Forest, Chigwell, Bancroft's offers 2024

[CatHackney]

Anyone know why these schools are all waiting for 15 Feb 2024 to send out offers? And what time of day emails are likely to go out? And for those waiting to hear - have you already decided on other schools?!

It all seems so unnecessarily delayed given that interviews were weeks ago and all other independents seem to have sent out offers by last week.

I hear you 💯. The wait is excruciating. I really hope they'll at least have the decency to put us out of our misery relatively early in the day tomorrow 🙏🏻

Forest emails went out at 8:15. Fingers crossed for everyone.

This really is a crazy wait!

I may be wrong but the Forest email seems to suggest that they might bring forward the acceptance deadline if they get many acceptances.

The so-called "exploding offers " - how unpleasant! We didn't apply to Forest. I guess they're worried about too many acceptances.

Bancroft's offers went out at 9:30

Chigwell offers now out too. DC got into all three - we are absolutely delighted

Congrats! Which will you choose?

Thanks! Leaning towards Bancroft's but they're all good schools. I'd be very interested to hear the perspective of anyone whose DC is currently or recently at one of these schools. Hope everyone on this thread got their first choice

My DC received offers from all three. Apart from attend the offer holder days, what else can we do to help make a decision? My DC is not leaning towards any particular school. I'm also keen to find out if we get an offer at grammar school but that will leave very little time before the deadline. Interested to hear others thoughts and good luck to all xx

Congratulations on the offers @herdingmonkeys! They're all good all-rounder schools with similar strengths. But, from all the research I've done including open mornings, tours, talking to other parents etc, it seems that each school has a slightly different USP. Bancroft's is the most academic (also reflected in its exam results, which are the best in the area); Forest is the best for co-curricular (its sport, music and drama facilities are truly outstanding); and Chigwell is the best at pastoral support and wellbeing (while also investing heavily in its infrastructure - the new sports centre and pool is very impressive - and aspiring to catch up with the other two on the academic front). As I said, they're all strong on all fronts, so I suggest going with the one that best matches what you and your child want to prioritise. Our decision is also influenced by our location and the fact that DC has friends there; those might also be factors for you. Ultimately, I don't think you can go too far wrong with any of them. (You can also access the Good Schools Guide review of each school from their respective websites - don't need a subscription.)

Thank you that's very helpful insight, I really appreciate it. We're looking forward to the open mornings! Good luck!

Our son also has 3 offers, making the decision really hard as he likes all 3 for their respective strengths! I am now thinking if we should look closely at the curriculum - Bancroft's doesn't offer combined science and at year 9, children have to do at least one foreign modern language, one classical and one more language or classical. Forest and Chigwell seem to place less emphasis on the foreign modern language/classical subjects. Forest also has a GCSE HPQ whilst Bancroft's has a "Lion Diploma" and accelerated course for people in top sets for maths. Although noting the differences, it hasn't made our decision as children change a lot in the next few years. Any views on that?

I've been in and out of all 3 for years and know kids at all of them. Even among the subset of kids we know, there are plenty of kids getting external tutors so don't assume exam results on school websites are all due to the school's own teaching.
Despite what might be offered in years 7-9, languages are not particularly strong at Bancrofts, nor is music. GCSE grades are fine (kids on average take around 1 language), but continuation to A level is near-zero. This is driven in part by parental influence steering kids towards careers in medicine/the city. Maths/chemistry/economics comprise just over half of all A levels taken there and grades in these are high, pulling their averages up. There are far higher numbers taking languages, drama and psychology to A level at Chigwell, and Chigwell also has slightly better outcomes in physics (at Bancrofts numbers in physics are notably lower than other sciences, so an overall strength in STEM is not uniform - a recent leaver told me teaching in physics was so poor that they switched to economics). Forest has the best music facilities and probably the strongest extracurricular music programme. So they all have relative strengths/weaknesses.
The current head and previous head at Chigwell have been popular with parents and thought to be doing a good job. Parents at Forest are mostly happy.
For number of pupils: Forest > Bancrofts > Chigwell. A larger school tends to mean more musicians to make a competent orchestra and enough numbers to make less popular subject choices or clubs viable, but also less chance of getting chosen for parts in a play or for the A team in sports. They all have plenty of space on the grounds and good sports facilities - far more than the inner London schools. Sports/swimming at Forest have been particularly impressive though Chigwell has upgraded facilities and the grounds there are ridiculously large.
Some kids at Chigwell/Bancrofts travel in from various parts of Essex whereas more kids travel out from central/north/east London to go to Forest. This can affect where they are going to house parties in later years.
Journey time: parents who have gone for a school with a longer journey have generally regretted it - an extra hour a day over seven school years is a lot of dead time.

We had offers from these three schools last year and know lots of kids at them all and their parents at various stages. There isn’t really a wrong choice TBH they are all good schools. a few random thoughts:

• I would give really serious weighting to logistics and how easy and time consuming it is to get to them on public transport or school bus. Don’t rely on driving, parking is a nightmare around all three. For me this is more important than relatively small curriculum differences.

• of the heads I liked Chigwell the best.

• Chigwell is the most Essex of the three unsurprisingly but that’s not a criticism.

• they all have decent sports facilities. Chigwell has just opened a lovely new sports centre and swimming pool. Bancrofts actually has little by way of fields insight - they go offsite to fields they own and use a local hockey club whereas other two are all onsite.

• my impression is extra curriculums at Forest are the strongest. Certainly they are very strong in sport and music. From what parents tell me Bancrofts seems the pushiest but has tried to temper this with this Lion award. The Bancrofts parents I meet are often more extremely zoned in on academic success and like the pushiness.

• kids I know largely seem happy at all three. A few years ago a neurodiverse child at Bancrofts I know had an unhappy time and was ultimately pulled out by parents who felt school were unsupportive - I don’t know if they would have done any better at F or C - I suspect not. Generally the complaints I hear from parents at all 3 are pretty minor issues.

• my recollection is Bancroft doesn’t do buses but I know the others do. Have a look at the maps to see where they are coming from. But yes Forest does certainly pull from north London in a way Chigwell won’t.

Obviously these are just my casual observations.

Any thoughts after the open days? It looks like Bancroft's is starting a school bus in September.

Thank you so much for all the really helpful posts on this thread. The taster days largely reaffirmed the impressions we already had of each school and the information on this thread (eg a pupil at Bancroft's confirmed what @Lebr said about pushy parents and the steer towards certain subjects - but also said that this pressure came from the parents, not the school, with the school actually supporting pupils in the face of undue parental pressure. We're not pushy parents so found that reassuring - and we heard similar things at WCHS). Forest has consistently been the school that is least welcoming to parents - this is even commented on in the Good Schools Guide review. But DC and friends enjoyed the taster day there. Bancroft's introduced us to the new head and lots of teachers, and were very keen to emphasise their strengths in co-curricular aspects and dispel the myth that they are "just" an academic school. DC was unimpressed with Chigwell when the teacher failed to turn up to the taster session, but I pointed out that this was an unfortunate blip and not something to base a 7-year decision on. DC also witnessed two boys fighting (physically) at Forest - again, that can happen at any school, but unfortunate for prospective students to witness on a taster day! We were already leaning towards Bancroft's and it emerged as the clear winner for DC and both parents. But we know a lot of people who are happy at Chigwell and at Forest, and I agree with @ATaleOf2Cities and @Lebr that the headteacher at Chigwell is a particular asset - I expect that school to continue on an upward trajectory under his leadership.
@CatHackney , yes, apparently Bancroft's will have three school bus routes operating from September, covering the three main directions of travel into the school (from Epping, from Romford/Ilford, and from East London IIRC).
Ultimately, I don't think any of the schools is objectively the "best", it all depends on what works for your child and your family.

We also arrived at a very similar conclusion to @unprof's. We are ruling out Forest but torn between Chigwell and Bancroft's. Spoke to a Bancroft's parent with a prep school child. She said Bancroft's parents are very competitive but we don't have to be. We also prefer Chigwell's head than Bancroft's new head, that's the only thing holding us back a little as there may be changes following the appointment of a new head.

We've gone with Bancroft's - open day was really positive and seems the best fit.

@Butterfliesandbutter Congratulations! Glad you ignored the nonsense on the other thread. See you there!