Peter Symonds or Barton Peveril?

[ParentOTeen]

Hi,
I have been reading past threads on this (latest is 2018 I think) and wondered if the issues from the past are still prevalent today?

My DS is looking to start in September next year. He's not very academic but tries and works hard. In past threads they have said PS has a "sink or swim" feel that if you dont keep up with the rest they slowly manouvre you out to keep their results up. BP seems to be more pastoral and will try and motivate you to enable you to complete the courses you are on. DS is hoping to take English and Sociology. BP is easier to get to than PS so this is slightly swaying us towards BP but wondered if there was still a feeling of "academics" in PS.

Also is there still an issue with finding places to study in PS as previous threads and does BP have similar issue?

Thanks

I cannot comment on BP but my daughter started at PS this September. So far, this is not her take and ours. She has felt supported and the enrichment programme is impressive. There are plenty of places to study and she is loving her time there. They do very much impress upon the importance of self study and strongly suggest they are there 5 days a week and all day (the timetable is 5 days a week for nearly all, I think) but they seem to throw a lot of support out too. There are weekly tutor sessions which are timetabled. She also travels to get there bus, train and walk but has defintely felt it's worth the extra travel from the 6th form college in our own town (Not BP). If you haven't visited go to the open evenings. For information my daughter is taking PE, Classical Civilisations and Psychology A Level, A level 3 sports leader course for enrichment and a member of the rugby team.

Are you going to the PS open evening tonight/tomorrow?

Both my sons attended BP, youngest currently in second year studying 4 A levels. They both loved both colleges when looking around but plumped for BP as that's where most of their mates went. Eldest hated it, mostly due to lockdown, youngest loving it.

I don't think there's much to choose between them so worth considering travel, friends, course content etc

PS very unsupportive if you don’t fit the traditional academic mould, in my experience.

My DSs both chose BP, though 7 and 5 years ago. We visited both and spoke to a lot of people.

We felt PS felt crowded and knocked about. Back then there were certainly too few study spaces for the number of kids; the buses home (7 miles) were frequently full so they'd have to have waited for the next one; and to have stayed all day if they had a 1st period and last period class. But the clincher really was the attitude. It was very much 'we're the best and we know it'. On Open Evenings, the vibe was 'we take the most driven, academic kids and get them into RG'.

Had my DSs been those sort of kids, self- motivated, driven, academic, then yes, we would have taken advantage of their ability to get such kids into RG.

BP, on the other hand is 2 miles away, (so they could come home for study periods), modern and has undertaken huge building works over the past 7 years. It caters for a wider range of ability, but we felt they were much hungrier for their students to succeed; it just felt so much more ambitious for them, and, of course, has a pretty solid RG cohort. With a slight 'contextual' thing which PS won't have.

For us, it was the right choice.

Thanks for comments. We have been to both college open evenings and both colleges seem impressive. Interestingly BP has a huge YouTube presence with videos on every subject by students (ok a couple of years old but you get the general idea) as well as parents evening videos from the principal.

PS has a couple of welcome videos and thats it. The bus prices between the 2 are definately worth the consideration...nearly £200 more a year for PS (as well as reduced routes by stagecoach). Swaying towards BP but will apply to both to keep options open.

My child is at PS in first year.
It is our local 6th form and he is very academic so we didn't even look at anywhere else. So far so good.
He had friends who didn't get in. It is actually quite selective in a very quiet way especially for STEM.

I myself went to BP many years ago and absolutely hated it. Worst 2 years of my life. So I am not the person to give an opinion on that one really.
I had friends back then who went to Oxbridge from BP. I also can't imagine it would get any contextual points?? Seriously with chandler's ford firmly in catchment I would point out many students are rather privileged!. ( I will include myself in that description btw).

6 years ago you absolutely weren't allowed to do A level maths with a 7 at GCSE at PS!

For 'contextual', it's in Eastleigh, not 'Chandlers Ford', which is a small part of Eastleigh. So is Botley. Horton Heath. 🤷🏻‍♀️ The college immediately abuts Crestwood, ex 'Quilley'; then Eastleigh tech. The fact a tiny part of Eastleigh is considered 'posh' doesn't change the context of being Eastleigh!

Whereas Peter Symonds could not be more 'Winchester' if it tried!

What's the admission criteria for both? A friend of mine is pulling her privately educated child out after GCSE and looking at both of these. She said PS is catchment based and the other is based on grades. If PS is catchment based then surely with many pulling out of private post GCSE it will be hard to get in if not in catchment?
Thoughts?

Both have entry grades per subject for admission

For example for Maths PS:
5 GCSEs at grade 4 or above, including English and a grade 7 or above in Mathematics

and BP:
GCSEs to include a minimum Grade 7 in Mathematics
Minimum average GCSE score of 5.5 (this is an average of all grades)

This in itself shows PS want high/academic achievers. I dont think catchment has much bearing as you get people from Wiltshire going to PS....and people who live 5 mins from BP going to PS.

OP's quite right, they are massive with very similar admissions policies. Students come from a huge geographic area to both colleges.

Barton used to be smaller but it's expanded hugely. This is just anecdotal but my feeling is they are attracting a higher proportion of the more academic kids these days, who in previous years would have split more heavily towards PS. It was an easy choice for my son, who's currently in second year, but some of his friends felt that PS was the obvious winner.

Worth noting also that all the colleges run quite extensive bus systems, or are close to good public transport links anyway. Colleges further afield may be more accessible than you think, and might suit some students for whom 5000 is just too big.