Any parents here whose child is studying in Reading School? It would be great to gather the opinions of existing parents (& students)? Is Reading School as good as you expected?

This is just my person opinion. My son has recently joined Reading School so it is probably too early to make judgement. But at this present moment I think the hype of grammar school as the ideal education is over exaggerated. My son told me virtually all his classmates (or likely the whole school...) are glued on mobile phones during break time, every break times every day. He is sad that no one is free to communicate. Academic wise, work is not challenging at all and most lessons are boring. Behaviour wise, most are okay but some are very disruptive.

Surprising. I would have thought that most kids would be trying to make friends in this new environment. (and seriously, is a smartphone now standard for 11 year old??? ).

I guess they must ramp up the level after a while, otherwise how do they get consistent strong grades (quality intake without work should result in a lot of mistakes and B or lower grades).

How much homework are they getting for now? Is your DC (or the other kids) having many after school activities at school?

Year7 gets 7-9 homeworks a week, roughly one per subject. After school activities? Yes, they do have many. You can find also clubs during lunch hour too, but to join them kids will less time for lunch.

Me and my partner work in comprehensive secondary schools, we both find ks3 syllabus is too easy and boring for bright kids. oh well...this is the system we have..., so we just hv to accept it. Apart from the students (who have been selected through entrance exam), grammar school is not much different from comprehensive.

Anyway, back to the topic. I just wish Reading School would ban smartphone during school hours so that students can play together and have fun.

You're not working in the private sector any more then, Foreseer? I know you said you were at the time your boy was applying as I remember being surprised that you didn't get a discount for him to be able to go to the private school you felt was so much better than the GS and the comprehensives. I am sure your wife and you are both able to differentiate the work brilliantly in your classes to ensure that no bright child - or any child for that matter - was bored in lessons in your school. How awful to be a teacher classed as boring, eh?!

With regard to the topic - I cannot believe that NO children in the school communicate with each other, nor that no children have established friendship groups in Y7/8/9 and so on. Possibly your son is struggling to make friends and I am sure this is something that, if you spoke to the pastoral head at the school (via his form tutor), they would be able to assist him with finding boys who may have things in common with him. Generally they are very good at that sort of thing as he won't be the only boy they have come across who has found making friends tricky. Good luck!

No, my son doesn't have problem making friends. You know kids in primary school always chat and hang around together during break/lunch time, but it isn't the case in secondary school, hence he is sad.

kenyancowgirl, do you have kid in Reading School?

Reading is an amazing school and is what I hoped for and a lot more.

My son took the entrance exam back in 2010 with 600+ other kids vying for 100 places. He only had a few months preparation from July open day to November exam date and was never privately tutored. Coming from a standard state school we had low expectations of getting in but thought what the heck why not give it a go.

We found out in March 2011 and we were over the moon and very proud of our boy. At first he worried about whether he was food enough to be at the school but soon settled down and grew in stature and competence. The school seems to create a healthy self perpetuating work ethic, every pupil wants to be there and wants to do very well. We shouldn’t have worried as our DS had an almost clean sweep of 11 A* at GCSE and predicted 4 A’s at A-Level.

He has offers from UCL and Kings but is hoping to go to Oxford, he is there this week for interviews.

We are very grateful to Reading School because I’m pretty sure my son could not have done so well at the alternative state schools in the area.