I would like know people opion on both of these schools .

If you had a choice which would you choose?

KES without a shadow of doubt....all the best.

+1 with the added condition that you must be able pay fees and some of the extra curricular stuff. If money was tight then CHB and pay for all the field trips instead of fees

That's food for thoughts also if need extra tution if KES then it's tution on top of fees.

What I would like to know is there a major difference in the education .

The Number of A/A* B's are extremely high 70%+

I don't have that info for the grammars but assume it is around the 50% mark.

You mention tuition from year 9. Say no more. These people will know very well the requirements for entry to medical school and how a very high GCSE scores, can means less trouble with the UK clinical aptitude test for example.

Grammars and Indies are the biggest con ever when it comes to social mobility, so you pays your money and takes your choice. When you combine with the social schooling they get, massive advantages are conferred on the lucky recipients.

When people say without a shadow of a doubt KES or KEHS I concur wholeheartedly.

Do you think you could stretch to funding two Kids, ease you social conscience an all!!

Hi Sahara1 (= Aquacarey )

Well done to your DS if he has to choose between these two excellent schools! Now, it is up to you to do the HW:

- will your DS be a musician? (though CHB has also formed boys who are now successful careers in music, especially Jamie Phillips http://jamie-phillips.com/ and some others too)

- does your DS wish to become a sportman and compete in the Olympic Games? Pupils at indies are at an advantage for that.

- does your DS wish to study Latin or Ancient Greek?


idem at CHB
Aquacarey, you have to do the HW yourself and compare results with these two links over several years:
http://www.kes.org.uk/exam-results.html

http://www.camphillboys.bham.sch.uk/about/exam-results/
A few years, KES switched to IB so you have also to ask you questions about this qualification; and to compare A level results you have to go back a few years as you cannot compare A level results with IB results


Of course staff at CHB knows about that too and can advice properly. You make me laugh, PP!!! How can the beauty of the grounds at a public school make you so biased? You fell for it!! (kind laugh I have to emphasise as I was also impressed by the grounds at KES and when my DS asked to go there when he was touring the school in year 5, I told him he will go there if he got a scholarship. Of course, I would never have guessed he would get a scholarship, I just wanted to make him work hard on his 11+ prep and the grounds at KES has been a good motor!!! )



yes, you have to take this into consideration as many parents chase the A* as the 'sesame word' to open the door for some competitive course at university. Like in a prep school, many parents still pay private tuition on top of the fees. Nowadays, unfortunately, this happens in many GS too when exams loom!! Actually, I ask myself if there has not been an increase of private tuition since ten or twenty years... I had never noticed this mentality in the time of my DD being at GS (that said, I was a bit isolated at that time and did not know all the people I now know. So my perception may be not objective)

It is a hard choice. Explore well the two websites and try to visit again the two schools armed with your list of questions. Good luck!

Agree with Jane! I don't think there is much difference between KES and CHB in terms of grades children achieve. CHB sent 18 to Oxbridge last year, if I remember correctly. That is almost 20% of the total class size and quite impressive.

Personally, if money was no issue, I would choose KES for both of my boys. But as far as grades are concerned, I am sure you can hire private tutors worth £10,000+ per annum to match KES or any other private school

So is it worth parting with that money, if you could use it wisely somewhere else.

Yep I stand corrected on that one Jane - Camp Hill Boys GCSE's are just verging on the ridiculous. How they manage to get that many A', A*'s is mind boggling.

So that's blow that differentiator out of the water.

So one is free and one is paid....there you go!!!

What I really appreciate with you PP, is that you can state things which are false but then, you are always ready to correct your views and recognise your error! That is such a good quality!

Wishing all the best to your DD, PP. Forget about KEHS and singing the 'feed the birds two pence a bag' song with a big banner in front of the school .

Do the most with the GS your DD will get! Just having a GS is a blessing in itself!

I forgot to point out a small typing mistake in the GCSE results table for 2015: the column for A% (on the right of the G column) is in fact the column for A*%…

Oh, and as an aside, in the final of the West Midlands Chemistry Teachers’ Centre Chemistry Quiz this week, CHB won over FW and KES. It is true that the teachers in the chemistry department at CHB are excellent and extremely dedicated! I do hope that this team of teachers will teach here long!