11 Plus Exams Forum

We are considering between Judd (Tonbridge) and St Olaves.

One of the advantages of St Olaves is that it clearly has better facilities. For example, larger library, larger ICT suite, laser cutter and 3D printer in DT, etc.

The question is how much does this really matter in practice? How much do they get to use the better DT and ICT equipment in the lower school?

Probably St Olaves-it's a grammar school but also depends on how close you live to the school.

Hi 7OaksParent

splash wrote:Probably St Olaves-it's a grammar school but also depends on how close you live to the school.

I'm sorry that I have no personal experience of St O or Judd, but assume you know the admissions criteria for both schools. I know that St O has no distance rule, its just on where you come in the tests (112 places). I have a friend whose son goes there, he's doing fine, but the school has very high expectations.

If you have not been to visit, you must go and see it on its open day. The feeling I got was, that if you got a place there, the opportunities available to you were limitless.

Hopefully someone who has a DC at St O or Judd will come along soon and give you some more info.

Good luck for the future

Our DS at St Olave's and would definitely not recommend. IT provision is poor - IT systems compared to other schools is archaic.
School has numerous pastoral issues...

I think St O was a very good school under its old leadership. All the best teachers for pastoral care disappeared soon after the current Head arrived. There is a very fixed view there of 'my way or no way' since his arrival. Many parents are unhappy and wish they'd chosen different schools.

Mungo wrote:I think St O was a very good school under its old leadership. All the best teachers for pastoral care disappeared soon after the current Head arrived. There is a very fixed view there of 'my way or no way' since his arrival. Many parents are unhappy and wish they'd chosen different schools.

Some parents are not happy but some parents are happy as well. I know those who are happy personally and I also know those who are unhappy through this forum. I also discovered that one parent who could not get his son into St. Olave's is writing negative comments about the school which is not fair.
The head might not be the best but teachers suppose to be responsible for pastoral care.

Well it's good to know you are happy. My school friend isn't happy with her choice of sending DS there because school has changed so much since new Head and theres a drop in morale according to her. She says his influence can be felt at all levels of school (like kicking out boys in year 11 and 12 for not getting enough As, and the fear parents and boys feel in lower years now, and also introduction of some sort of 'fee paying' but that can't be true as it is a state school. The school was always good, why treat it like a failing school? Such a shame.

I have had 2 DS at St Olave's (one left last year and the other is now in Year 12). I do not like the new head and the school has changed, but it is still a very good school. My DSs have both been very happy there and have been well supported by their teachers. Although I am saddened that many of the teachers have left in recent years, there are still some excellent and caring teachers there. I only have experience of the higher years under the new head, but the older boys do seem to have the measure of him.

Some second hand views flying around about St Os, I see.

As someone says, some parents are happy and I'm one of them (and a lot of the other parents I know). We haven't experienced any of these negativity, but then again we are new. And the 'paying bit', they have increased their voluntary contributions to £50 a month, but a lot of other schools are doing the same to make up the short fall from government cuts.