HomeWork at St Olaves

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lifeisgood
Posts: 20
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2016 10:06 am

HomeWork at St Olaves

Post by lifeisgood »

We are optimistic for QE, St Olaves and Tiffins for 2017 entry. Based on our current location we do need to relocate with an intent to get school commute time < 30 mins.

We are in process of finalizing our preference for CAF submission in 2 weeks involving our DS.This forum is great. We really benefited from passionate parents and experts and hope to contribute with our experience for the new entrants in coming days.

Need help from parents and experts with DS currently at any of these schools. We would like our DS to get involved and enjoy this process :

1. How many hours of homework is given by school/week
2. General order of inclination towards engineering, medicine, law or economics for Uni movements.
3. General order of inclination towards : Rugby, Cricket, Football..
4. General order of inclination towards : Drawing, Design, Creativity, Computer programming..

Cheers.
scary mum
Posts: 8824
Joined: Mon Mar 15, 2010 3:45 pm

Re: HomeWork at St Olaves

Post by scary mum »

Probably the best time to get this information woukd have been when you visited the schools, but I'm sure some locals will be able to help you out. Which school did you & your DS prefer?
scary mum
Ladymuck
Posts: 1240
Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2009 2:04 pm

Re: HomeWork at St Olaves

Post by Ladymuck »

Having choices are good. Do you have any other children to consider, or this is your only? If there are younger sibs then I might head towards St Olaves as there are plenty of other school options.

In terms of the particular strengths of a school:

a) the ethos and direction will usually come from the Head - you can probably check how long each Head has been there. But of course you won't necessarily know how long they have left.
b) with the exception of QE, students leave or are added at 6th form. You don't need to make uni destinations part of decision yet. Wait and see how your son blossoms.
c) the strengths of different departments will depend on the staff in those departments. This will change over time, so you may want to ask about staff turnover.

These schools are far enough apart that typically they are not competing for either the same staff or pupils. They each would represent the boys superselective in their area of Greater London (you seem to have missed Wilsons in Sutton).

You will have read about the Alevel "culls" at both St Olaves and QE. In terms of comparing the 3 schools, the other piece of information I suggest you look at are the accounts. Tiffins is in the worst financial position of the 3. I haven't sat and compared the other 2 recently, but it might be worth doing so.Most of a school budget goes on staff so I would also search the TES for recent ads - You find that they are recruiting for more "generalists" rather than specialists for example, and favouring NQTs.
lifeisgood
Posts: 20
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2016 10:06 am

Re: HomeWork at St Olaves

Post by lifeisgood »

scary mum : They all look great to DS and to fair to us as well. We are on fence and dont have access to local experience. We are loving this 2 weeks of fence challenge ;-).

Ladymuck : excellant fresh perspective. Will search as suggested :-).

cheers.
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