City of London Freemen's - any thoughts/experiences

[ellsworth]

Considering for DS

I've never heard of this school. Is it City Academy, or a private school? Where is it exactly?

It's in Surrey and is an independent. Fairly expensive but very good academically, great facilities - entrance at 7+ through exam. Co-ed. Have friends with children there who love it - both children and parents. Also know someone who used to teach there.

Doesn't it offer generous fee remission ? For secondary entry requires above average achievement in CE and pretests in Year 7.

My son went there for four years and loathed it.
My personal view is that is better for girls than boys.
In the end we moved him at senior to another school.
The year he moved his teacher said that his results were all absoloutely outstanding - what had happened. we had to confess that we told him if he worked hard and got into a better school we would let him move.

Of course loads ofthe parents were very happy and we may have had a very specific experince.
The grounds are fab and a great deal of the teaching is excellent.

Very mixed views in these parts. They are VERY picky about who they take on at 7 but the GCSE and A level results are not "all that" compared to other local schools, so something not quite right about that. I hear pastoral care in the Senior school is poor, and it has the reputation of having some "fast" (to use an old fashioned expression) girls. Large cohort of Chinese students. Yes lovely grounds and facilities if that floats your boat. Will be interesting to see how it gets on now St Johns Leatherhead is going co-ed: the co-ed factor used to a big selling point as the only alternaive for co-ed was Epsom College.

Thanks for all these comments very interesting. Our plan is/was Sutton High for DD and CLFS for DSs. But they don't want our poor 8yr old DS, even tho his IQ was high enough his maths wasn't up to scratch so you are certainly right about the picky at junior. Felt a bit cross about that, what about potential, are they saying they can't teach?

HAve you looked at Downsend?

Hi- please can anyone elaborate on the 'very picky' thing. As I said on another thread there seems to be an information blackout as to what the children actually have to DO for these 7 and 8 plus exams, in schools like this. Ellsworth what is plan B for you if you don't mind me asking and what on earth do they expect in Maths especially if your child is in a state infants school?Pagwatch where did your ds go though of course understand if it is not appropriate to say here?A friend has gone for Homefield and The Priory instead, so any views on these would be good.Thanks everyone.

Plan B is to stay where we are in our small house in London with complicated journeys to school! We were trying to re locate outside of the usual admission points at 11 etc. Younger DS is at a state primary and my older DS and DD transferred to the private sector from there. In my experience there are no allowances made for this and with very few exceptions the children who are successful have been tutored to pass the exams. We did all this with the older children for 11+ (to get into their London schools) but rather naively thought the younger would be ok if he had potential and because they had accepted his brother, in fact the same applies and it appears that they expected him to be coached to their standard. It is hard to gauge what is required if you are outside the system but the Bond series of test papers is a pretty good guide and other study aids from book shops.

It's not just transfer from state schools which can trip you up re applying to CLFS - plenty of prep school children don't get in either. They take a very rigid approach where even a stunning report from current head etc won't make them budge if you don't get whatever the pass rate is. I also know that CLFS does not have an active sibling policy...

vicky
DS1 had reached 10 before we realised how miserable it was so we put him in for some other senior schools. He was offered Hampton, Epsom and Royal Grammar School Guildford - so we accepted RGS which is a fab school. he is very happy now.

Had I relised earlier and moved in Junior years I think I would have looked at Downsend, Cranmore or possibly Laneborough although not so keen on Lanesborough tbh

My daughter currently attends CLFS and we are very happy with it - She is just entering the senior school, and whilst we were considering moving her to Epsom or St Johns as they seem better schools, after a tad of research we found that CLFS had MUCH higher GCSE scores and A level scores than any of the other local co-ed or even single-sex schools.

I'm wondering...

How many international students in the sixth form?
What countries are they from?
And are they mixed well with local students?
Are the full boarding students almost international students?
Is the stunning score on league table achieved by local students or international students?

And I'm also concerned about the pastrol care.

any opinion is welcome.

Hello. I would like correct your view on freemen’s. The results at GCSE and A level are in the top band of the country - two years ago 90% of students gained A-A* grades. Pastoral care is not as fabulous as it should be but the arrival of new teachers has started to considerably improve this. If you think freemen’s has ‘fast’ girls I’m not sure you’ve seen the girls in other local schools - that being said, it is not right to (using the modern term) ‘slut shame’ girls. There is a large cohort of Chinese students but not all are actually from China. I hope this clarifies your misconceptions.

This is a very old thread look at the dates of posts.

Yeah but the pastoral care is still s++t and it is an awful school