Hi, I'm a year 13 student at St Olave's. I joined as an external in year 12 and take both stem and humanities A levels. If you have any questions about the school life and things like that then I'm happy to answer and provide information.

I also went to newstead from years 7-11 so if there are any questions on how the two compare in terms of environment and such then I can answer those too.

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 85

maria:o

Original post by Lise_1013

if an external was to pick between st olaves and newstead which would u recommend and why, or which school is better for which type of people?

Reply 86

Lise_1013

Original post by maria:o

if an external was to pick between st olaves and newstead which would u recommend and why, or which school is better for which type of people?

personally i'd recommend st olaves unsurprisingly, since i did indeed have that decision and went to olaves, because olaves' sixth form is generally considered to be better in terms of teaching, stability, and people. an interesting bonus point about olaves is that the sixth form library is an entirely silent study space for sixth formers, and this can be really useful during exams, whilst at newstead as far as i'm aware there is no such thing. when i was at newstead, the departments (particularly the science departments) were having major shakedowns every few months, and for my gcse years we had multiple teacher changes per year, which was not great at all and was a major reason why i left. additionally, i found the pastoral care at newstead to be incredibly lacking and frankly unsuitable, which is an extremely common viewpoint amongst students there, despite the school's claims to the contrary. from what i hear from my friends who still attend newstead, the quality of the pastoral care at newstead has been declining rapidly in the past two years, and it was already bad when i was there. olaves is generally expected to have bad pastoral care, but in my experience it has been decently good, or at any rate, far better than anything that was offered at newstead. the wellbeing staff at olaves make an effort to take your opinions into consideration and to involve you in decisions. people often quote statistics on oxbridge numbers at newstead vs olaves, but i'd recommend ignoring this sort of thing, since it isn't really a good way of judging the schools. one thing worthy of note regarding that is that this year, every oxbridge offer holder at newstead was an internal female student, whilst at olaves there was an even split between externals and internals, and between males and females.

i'll do a non-exhaustive breakdown of positives and negatives for each.

newstead positives:

the girls are kind and fun
their english department is amazing and solid
humanities in general are solid
frequent own clothes days
fun student-run celebrations (e.g. APOS)
some of the individual subject teachers are serious gems
huge field that catches sunshine in the day
emma raducanu went there
hidden away at the end of newstead avenue, no uphill trek
lots of study leave
amazing lgbtq+ community and societies
very relaxed timetables, lots of free periods

newstead negatives:

very relaxed timetables, lots of free periods...aka no work
pastoral care is dreadful and somehow still getting even worse, by popular opinion in the school
management is apparently suboptimal, with problems like mistakenly removing students' extra time right before a levels began
communication from the senior team to the students/parents/subject teachers is awful
many members of the senior team are highly unpleasant to deal with, particularly if you have a sensitive problem
long track record of grossly mishandling sensitive situations and of taking confidentiality not too seriously
senior team are reputed to be 'seriously out of touch' with students and their opinions, to the point of multiple complaints
they got rid of the sixth form revue (a super fun production where year 13s would parody teachers on the last day of autumn term)
apparently emma raducanu's name never stops being mentioned in assemblies
teaching quality is highly variable
a large number of brilliant teachers have left in recent years
the uniform rules are becoming much stricter now
classes can be ridiculously disruptive
it's apparently difficult to get staff members to put aside time to look over your uni applications and personal statement; you have to arrange it yourself and might be lucky to get one meeting
it's a part of united learning now
the buildings are ugly
they tried to coin the phrase 'greenies' and everyone hates it

olaves positives:

the sixth form library is a totally silent study area for sixth formers
the assemblies are interesting, lots of singing, praying, and standing up
solid sixth form teaching departments, few teacher changes
multiple fields, some of them are sunny in the daytime
'unique' building layout
fun student-led celebrations, e.g. cultural evening, cabaret
some of the subject teachers are serious gems
intense support when applying to uni: they force deadlines on you regarding your personal statement as early as july year 12, which means that people can't leave it to the last minute as easily; teachers run weekly additional classes after school aimed at preparing for uni entrance tests and interviews
lots of regular booster classes/support sessions in year 13
a lot of support from teachers if you're not meeting your targets
everyone generally cares about work and so classes are generally quiet and easy to focus in
lots of study leave
the dog
multiple libraries, and the librarian is a treasure
the school therapist is said to be competent and useful
pastoral care is generally decent, not 'amazing' but also not 'dreadful'
lots of opportunities to hear about things like internships and workshops and such, lots of competitions
john harvard (yes that harvard) is affiliated with the school
it has a surprising amount of cool history
'independence day' when everyone wears school ties to celebrate the old headmaster's resignation
they are making growing efforts to be inclusive of the lgbtq+ community, such as by the use of 'they' in emails, replacing 'he/she', and by implementing a gender neutral uniform policy
there is a traditional pub crawl on the last day that the whole year + teachers attend
the expression 'purple blood' is unironic

olaves negatives:

the expression 'purple blood' is unironic
horrible 15 minute trek up park avenue
the building layout isn't 'unique'...it's confusing
very intense timetables, few free periods
you can't come and go as you please, even if you have 5 free periods and a lesson period 6...you have to show up at 8.40am and stay in school all day waiting for that period 6 lesson
not enough humanities students
the english department isn't as solid as the one in newstead
pervasive 'humanities? ew!' viewpoint from the STEM nerds
gender imbalance in some subjects; one physics class in my year had one single girl
uniform is too strict and just got even stricter: now includes 'no loud shirts'
almost no own clothes days
you have to call teachers 'ma'am'
they send your parents your reports/grades before you, which is highly stressful
intense phonecalls with you and your parents if you haven't been meeting your target grades, which is highly stressful
largely non-negotiable predicted grades; you can't beg for a higher grade by saying you need it for a particular uni
people taking standard maths are rumoured to be less favoured than those taking further maths in terms of teacher allocation
saturday detentions

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 87

SnowyPanda

Original post by Lise_1013

personally i'd recommend st olaves unsurprisingly, since i did indeed have that decision and went to olaves, because olaves' sixth form is generally considered to be better in terms of teaching, stability, and people. an interesting bonus point about olaves is that the sixth form library is an entirely silent study space for sixth formers, and this can be really useful during exams, whilst at newstead as far as i'm aware there is no such thing. when i was at newstead, the departments (particularly the science departments) were having major shakedowns every few months, and for my gcse years we had multiple teacher changes per year, which was not great at all and was a major reason why i left. additionally, i found the pastoral care at newstead to be incredibly lacking and frankly unsuitable, which is an extremely common viewpoint amongst students there, despite their claims to the contrary. from what i hear from my friends who still attend newstead, the quality of the pastoral care at newstead has been declining rapidly in the past two years, and it was already bad when i was there. olaves is generally reputed to have bad pastoral care, but in my experience it has been decently good, or at any rate, far better than anything that was offered at newstead. the wellbeing staff at olaves make an effort to take your opinions into consideration and to involve you in decisions. people often quote statistics on oxbridge numbers at newstead vs olaves, but i'd recommend ignoring this sort of thing, since it isn't really a good way of judging the schools. one thing worthy of note regarding that is that this year, every oxbridge offer holder at newstead was an internal female student, whilst at olaves there was an even split between externals and internals, and between males and females.

i'll do a non-exhaustive breakdown of positives and negatives for each.

newstead positives:

the girls are kind and fun
their english department is amazing and solid
humanities in general are solid
frequent own clothes days
fun student-run celebrations (e.g. APOS)
some of the individual subject teachers are serious gems
huge field that catches sunshine in the day
emma raducanu went there
hidden away at the end of newstead avenue, no uphill trek
lots of study leave
very relaxed timetables, lots of free periods

newstead negatives:

very relaxed timetables, lots of free periods...aka no work
pastoral care is dreadful and somehow still getting even worse, by popular opinion in the school
management is apparently suboptimal, with problems like mistakenly removing students' extra time right before a levels began
communication from the senior team to the students/parents/subject teachers is awful
many members of the senior team are highly unpleasant to deal with, particularly if you have a sensitive problem
long track record of grossly mishandling sensitive situations and of taking confidentiality not too seriously
senior team are reputed to be 'seriously out of touch' with students and their opinions, to the point of multiple complaints
they got rid of the sixth form revue (a super fun production where year 13s would parody teachers on the last day of autumn term)
apparently emma raducanu's name never stops being mentioned in assemblies
teaching quality is highly variable
a large number of brilliant teachers have left in recent years
the uniform rules are becoming much stricter now
classes can be ridiculously disruptive
it's apparently difficult to get staff members to put aside time to look over your uni applications and personal statement; you have to arrange it yourself and might be lucky to get one meeting
it's a part of united learning now
the buildings are ugly

olaves positives:

the sixth form library is a totally silent study area for sixth formers
the assemblies are interesting, lots of singing, praying, and standing up
solid sixth form teaching departments, few teacher changes
multiple fields, some of them are sunny in the daytime
'unique' building layout
fun student-led celebrations, e.g. cultural evening, cabaret
some of the subject teachers are serious gems
intense support when applying to uni: they force deadlines on you regarding your personal statement as early as july year 12, which means that people can't leave it to the last minute as easily; teachers run weekly additional classes after school aimed at preparing for uni entrance tests and interviews
lots of regular booster classes/support sessions in year 13
a lot of support from teachers if you're not meeting your targets
everyone generally cares about work and so classes are generally quiet and easy to focus in
lots of study leave
the dog
multiple libraries, and the librarian is a treasure
the school therapist is said to be competent and useful
pastoral care is generally decent, not 'amazing' but also not 'dreadful'
lots of opportunities to hear about things like internships and workshops and such, lots of competitions

olaves negatives:

horible 15 minute trek up park avenue
confusing building layout
very intense timetables, few free periods
you can't come and go as you please, even if you have 5 free periods and a lesson period 6...you have to show up at 8.40am and stay in school all day waiting for that period 6 lesson
not enough humanities students
the english department isn't as solid as the one in newstead
pervasive 'humanities? ew!' viewpoint from the STEM nerds
gender imbalance in some subjects; when i took physics, i was one of two girls in the class. one physics class had one single girl
uniform is too strict and just got even stricter: now includes 'no loud shirts'
almost no own clothes days
they send your parents your reports/grades before you, which is highly stressful
intense phonecalls with you and your parents if you haven't been meeting your target grades, which is highly stressful
largely non-negotiable predicted grades; you can't beg for a higher grade by saying you need it for a particular uni
people taking standard maths are rumoured to be less favoured than those taking further maths in terms of teacher allocation

In terms of the negatives for st olaves, I mean I guess for the phone calls if not achieving a particular grade, it suggests that the teachers want to push you more to get outstanding grades, so well tbh, it's not that bad or it could be bad if parents get angry, as obviously the teachers know what's best for you.

Reply 88

potatoes25

also the olaves captain of school is a bit weird, but the nws captains are great imo

Reply 89

Lise_1013

Original post by potatoes25

also the olaves captain of school is a bit weird, but the nws captains are great imo

Are you in newstead or olaves? the school captains change each year so I'm not sure how important it is, I know the school captains last year at olaves were great(er).

Reply 90

potatoes25

Original post by Lise_1013

Are you in newstead or olaves? the school captains change each year so I'm not sure how important it is, I know the school captains last year at olaves were great(er).

at newstead atm, but planning to go to olaves next year. yeah, tbh it doesn't matter very much, but just some extra info

Reply 91

Lise_1013

Original post by SnowyPanda

yeah, some more on that: olaves has 'challenge grades' in year 12, which are based off your early performance in class, your homework, and early test results, from september to around october half term. throughout year 12, your performance is measured against your challenge grade, so if you're challenged a B and you get a C in a test later on, you're considered to be 'underperforming'. Your predicted grades that you use to apply to unis are decided at the end of year 12, based off your performance throughout the year and your performance in end of year exams. Your predicted grades can be higher or lower than your challenge. Then in year 13, your predicted grade is called your 'target grade', and once again, your performance throughout year 13 is judged against your target. In your year 13 january mocks, if you achieve two grades below your target grade for a particular subject, you get a phonecall with your parents and the head of year (so, for example, if you were predicted a B and got a D or an E). If you achieve one grade below your target, you have a meeting with your form tutor or another member of staff. In practice, this is to 'intervene early' when students are missing their target grades so that they have time to bring them back up before may. In my year, almost every single person was one or more grades below their targets in one or more subjects in our january mocks, so it turned into basically everyone having a form tutor meeting. The key point here is that it isn't as much about 'outstanding grades' as it is about meeting your own personal target (which is why I consistently used a grade B as my example). They don't call the parents of someone predicted an A, who got an A or a B in their mocks, pushing them to get an A*. Generally I'd say that these phonecalls/meetings do their job. Another point is that often, you'll miss your target because you kind of didn't work on that subject enough. So if your response to them asking why you missed your target is 'I'm dumb/I was lazy/I didn't work hard enough', they will of course push you. However, if your response is something like 'I was ill' or you have an alternative mitigating reason, they will exercise discretion.

Reply 92

Lise_1013

Original post by potatoes25

at newstead atm, but planning to go to olaves next year. yeah, tbh it doesn't matter very much, but just some extra info

yes, entirely

Reply 93

poppy2022

Original post by potatoes25

also the olaves captain of school is a bit weird, but the nws captains are great imo

Both school captains at Olave’s are really friendly and actively make sure they are approachable

Reply 94

battyfish

Thank you all for the replies😊 would you guys like to make a gc for the induction day and just for any other general advice?

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 95

Aronisah8

Original post by battyfish

Thank you all for the replies😊 would you guys like to make a gc for the induction day and just for any other general advice?

pm me😊

hiya i’ve calculated the worst case scenario for my gcses and the total for the top 10 subjects is 75. do u think i have a good chance of getting in?

Reply 98

potatoes25

i think the score you need depends on the subjects you want to do -- for example, if ur applying for sciences, u would probs need a higher score than someone applying for art and some other uncommon subjects.

but saying that, 75 is very high, so im sure u'd have a pretty good chance of getting in, esp if that's ur worst case scenario :smile: