11 Plus Exams Forum

How would you compare both the schools academically ,the options available in A levels, University destinations, Pastoral care / personality development for a boy who is very able mathematically , musical and not very sporty , but (Very) lazy and needs to be nudged to do HW everynow and then. His interests are in Science and maths and not in languages.

If we keep aside the fact that one is fee paying and the other is not, where would you send your son. Lovely people of this forum, Please let me know your views both good and bad ...

Thanks

Both are very good schools but St Olaves is probably more local to you and he will have local friends . It is also very well rated locally and nationally in terms of its academic standards . They also thrive in music and sports . My younger attends a local grammar and he 'was' equally very lazy but the grammar school has instilled in him that you get detentions if you do not do your home work and he does not need any reminders now and simply just gets on with it . I understand St Olaves 'a pushes boys and it may be the right eniviroment for a boy who needs a good push every now and then . My only concern is recent post on here and other blogs from some parents who had concerns about the the Headmasters approach and pastoral care but that seems to have died down a bit . St O' does rank quite high above local and national independent schools and for a school that's free I would think twice before turning it down . In terms of university destinations , St O's does quite well . It is too early to
Think about university destination and A'levels at this stage as the figures are artificial - I say this because other new entrants join schools at sixth form and some leave and as such you will not always have the same cohort for 7 years . It is much easier to
transfer from St O to indie in say year 9 than it is to transfer from CLSB to a top selective grammar school .

I do not know much about CLSB but they have good results and I often see some of the boys on the way to work at St Paul's and london bridge.

With such good schools , one must always consider what you are paying for ? Choice for my ds1 was between a very good indie and a local comp with poor results and I chose indie . For ds2 it was between indie and grammar and I chose grammar and spent the money saved on extras like sports ,music, etc and so far it has worked out well.