My daughter is at Putney High and having looked at and heard from many of the other mums about all the local Independent schools, I feel there is a lot of talk about the differences as if they were huge when in fact a lot of it is not that huge! We are very lucky in this area of the country - we have a good number of excellent schools.
First of all it is completely untrue that Putney looses all the best girls. Of the academic scholarships offered last year (top performers in the exams) of the 5 or 6 that were offered to girls already at the school as far as I know only one left to go to SPGS and indeed she is an extremely bright girl who also happens to live nearer the other school. All the other girls stayed. Also isn?t it a bit of a nonsense to be judging children like this at 11 when actually everything changes and as they grow many people specialise in different areas, like languages are art which are not tested. Putney is fairly central and has a broad catchment area, so some people do leave as they have nearer senior schools or they prefer some different aspect. Many have also been at the school for 6 years and as with everything you know the good and the bad and the grass often looks greener. Some people have always wanted their daughters to go to SPGS as its one of the best-rated schools in the country. However, in making my decision, even if a school is maybe 5 or 6% better (whatever that means), is it worth spending 2 hours a day on a coach or stuck in traffic in the car? For me - no. And they really are mostly compatively small differences.
The older girls at Putney are all really nice which to me is a good sign. They generally seem happy and well-balanced and mostly do extremely well. Its true that the headmistress at Putney has strengths in different areas to the one at Wimbledon High. She is very good at long-term strategy and has built a fantastic new 6th form centre and has generally raised academic performance. I have heard great things about the Wimbledon headmistress and yes she is probably better at names and some areas of pastoral care, but I expect she has areas that she is less strong at. One year Wimbledon does better, another year Putney. This is probably more about that year than the teaching. Anyway, how many schools have all equally good teachers? SPGS is only for the really bright and is very expensive, so of course some of the facilities/ratios are better, you pay more and a lot of people don't pass the entrance. I would have liked to have been able to consider it, as it is possible my daughter could get in, but I am also not sure that I would want her in quite such an academic school as she also loves sport and Putney does better in this area. Anyway, how many A*s do you need?
I have heard equally good and bad about LEH and it is a long way from Putney center. Both LEH and Putney High are very similar in their attitudes to sport and music. They want their teams to win, so there are A and B teams in most sports and some people don't make it. However, there are a lot of different teams. In addition, as my daughter swims outside she is not going to have time to do cross country, lacrosse, netball, tennis, swimming, gymnastics and homework! Some people I know want hockey schools, some want mixed sex and some single. The sport in mixed schools is often biased to male sports, which it is not at Putney, Wimbledon or LEH.
In the end, its about finding the school that your child feels comfortable in, is convenient and for me, that she can walk to and have friends near to. A bright child is going to do well at any of these schools and all the league tables do is split hairs between whether one school got 8 % more As than another...If your child isn't academic then some of these schools are not for them as it wouldn't be fair, but it doesn't mean they won't do well in life. My advice is to and look and make up your own minds... They are all good schools and there is a lot of nonsense talked about them as if its going to make the difference between success and failure. Its not.