different but does that mean DS1 doesn’t deserve what DS2 gets? Did he choose if without seeing a private school and how does an 11 year old know what’s best? You now seem to accept you have made a mistake but only DS2 gets to benefit. That’s very odd and divisive.

thanks all, he has got another offer to a school nearer to us so we will be turning down Berkhamsted.