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Original poster

Whitgift School - how do the Non-sporty boys fare?

62 replies

Rolymo · 29/10/2010 21:03

My son loved the science course at whitgift, but I can't shake off the feeling that he may get lost if he doesn't shine at sport. Anyone got any experience?

OP posts:
Original poster
Rolymo · 30/10/2010 20:18

Thanks. I think that that gels with the impression that we got, that merely being a strong academic isn't enough at Whitgift, you need to excel at something too. Trinity and Caterham seem less focussed on the "stars", though both seem to have suffered from a reputation that they're not Whitgift standard, even though the current exam results (last 3 years) seem to indicate otherwise. I guess a decade or so ago that may have been true. The strongest fans of Whitgift are those parents who themselves went to school in the area, so may be biased based on historical results.

Any thoughts on the differences in opportunities for the boys at Trinity and Caterham apart from the most obvious one!

OP posts:
basildonbond · 30/10/2010 20:12

we know a couple of non-sporty boys at Whitgift - one's very musical and the other's fantastic at drama - they do both excel at something though, which I think is the key ... the ones I feel for are the boys who aren't particularly good at anything as I think they'd be a bit overlooked

Caoimhe · 30/10/2010 18:37

Agree re the difficulty of getting into the sixth form - poor ds is only in First Form so he has a long way to go.

Shouldn't you be doing UCAS stuff or something?

breathtakingben · 30/10/2010 18:22

Can't see the fuss really. What's a Y chromosome between friends :P

Means it will be more difficult to get into the sixth form, and I'd just be distracted...

Caoimhe · 30/10/2010 17:52

Grin - hello Ben. Pity you are in Y13 - you'll miss the arrival of the girls in September!

breathtakingben · 30/10/2010 17:48

Hiya,

I'm in year 13 at Trinity if anyone has any questions. :)

Also, Trinity is easy to get to on the tram via Sandilands.

Caoimhe · 30/10/2010 17:07

That's interesting. My ds is already at T so I haven't bothered looking at the results for a while. Caterham has always had the reputation of being half a rung below T and W. Of course when you are looking at those kinds of figures it's all a bit marginal anyway!!

If I recall correctly I only compared the GCSE results for the core subjects between each school rather than the overall percentage. Do you subscribe to The Good Schools Guide? They have this fab thing called QlikView which produces all sorts of whizzo graphs comparing schools' results. Smile

I suppose you have to bear in mind that Caterham's results could be bumped up by having girls - do they publish the results separately by sex?

LOL at "downhill walk". Of course you could always do Caterham Prep followed by the senior school. Caterham is a very, very nice school and T, W and C all have different strengths and weaknesses - it's more a case of which one would be the best fit for your ds.

Surprised RR don't have their results on their website but I'm sure they are available if you ask for them. Obviously, again RR has a Prep if you prefer an earlier move than 11.

Original poster
Rolymo · 30/10/2010 16:47

Really?

2010 A level results

Trinity A 21%, A/A 61%
Whitgift A 18.2%, A/A 60.5%
Caterham A 25%, A/A 66%

GCSE results

Trinity A 35.2%, A/A 73.1%
Whitgift A 35.9%, A/A 70.2%
Caterham A36.4%, A/A 70.3%

So what are these results hiding if Caterham is in a different academic league? Am very curious? Don't see many soft options amongst the Caterham subjects.

We're not on the tram and are from the south, so all schools are equally do-able. If anything Caterham is a shorter journey than Trinity. I guess the lack of lift to Caterham station is offset by the fact that it is a downhill walk:)

My son is fairly academic so we do want somewhere with a bit of a stretch. Royal Russell don't publish their results which is a bit worrying. We'd been looking at 10+, but that really narrows our choices down to Trinity, as Caterham doesn't do 10+.

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Caoimhe · 30/10/2010 13:42

I did consider Caterham - I thought it was a very nice school but it's not in quite the same academic league as Trinity or Whitgift. Not that I was too bothered by that as ds is hardly Einstein! Smile

The only thing that put me off Caterham was the difficulty of getting to it. They don't run school buses from my area and the school only picks up from the station - there is no drop-off at the station at hometime. It is really far to walk so ds would have been stuck trying to get home!

Have you considered Royal Russell? I know it's not a high-flier from an academic viewpoint but it is easy to get to by tram.

Are you looking at 10+ or 11+ (the former is supposed to be easier)?

Original poster
Rolymo · 30/10/2010 11:01

Thanks. We're looking at Trinity too. He did do the sports course there for a day, but didn't feel as positive as he did about Whitgift (probably because he was doing sport all day!)

Any thoughts on Caterham? A bit further out, but their results seem rather impressive. Or is that just a co-ed v single sex thing?

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Caoimhe · 30/10/2010 09:48

It does have the reputation of being uber sporty and the majority of the boys I know there are very sporty types.

I was quite shocked when I visited that the headmaster's talk was almost exclusively about sporting achievements.

Agree with Lizs that you should consider Trinity too - it is smaller than Whitgift and, although sport is pretty important, it is more renowned for music (think Trinity Boys Choir).

LIZS · 30/10/2010 07:48

Have to say the boys we know who have gone there are sporty (ie. local club rugby team players) as well as academic. They do run enough teams to accommodate all. Have you considered Trinity as that seems more of a halfway house and is also part of the Whitgift foundation.

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