With 3 kids in 3 different schools based on environments that would enhance their character we chose Bryanston for one. A school with phenomenal facilities and more structured than the other two schools we chose.
However, beyond the elegant brochures, school song about finding yourself and usual speel about love of learning, is a very controlling environment. Perhaps some parents will appreciate the facial recognition on entering house, the windows you can not open, the endless roll calls, the ever present security staff, the alarm sounding when one girl can't be located for 30 minutes. Perhaps some parents will find this level of surveillance comforting. We found this, to the contrary, deeply Orwellian. The lack of respect for the student, the assumption of guilt, the similarities to prison under a veneer of luxury. This feeling of suffocation has a reverse effect, driving children to rebel in more serious ways.
There was something deeply symbolic when the headmaster made all students spend 2 hours doing the school photo and then had himself photoshopped in. Darker problems at the school not shared with parents.
Like oil companies with beautiful brochures on sustainability and the environment, why is there often an indirect relationship between reality and promotion? We removed our child at the end if this term.