Badminton or Shorborne Girls

[Nicmarmum]

Hi! My girl has been offered a year 9 place at Badminton School and Sherborne Girls. She loves music (playing the violin and participating in orchestra in particular), debating and drama. She will be a full boarder. May I know which school will be better for her?

[elfonshelf]

Which did you and she like best when you visited?

It’s about the right school for the right child, not which is best on paper.

Having visited a lot of schools this term, there were some that looked ideal on the website and that we actually ran away from the open day as they were so wrong for us, and others that we liked far, far more than we expected.

[Cornygirl]

@elfonshelf love to know which you liked/disliked if you are looking for girl! Although appreciate it depends on the child...

[elfonshelf]

It definitely depends on the child - we had a big list of things we needed to have. Full boarding, top notch drama and music, good SEN department, decent transport links to London and fairly down to earth were my top criteria, plus a preference for co-ed, which narrowed things down very quickly. There are very few true full-boarding schools left so that knocked huge numbers out.

DD is dyslexic, but while she is clever, she's absolutely not the kind of child who would enjoy being under extreme academic pressure so we are looking at schools with a more modest requirement at CE, so that ruled out places like Kings Canterbury and Uppingham that otherwise ticked a lot of boxes.

The visits are hugely important and it's not really something that others can do for you. There were some schools that should have been perfect on paper and I just really didn't like the feel of when I was there.

Currently my top ranked are Teddies and Rugby.