Abingdon vs St Helens and St Katherines.

Bromeliads · 26/03/2025 18:54

You want to post this in Education or Secondary. You might get a rough ride in AIBU!

Cinnamonspider · 27/03/2025 07:16

I have a client whose daughter goes to St K&H and she gets on well there. She is part of the netball team but that is a strict commitment to being part of the team.
When you say Abingdon, which school do you mean as there are loads of schools in the area!

Dartsplayer · 27/03/2025 07:39

Cinnamonspider · 27/03/2025 07:16

I have a client whose daughter goes to St K&H and she gets on well there. She is part of the netball team but that is a strict commitment to being part of the team.
When you say Abingdon, which school do you mean as there are loads of schools in the area!

I guess OP means Abingdon School. It used to be the boys school but is now a co-ed

DPotter · 27/03/2025 07:45

There was talk a year or 2 back of Abingdon & St H & St K joining, but in the end St H pulled back. Both schools have good local reputation with St H having the slightly better academic reputation. St H's has worked on it's sport offer in recent years. It's either just about to change heads or the head is very new. Personally found St H's a bit stand offish when we were looking with DD, but this was a few years back now. We know girls who have done well there. Abingdon only recently accepting girls.

OMiDaze · 27/03/2025 09:32

So having thought about it at great length OP, i’d say the main difference is that one is marketed as a GIRLS school and one is currently marketed as a BOYS school which is going CO-ED. It took me a while but then when I looked at the website there were a bunch of boys playing rugby and it clicked. And only a token girl on the advertising. I expect the girls school
does have some boys but probably more the school chef or the gardener. So what that means OP is that people who want a GIRLS school would go for one and people who a BOYS/COED school eg for sixth form would now choose between Abingdon or MCS or Didcot Sixth. MCS has the best results but Didcot is free so…And for Senior school Abingdon vs Teddies or Cokethorpe. Abingdon definitely has the most manicured lawns. And a hot pink sports uniform. The average teenage girl might find the hot pink lycra abit Vicky Pollard. And not as nice vs. the MCS red. And at a guess the food is better at Cokethorpe vs the inedible ‘prison’ food. They do have excellent dogs though….

Mumnam · 27/03/2025 09:56

Well, Abingdon is just going coed from this year. I think it takes several years for the school culture to change. Also, it will take several years to have a good girls mix in the school. I would go with St Helens and St Katherines for that reason alone.

OMiDaze · 27/03/2025 11:16

I think I need to correct myself because to be fair MCS have excellent dogs too. One is on X. The Abingdon ones are better fed maybe because plenty of opportunity for leftovers, dogs being famously less picky about the species of meat they are eating. The best food by a country mile is Radley though. Worth feigning an interest in the school for that alone, bring Granny and Grandpa, make a day of it I say. You can be sure that the chisel jawed, tousled Greek god types play for Radley. The Rodney Trotter types, not.

CuriosityRover · 27/03/2025 16:53

xxyvz · 26/03/2025 18:53

We toured both schools for our DD and found Abingdon much more welcoming and it has a much nicer campus.

DD is very academic and sporty she also liked Abingdon alot.

Do any parents have current info about the state of both schools thanks so much?

Across various threads on MN you seem to have multiple children across varying year groups and have recently found a daughter too. Some of this doesn’t seem to match and the convenient spread of boys and girls (in able to comment on the St Helens and St Katherine’s posts) seems incredibly coincidental.

Apologies if you do indeed have children in all the key year groups at Abingdon, plus a daughter looking for year 7 (what a spread!), but it does seem odd tbh.

Also, your Abingdon spiel is very corporate speak and doesn’t ring true of someone actually expressing an opinion. I’ve been on MN for years and I’ve seen these types of posts before.

If you work for Abingdon, that’s great, just tell people, if you have been asked to post on here by Abingdon, also fine, just be honest, if however you do have all these children at key junctures that align perfectly with Abingdon’s move to co-ed, the I, once again, offer my apologies!

ALSO - on the actual topic, you’d have to pay me to send my DD to Abingdon, until it being at least 50:50. They have zero experience of dealing with girls, the way girls learnt act, behave and need to be treated. Plus the overwhelming level of boys would feel incredibly intimidating for any girl, whether intended or not.

Mumnam · 27/03/2025 20:03

CuriosityRover · 27/03/2025 16:53

Across various threads on MN you seem to have multiple children across varying year groups and have recently found a daughter too. Some of this doesn’t seem to match and the convenient spread of boys and girls (in able to comment on the St Helens and St Katherine’s posts) seems incredibly coincidental.

Apologies if you do indeed have children in all the key year groups at Abingdon, plus a daughter looking for year 7 (what a spread!), but it does seem odd tbh.

Also, your Abingdon spiel is very corporate speak and doesn’t ring true of someone actually expressing an opinion. I’ve been on MN for years and I’ve seen these types of posts before.

If you work for Abingdon, that’s great, just tell people, if you have been asked to post on here by Abingdon, also fine, just be honest, if however you do have all these children at key junctures that align perfectly with Abingdon’s move to co-ed, the I, once again, offer my apologies!

ALSO - on the actual topic, you’d have to pay me to send my DD to Abingdon, until it being at least 50:50. They have zero experience of dealing with girls, the way girls learnt act, behave and need to be treated. Plus the overwhelming level of boys would feel incredibly intimidating for any girl, whether intended or not.

Show quote history

Agree with @CuriosityRover , never a good idea to send a girl to a newly turned coed school.

Whatsnmynameagain9 · 30/03/2025 08:57

CuriosityRover · 27/03/2025 16:53

Across various threads on MN you seem to have multiple children across varying year groups and have recently found a daughter too. Some of this doesn’t seem to match and the convenient spread of boys and girls (in able to comment on the St Helens and St Katherine’s posts) seems incredibly coincidental.

Apologies if you do indeed have children in all the key year groups at Abingdon, plus a daughter looking for year 7 (what a spread!), but it does seem odd tbh.

Also, your Abingdon spiel is very corporate speak and doesn’t ring true of someone actually expressing an opinion. I’ve been on MN for years and I’ve seen these types of posts before.

If you work for Abingdon, that’s great, just tell people, if you have been asked to post on here by Abingdon, also fine, just be honest, if however you do have all these children at key junctures that align perfectly with Abingdon’s move to co-ed, the I, once again, offer my apologies!

ALSO - on the actual topic, you’d have to pay me to send my DD to Abingdon, until it being at least 50:50. They have zero experience of dealing with girls, the way girls learnt act, behave and need to be treated. Plus the overwhelming level of boys would feel incredibly intimidating for any girl, whether intended or not.

Show quote history

As soon as I read the OP, I thought the same thing. Marketing department fishing for some Abingdon chat.

Abingdon is very mixed ability. Not on a par with MCS or SHSK. More aligned with Cokethorpe who will be their biggest competitor.

good luck to Abingdon in getting the bums on seats which they must very much need.