Colfe’s versus St Dunstan’s?

[SupermarketMum]

We need to decide whether to accept an 11+ offer from st dunstans or Colfe’s for DD. I’ve heard good things about both and liked both at open days! Slightly worried about Colfe’s getting a new head and not knowing whether that’ll change the school culture or direction (hopefully not!).

does anyone have any experience or insights into how to differentiate between the two?

We had this exact dilemma many years ago. The deciding factor for us was the journey to school as the schools sermed similarly good. I don’t know how they compare now - my dc graduated from uni some years ago.

My dd had the same choice. As it was she had gone off Colfes herself by the time it came to choosing (not really clear why) so the choice was obvious for us. But if most other things feel equal then the journey would be one of the biggest factors for me. Their day is quite a lot longer day than they are used to (if coming from state primary anyway) and when you add a potentially complex journey on top of that it gets exhausting very quickly. Happily my dd’s preference was the one closest to us and even her journey of one stop on the train is subject to cancelled trains, traffic etc. and she is worn out by half term. The journey to Colfes would have been quite a bit longer for her with a much bigger range of potential delays and I can see now how it would have been even more tiring for her. The other big factor for me was different approaches to technology. Colfes makes a big deal of the fact that every student gets an iPad and, speaking to kids there, they seem to use them at school a lot. But at St D she has some homework on apps at home but it is primarily book working, which, being a philistine, I appreciate. And they are taking a strong line on smart phones, which go in a pouch for the day, and many incoming year 7s don’t have smart phones. I don’t know how that compares to Colfes but it is something we value at St D.

Thank you both! To make our decision even harder, we live bang in the middle of the two schools! St dunstans journey is slightly easier due to trains, but Colfe’s is also an easy bus journey.

selondon28 I totally agree with your point on technology. I don’t like the fact they have laptops with them, I much prefer a screen free school and I’ve also been happy with st dunstans stance on phones. I need to double check with Colfe’s what their phone policy is. good to hear your DD is happy at st dunstans. There doesn’t seem to be a big gap between the two schools from an academic standpoint….

We have one at Colfe's and one about to start. The new head has been planed for a while - Mr R announced he was retiring, then they spent a year recruiting with a year hand over, so think it has been well planned and thought through. The comms has been good and seems to be increasing as the handover takes place.

Colfe's has a no phone policy on site. They should be locked away at the start of the day.

The device is an MS surface, provided through the school, which has the advantage that its set up and integrated, and importantly they control and monitor the use, which is reassuring - they use in conjunction with note / text books. Its been great for resources and revision - esp maths. I'm a fan.

I agree the commute should be a considered - they're often at school early or late and weekends - particularly for sports and music. Also look at the back up journey if something goes wrong.

Good luck with the choice, both are great schools.

We’re still undecided 😅 my child likes colfes the best, we’ve been swaying towards st dunstan's and have been very impressed with their academic ambition. But part of me suspects st dunstans may be just better at selling themselves post offer…

any other experiences would be welcome, anything that can help me decide 😂