Thomas’s College

[Btwmum23]

Any parents at Thomas’s College this year can please give some feedback?
I am interested to know the type of kid, how academic it is, how is pastoral care, how much homework there is. I know it has just been a term but any first feedback is welcome. Thank you!

Also interested in this. Thanks

I have a child in year 7 and he is absolutely loving it. I get the feeling they try and get the children to work to the best of their ability and for me it doesn't feel high pressured.

My child seems to get the vast majority of his homework done at school, so have seen him do minimal at home, which is fine by me. Feel that pastoral care is good and lots of focus on kindness.

Lots of clubs and lots going on. Also feel that the school takes parent feedback really seriously. e.g. There was feedback about too much homework being on iPads and now the screen-related homework has massively reduced this term.

Feel free to PM me if you want to chat in more detail but from my experience so far, I am really impressed.

Hello yes am also interested to hear. Our son has an offer for Y9 2026 (also one from Ibstock so any additional comparison super helpful). I've only heard positive things, but obviously it's still so new and Y9 will be small (I'm not sure how small?) so choice of friends might be limited (?). And the 'optional GCSE' pathway untested - though agree GCSE's are outdated. Also about the performing arts - his current school puts on amazing productions. From what I remember Thomas' doesn't have its own school theatre but can use a local theatre for bigger productions? Thank you :)

Hello. Also would like to hear.
Our DD has been offered a Year 7 place with Master's award for sport. Thomas's just felt like a really good fit for her and we can picture her being very happy there.
She has also been offered a place at Wimbledon High, which was originally her first choice earlier in the process. At the time that was the school she was most excited about, so it feels odd now to be hesitating.
We’re now completely torn. One school feels warm and “right” on instinct, the other was the clear favourite for a long time. DD is happy to go to either, which almost makes it harder!
Has anyone been in a similar situation. What helped you make the final decision toward Thomas's?

We are deciding between Thomas and ibstock too! Very torn! Ibstock has very mixed feedback on here, which worries me. I liked Thomas’s a lot but ofc it is a new school and it is hard without seeing the results from A levels and university destinations….

I can really sympathise with this, similar situation to you last year where my son had been going on about how much he wanted to go to another much more established/‘prestigious’ school and he’s ended up at Thomas’s and is absolutely loving it. Feel free to message me if you want.

I think the vibes are very different between the two - it’s a very difficult decision, both great schools and we were choosing between these plus more. Feel free to message me if you want.

That’s what I find really difficult to gauge. The vibes and types of kids. I went to bury open days, I can see ibstock is obviously more established, more traditional but still very strong in drama and ballet. Thomas’s campus is brand new, bigger, still a lot of drama and ballet. I feel ibstock is more academic and will push more on results and destination schools but Thomas might be the same. I read loads of negative comments about ibstock on here and pastoral care, but also loads of very happy parents. Honestly I find it hard. We also have 3 other offers but these two are the top of our list so we have already made up our mind about the others.

Following — we’re also deciding for Y7 and feel very lucky to have a couple of offers. The hardest bit is judging the day-to-day culture and pastoral care from open days. Would really appreciate any parents’ insights.

I don't think Thomas's campus is bigger, Ibstock has quite a few more children and they have all their sports on site which is great! Even though the Thomas's campus is brand new, it was hard for me not to be impressed with the facilities that Ibstock has.

My personal feel from Thomas's so far is that they try and encourage children to do the best they can, so if your child is academic, they will be stretched. I had concerns about this and the Head of Academics called me back and talked me through lots of things, so I would encourage you to do the same if that would help with your decision making.

Afraid I can't really answer about Drama and Ballet as my child isn't really into them - Ibstock do have a very impressive theatre and I expect it would be more established than Thomas's - especially as they have more children. There was a Year 7 panto that was fun and there are productions going on if you sign up to the various drama things, that's all I know really.

Thanks. Super helpful. We’re also deciding for Y7 and trying to compare the day-to-day culture/pastoral fit as much as the facilities.

Just to sanity-check the “bigger campus / more children” point, the publicly available figures I’ve found are:
• Ibstock Place School: school size listed as 1,048 pupils (ISC).
• Thomas’s College: ISC lists 315 pupils; Ofsted shows 111 pupils currently on roll and capacity 630.
• Campus: Thomas’s College materials describe a five-acre campus; Ibstock is widely described as eight acres.

If you look at simple “pupils per acre” density (so we’re comparing like-for-like):
• Ibstock (1,048 pupils / 8 acres): ~131 pupils per acre
• Thomas’s current (111 pupils / 5 acres): ~22.2 pupils per acre
• Thomas’s at capacity (630 pupils / 5 acres): ~126 pupils per acre

So Thomas’s feels much more spacious right now, but at full roll it looks broadly similar to Ibstock on this metric. If any current parents are willing to share, I’d really value thoughts on pastoral care, behaviour boundaries, and academic pressure in the first year of Y7.

This is interesting. I am hearing more and more complaints about Ibstock, the lack of leadership, the pastoral care is not great, SEN pretty poor… let’s see how the offer holder day goes next week!

We have an offer for our daughter for yr 9 2026. Love the campus and the vibe of the school- I think they are looking to take this year group up to 100 students for 2026. Interested to hear what the sport is like and if students train/play fixtures every weekend. Thanks

Hi Honeybee15 — congratulations! We’re also considering Thomas’s (newer school) and I’m trying to work out how to do proper due diligence when there isn’t a long track record yet.

Would you mind sharing what gave you confidence so early on? For example:

• What did you ask about pastoral care & behaviour boundaries day-to-day?
• How did you assess academic rigour (set structure, homework expectations, assessment frequency)?
• Any insight into staff stability / leadership and how communication with parents works?
• Did you speak to any current parents/pupils, or see any lessons in action?

Any concrete pointers on what to look for would be hugely helpful. Thank you.

I think the best thing to do is to go to an offer holders day and see the school in action. This is what I'm planning to do and will ask a few more questions then too. I've heard through local friends with friends with children at Thomas's College that they are very impressed with the school on all levels. I think for me I have confidence in the Head and his staffing team looking at where they were previously. I also have a number of friends with children at Thomas's prep schools and they have all been super happy - given Thomas's College is run by the same family this is reassuring.
I think at the offers holder day more specifics can be questioned on academics, pastoral etc . Hope this helps and best of luck with your decision

Thanks! That’s helpful context.

I agree an offer-holders day is useful, but I’m mainly trying to work out what to look for / what to ask so it’s not just a polished presentation. If you had to pick 2–3 “litmus test” questions that helped you assess Thomas’s (e.g. behaviour boundaries, homework expectations, academic tracking/comms, staff stability), what would they be?

No worries if you don’t have specifics — just trying to be practical about due diligence.

I went to the offer holders’ day today and met a mum whose older son is already at Ibstock. She said they’ve been really happy there, especially with the pastoral care, and described their experience as phenomenal. They’re now sending their younger son too, which I think speaks for itself.

Honestly, every time I go to Ibstock I’m impressed by the pupils. They seem to genuinely love the school — and I don’t think that’s something you can easily fake, especially when they’ve been there a while. I keep coming away with the feeling that it’s a very creative place. The magazine they produce, The Wall, is seriously impressive — it covers quite current, high-level and even sensitive topics, and all the artwork, articles and photography are done by the students. That’s pretty amazing.

The staff and parent groups also seemed genuinely passionate. Of course, you could say the unhappy ones might not show up, but the enthusiasm felt real.

The main talk and Q&A were a bit generic though — I do wish they’d allowed more time for proper questions.

And one slightly funny (and slightly embarrassing) moment — the last question in the Q&A was about the food. They really hyped it up and then led us all to the refectory… and it was completely empty 😂 There was basically nothing left, apart from some pretty awful coffee. Quite a few parents looked unimpressed, and I even spotted some concerned faces among the senior management.

But overall, it was another positive visit and definitely left a good impression again.

We were there too!
we left with a very good impression of ibstock and this makes it for a difficult decision. I am not sure why the negative comments from some parents as they are very general…
btw we got to the refectory and there was plenty of food but people eat super fast like crazy! Tbh I was a bit taken aback by the parents and kids behaviour 🤣

i went to the offer holder today and all the students we met looked and sounded very happy. I read other negative comments but all general. My husband was asking me what are people complaining online about and actually I could not say.. you state parents are unhappy but about what ij specific? You mention issues but which issues in specific?
it would be really useful if you could bring some example on specific aspects you are not happy about. Thanks!

I think a lot of people must have been really hungry. Judging by the number of empty trays, there had clearly been plenty of food at some point. When I asked one of the staff if more was coming out, she looked completely shell-shocked and said that every time they brought something out, a scrum of people rushed over and it was gone in seconds.

It was honestly quite shocking that there was absolutely nothing left by the time we arrived. So many very disappointed faces around 😅

I have had four children go through different local independents, and can honestly say that we were favourably impressed with Ibstock compared with the others (LU, LEH and Hampton). Our Ibstock child (our youngest) was the one who seemed the happiest and best fit in their chosen school (and by nature, is not generally the easiest or most compliant of our children). They left 3 years ago so were there for the very early years of the new leadership.
Academically they were very on it, discipline was very strong, phone policy strict and accepted by the students.
And very importantly for growing teens, the food was the best of all the schools.

i don’t know why it gets such a bad press on here. I don’t know of any families who were unhappy, and many I know sent multiple children there. Certain posters seem to pop up every time Ibstock is mentioned to slate it without giving any concrete examples of why they are unhappy.

I’m glad to read this as we have already chosen to go with Ibstock and the other various negative posts were making me worried. But PP is right in saying that the complaints are always general and not specific. it could be some
isolated unhappy families.

i also know someone with an older child having a great experience who are sending their youngest now - about as positive a recommendation as you can get.

ps we saw loads of cakes (and I swear we only ate a small selection!) I think the second sitting of the auditorium talk only got the leftovers……..