Repton School for Sixth Form

[Marushaa]

Dear all, I am in search of a sixth form school for my DD. Drama is one of her passions, and she also plays drums and electric guitar. Sports are okay for her, but she isn't overly into them. She enjoys playing netball and tennis recreationally. We visited Repton and loved it. A couple of questions for parents whose children attend Repton:

• Is Repton too sporty?
• What is the best house for a drama/music kid? While the Field House is quite lovely, the rooms are quite small
• Has the drama department been active - the theatre is amazing, but is it being used?
• Is technology used effectively and wisely? Is it only a good selling point?
• What are kids like? Is the atmosphere friendly?
• Are weekends lonely?
• How difficult/long is it to take the train to London?
• How diverse is the community? Do kids mostly come from the local area or do they come from other parts of the country?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

please please please! Anxiety about making the wrong choice eats me alive :)

Adding another one:

• Is it considered cool to work hard/study well at Repton?

Hi OP I have no personal knowledge of Repton though a friend of mine teaches there.

Sone of these questions could be answered by the school I would think - eg about the diversity, where the students come from, and about the use of the theatre.

Repton is about 20 mins by car/taxi from Derby which is about 90-120 mins by train (depending which train) from London St Pancras.

As i understand it, the school caters mainly for boarders so I presume the weekends as busy. Does your DD board atm? Is she at a private school? Repton is a very expensive school with very high quality of facilities - even students at other private schools are impressed, I understand anecdotally (another friend teaches at a cheaper local private and took a sports team there).

Is it too sporty? who can say - depends how sporty you want it to be, surely. Certainly it has impressive sports facilities.

Sorry for the ramble - maybe it will be a bit helpful? My friend who teaches there loves working there and describes it as "incredible".

@clary Surely it helps! Thank you. If teachers like working there, it means a lot. I got answers from the school, but I was just wondering what the reality is. My DD is in a private school at the moment, but she doesn't board - she is in a day school, but she wanted to board in the sixth form. In regards to sporty, I was wondering if sport "drives" everything as my DD is not overly sporty at the moment. She used to be a professional athlete and understands the scene, but she stopped 2 years ago because of a string of injuries.

She was a professional athlete before she was 14? What sport? Sorry not relevant I know but I am just fascinated by that.

What other schools are you looking at?

@clary Figure skating :) They start very young. And by 12-13 you are on a juniour national team.

@OhBeAFineGuyKissMe Shrewsbury, Bradfield

Quite a wide spread of areas, are you looking for full or weekly boarding?

Questions to ask the school is how many people stay on Sunday’s as a lot of schools empty out. How many people do they retain from year 11 into year 12.

I don’t have experience of those schools but they will all will have good facilities and they will be active. Some will not think it is cool to work hard, but there will be more who do. Classic case of choose your friends wisely.

My Ds's friend is a Repton. He is very soorty though. Although not far away does stay most weekends. He is very happy there though.

@OhBeAFineGuyKissMe Full boarding. Like northern schools :)

@Starlightstarbright1 Oh this is very reassuring to hear. I liked the kids there - they were all very relaxed and friendly

I'm sure you've made your choice now but as a past pupil I think your daughter would love it there. Sports are a huge part of the school but every department is celebrated. The productions in the theatre are amazing and when i was there academic pupils definitely could find their niche. Debating, lecture societies and heads of department who would run tutorials and seminars meant that no matter what your talents, you could find a home there.

And in the boarding houses you could be playing on the 16 D netball team and be best friends with the captain of the As. In house it really did not matter.