state boarding school

[greekmumkay]

Considering sending our year 9 son to a state boarding school (living abroad currently) - the hot list is (1) Steyning Grammar School, (2) Cranbrook School, (3) royal alexandra & albert school/gatton park and (4) Wymondham College. Each school has pros and cons, so asking if anyone out there has opinions of these schools, especially if they also know about the boarding aspect! My current favourite on academic terms is Wymondham, but it might be a rather big jump socially as our current school is a lot less formal than Wymondham...Steyning seems very friendly, and the other two are somewhere in between the two extremes. Help me please mums!!!!

Have all the schools actually got a place available?

yes, I've checked there are places.

Cranbrook is a grammar, which is reflected in the academic results. Steyning, despite the name, isn’t. Will you be returning to the UK? Just thinking it may make sense to chose somewhere near where you have a home.

yes, I am aware of which are selective (Cranbrook, proper grammar school) and which are not (the other three, including Steyning which is no longer a grammar school despite its name). It seems that selectivity is not the only criteria for academic success, as the school with the best academic performance is not the grammar school. Location is not relevant in our case as our child will be joining as an international boarder, so the only issue there is proximity to an airport. Do you have personal experience in any of the four schools I mentioned? We are now getting offers come in, so we need to get nearer to a decision, eek.

Royal Alexandra & Albert is absolutely beautiful - incredible grounds and it even has a riding school and ponies. I have been to an open day and was very impressed. It also seems very friendly

thanks. we aren;t terribly interested in ponies, but the piano aspect is attractive, even if its not our main focus. Sounds like you didn't follow-up and send your child(ren) there after the open day - can I ask if there was something that turned you off the school?

Have you looked at / considered RGS High Wycombe? (assuming they have a space)
Super accessible from Heathrow - there is a regular coach service to the Park&Ride in HW. Very friendly school, great staff, excellent music and decent sport.

We looked at Gordons in Woking for my daughter. But are now moving back to the UK and have settled on local school. Good luck.

Nothing at all - it was geographically far from us as a day school and my daughter didn't want to board. I thought the school was beautiful and would have sent my daughter there if it was closer to home.

Hi my children went to Wymondham College, is there anything specific you want to know?

Sorry to revive an old thread, but interested in all the school mentioned. @Zeusrules we are already talking to Wymondham and will probably travel to the UK to have a look (we live abroad). Main questions would be: How do they support kids to settle in/handle problems, how are the academics for a relatively less academic child? How was the travel? Are there lots of international boarders who don't go home at weekends? Would you overall recommend?

RAA I wouldn't recommend. The pastoral care is dreadful and if there are any SEN issues your child will not be supported. I say that as the mum of a flexi boarder in the senior school who is trying to get her child moved. No SEN issues prior to starting school and no issues at primary school. Now EBSA and dreadful anxiety, caused initially by bullying. I would not leave a child to board there.

thanks for your feedback - I had similar feedback from many families and we decided after the interview that it was not a good fit for us, so we proceeded to accept at another school.

@greekmumkay which school did you go ahead with? We are still very much in the deciding process....

In the end we got offers in all schools, visited cranbrook and wymondham and finally accepted at cranbrook. our child is now in his 2nd week at cranbrook and so far so good - it seems to be a great school.

Thanks for sharing. Cranbrook has a waiting list in the year group we are looking for and it seems unlikely we will get a boarding place there. Can understand why you picked it though, looks great. Wishing your child a fantastic and successful time there.

I would avoid boarding at Wymondham College - I think the day school works fine and generates decent academic results, but honestly the boarding facility is not great, largely because I dont think the teaching staff have the first idea how to run it. Discpline is slack, no attempt is made to manage phone and screen access and all that goes with that, prep seems almost optional and for some reason the 6th form are all sequestered in a separate house, so there is no system of house prefects, perhaps as a result I honestly don't think the boarding staff have the faintest idea of what is going on in the houses. Our experience of a child boarding there has been very poor.

@activelydiscussing we didn't have any settling in problems so I can't really comment on that. I think there are a wide range of abilities and as a large school there are many sets for all subjects so should find others at same ability. For travel the school will drop at nearest station and there are others who fly abroad. Yes there are other international students but also many day pupils and local boarders who do go home. Sounds like something to question them quite carefully about.
I wish you luck in making a decision, we found it very stressful.

Hi @greekmumkay please may I ask if the international boarding fee is higher than the listed fee on their website? (currently around 21k GBP / year)

Did your child need to sit in an exam as it's a grammar school, or they could be admitted based on their transcript abroad?

Thanks so much as I might be in the same situation in a year or 2.

None of the schools I looked at were 21k a year - they were all 5-6k a term, three terms a year. There is no 'international fee' as all students must hold UK citizenship (the schools cannot register a child until they have seen a british passport), even if they are resident overseas, so the fee you see on the website is the fee you pay regardless of your country of residency. The thing that you need to check out is the (returnable) deposit you pay on registration - this seemed to vary quite significantly between schools and I dont think the information was necessarily available on the school websites before the formal offer of a place was made. Finally, for the schools that have an entry exam, our child sat the exam remotely at their current school, who agreed to provide an invigilated space for the exam and send the script over to the UK for marking - I doubt you can avoid this exam as a grammar school is required to admit only students who have passed either the 11+ or 13+ exams depending on their age.Note that Steyning is not actually a grammar school - it used to be a grammar school and then kept the name when they changed to a regular secondary school, so our of the four schools I mentioned in my original post, only Cranbrook is a true grammar school (this is where our child is now registered, having passed the 13+ entry test).Good luck!

We have moved our children out of RAAS. Very easy to be taken in my the lovely site and facilities but the teaching standards are poor and there are huge behavioural issues and disruptions in class. Senior leadership is arrogant and does not seem to listen to, or care about parental feedback. It’s a poor state school with lovely grounds and facilities.

Thanks for your feedback. I found multiple similar stories about RAAS and we were nit very impressed by the interview organisation either. So there were sufficient alarms that we discarded this school as a serious option without bothering to visit. Hope your children found a better new school.

Have you looked at Ripon Grammar? Much cheaper, academic, not too far to fly from Leeds Bradford?

Ripon would have been in my original list but I can't remember why I discarded it. Certainly flights would not have worked well for us as i dont think tgere qre routes into bradford from our location. Ultimately we chose cranbrook, where we are very happy so far.

You have overlooked one of the best. The Duke of York;s Royal Military School in Dover. Facilities are incredible as is the pastoral care and excellent teaching. the co-curricular offer is second to none.
DOYRMS