Sevenoaks school

Independent Schools as an alternative to Grammar

Moderators: Section Moderators, Forum Moderators

11 Plus Platform - Online Practice Makes Perfect - Try Now
mystery
Posts: 8927
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:56 pm

Re: Sevenoaks school

Post by mystery »

I think we can get back on topic by considering if any of us can think of alumni of Sevenoaks school who are great sportsmen (not academic, but clearly of interest to WFG as even a sports journalist gets her Hs working again) or of note in some way in the arts, or sciences, or humanities (academic disciplines in descending order of importance I do believe).

This will help the OP. So far, despite the majority on this forum having the brainpower to enter Sevenoaks School, we have all been of little help to ye olde opening poster. Maybe we should open a similar discussion on the Kent thread as in recent months many good people of Kent have held a civilised discussion on there, many lurkers have come out of the closet and registered, and unlike in this independent forum, my poor humour has not been misunderstood or caused offence.

Perhaps some of you on this forum are not as independent minded as you like to think.

Distinguished old boys and girls of Sevenoaks School, the discussion starts now.
Paddy
Posts: 30
Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2008 11:28 am

Re: Sevenoaks school

Post by Paddy »

Mad, I agree with you. It is just a shame that there are people who will spend a lot of time knocking or undermining schools that they know little or nothing about. What a waste of everybody's time.

Anyway, lets get back on topic. I have a lot of experience of Sevenoaks School going back over 40 years so here is my take of the positives/minuses of the school. By the way I don't teach there and my children do not attend the school.

Academic: The school is very, very academic and the IB is very wide compared to the 'A' level. This will suit some children and not others. Children who would not thrive there are those who are not totally self-confident and those who are weak in one area, say languages. It would not necessarily suit a boy, for example, who just wants to study maths and sciences and doesn't see the point of English. The school packs an awful lot into the day. I asked one boy I know who is in year 8 how it was going and the first word that came to his mind was 'busy'. Some children need some space and would find the degree of activity at Sevenoaks overwhelming.

Pastoral: Compared to other schools, the school expects children to be self-reliant. Somebody once described it to me as closer to a university than a school. So a child who needs a fair degree of support would possibly not thrive there.

Arts/music: Very, very strong across all arts and music. Arts are particularly vibrant. Always have been.

Sports: As I said strong in some sports, sailing for example, and has some excellent sportsmen but, because it is half girls, it doesn't have the strength in depth in boys team sports that other schools, for example, Tonbridge may have. Very strong in virtually all girls sports. Great sports facilities and if a child is particularly good at any sport there is no reason why they shouldn't do as well there as elsewhere. Edit: Well I suppose Millfield aside.

Boys/girls: Some prefer mixed schools some prefer single sex. Depends on the child and the family. A matter of taste. The girls are very high achieving and some weaker boys may feel a bit overawed by the girls.

Otherwise: Sevenoaks is not a 'traditional' public school like, for example, Tonbridge. It is more 'liberal' than other public schools and this is one reason why it attracts so many students from the USA and Europe. The school feels very international. Some love this, some if they are paying all that money would prefer a 'traditional' public school. Again, a matter of taste.

So like all these things it is no better or worse than other schools around. It all depends on the child/school fit.
Last edited by Paddy on Wed Sep 29, 2010 10:44 am, edited 3 times in total.
Charlotte67
Posts: 893
Joined: Thu Oct 11, 2007 8:59 am
Location: Cloud 9

Re: Sevenoaks school

Post by Charlotte67 »

Thank you Paddy for the helpful and relevant post.
mystery
Posts: 8927
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:56 pm

Re: Sevenoaks school

Post by mystery »

Yes Paddy it was very useful. I very much like the sound of it from what you describe. From your knowledge, does the international mix lead onto anything for ex-pupils - e.g. do English ones (particularly day schoolers, not borders) tend to make lasting friendships with overseas students. Or does it leave ex-pupils with some enduring skills or understanding of some sort that helps them in later life in some way?
Paddy
Posts: 30
Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2008 11:28 am

Re: Sevenoaks school

Post by Paddy »

mystery wrote:Yes Paddy it was very useful. I very much like the sound of it from what you describe. From your knowledge, does the international mix lead onto anything for ex-pupils - e.g. do English ones (particularly day schoolers, not borders) tend to make lasting friendships with overseas students. Or does it leave ex-pupils with some enduring skills or understanding of some sort that helps them in later life in some way?
Yes there are plenty of friendships across boarding/day and across national groups. Obviously mixing with a lot of international students in class will inevitably help the students to mix outside their group..to some extent.

Although the international students at Sevenoaks are a particular type so does mixing with a Russian oil billionaire's son, or the chairman of FTSE 100 company's children who goes off to Harvard, help you get along with people outside that particular strata? I don't know. Big philosophical debate and probably depends on the child and the family.

The children coming out of Sevenoaks are very confident but then so are those coming out of Eton, Westminster, Winchester, Tonbridge, Oxford, Cambridge, etc. Is that a good thing? Probably in some situations but in other situations it may well be perceived by some people as arrogance. Again, probably depends on the child and the values that the parents bring to the equation. I should imagine that a child sent to Sevenoaks who's parents fill their head with 'You are part of the elite' or 'You are the best' would turn out awful. On the other hand, I suspect that a child sent to Sevenoaks with some understand that with privilege come social responsibility would turn out OK.
mystery
Posts: 8927
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:56 pm

Re: Sevenoaks school

Post by mystery »

Now I'm happy to be shot down, but these are some of my own personal "social observations" which might influence some people's school decisions.

I have noticed that the children of many "successful" individuals (as in relatively to extremely high earners) tend not to do as well as they might later on, quite often due to expensive tastes and laziness combined. This makes me think that sending wealthy children to schools where very wealthy to extremely wealthy children are in the majority, does not always pay off.

Is this relevant to the Sevenoaks school discussion or not? Is this a potential problem with Sevenoaks school or not? Are there independents in the same league but with a wider social mix than Sevenoaks? Is it a very wealthy milieu compared with some other independents in the region?

I am not talking necessarily about academic results at school, but later decisions regarding work etc. I'm sure it's still possible to concentrate well on one's studies, achieve a high grade in the IB, but still take a while longer to get on track regarding work and life decisions, and to have been a little spoilt up until then about doing anything "serious" other than schoolwork?
Rob Clark
Posts: 1298
Joined: Tue Nov 25, 2008 1:59 pm

Re: Sevenoaks school

Post by Rob Clark »

Paddy, I don’t know Sevenoaks at all and nor do I live in Kent, but what an informative and balanced view of the school you provided, thanks.
I should imagine that a child sent to Sevenoaks who's parents fill their head with 'You are part of the elite' or 'You are the best' would turn out awful.
FWIW, I think this applies to any school, doesn’t it? We were completely put off one of the schools on our original shortlist when the HT began her open day address by saying “If you DC is lucky enough to come to my school…” But looking around some prospective parents were obviously lapping this sort of stuff up, so just proves it’s horses for courses where choosing schools is concerned.
mad?
Posts: 5621
Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 6:27 pm
Location: london

Re: Sevenoaks school

Post by mad? »

Rob Clark wrote:Paddy, I don’t know Sevenoaks at all and nor do I live in Kent, but what an informative and balanced view of the school you provided, thanks.
I should imagine that a child sent to Sevenoaks who's parents fill their head with 'You are part of the elite' or 'You are the best' would turn out awful.
FWIW, I think this applies to any school, doesn’t it? We were completely put off one of the schools on our original shortlist when the HT began her open day address by saying “If you DC is lucky enough to come to my school…” But looking around some prospective parents were obviously lapping this sort of stuff up, so just proves it’s horses for courses where choosing schools is concerned.
ditto! :D
mad?
Paddy
Posts: 30
Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2008 11:28 am

Re: Sevenoaks school

Post by Paddy »

mystery wrote:This makes me think that sending wealthy children to schools where very wealthy to extremely wealthy children are in the majority, does not always pay off.
But Sevenoaks has never been a 'wealthy' school. It has always been 'poor' compared to other schools and still is. I hasten to stress that this is relative amongst the public schools. Compared to the vast majority of state schools Sevenoaks is very 'wealthy'.

Some wealthy children happen to send their children to the school because they like the ethos of the school or they happen to live locally, but it has never been a 'monied' place. You send your children to Sevenoaks for the ethos and the education and extra-curricular activities available not because they will be mixing with 'money'. You'd go to other public schools if that's what you were looking for.

I haven't seen any evidence of Sevenoaks pupils lacking motivation or direction after school, any more so than those from any other school. Obviously an education at Sevenoaks is not a binary equation success/failure with clear payoffs. Some pupils who go to Sevenoaks or any other school may well be 'unsuccessful' according to standard norms. Although I am not sure that somebody who decides to pursue poetry or pottery as a profession or goes off to save the rain forest is any less 'successful' than a banker with a wrecked home life and miserable children. Sevenoaks does seem to produce quite a lot of poets, potters and rain forest savers by the way. The 'payoff' and trade-off between different schools is very intangible and, again, depends very much on the child in question. As with any school some children will attend Sevenoaks and fail to thrive but that is inevitable in education.

Personally all I want is a school where the child is valued as a child, where he is not kicked out as soon as his grades slip, where the child learns respect for other people, where he is able to reach his own potential, where he is able to try as many things as he wants to find out what he he really enjoys and wants to spend his life doing and where he decides who he really is. Speaking as a parent who could have gone to Sevenoaks but chose another school for our child, I am confident that Sevenoaks does all these things for its children.
Chelmsford mum
Posts: 2113
Joined: Sat Feb 21, 2009 7:16 pm

Re: Sevenoaks school

Post by Chelmsford mum »

I think that I have more than enough information about Sevenoaks to last me a while. :shock:

I could never have imagined that it would be the source of so much strong feeling. :?
I would quite happily see this thread closed but others may feel differently.There have been some interesting asides e.g sports journalism,work fulfillment etc. It seems to me though as soon as we get back to the subject of the school there is a flurry of negative posting.
Thank you all for the replies to my original question.
Locked
11 Plus Platform - Online Practice Makes Perfect - Try Now