RGS Guildford vs. Hampton School?

Ds1 was in exactly the same position but we opted for rgs.

I think Hampton is a great school, FIL used to be a department head there. But rgs is I think the stronger for academic results, post a level destinations and music.

The rowing at Hampton is fantastic and the facilities have improved across the board in recent years.

Rgs is a sporty school usually doing well in the daily mail cup at rugby plus ds1 has peers playing for England under 18s and going into the Harlequins academy. But the coaching can be iffy and a depressing number of boys start drifting away from sports in the later years. But given that they are an academic school who do not seek sporting scholarship boys they do pretty well across the board

My son is at Hampton and he loves it.
You know, a lot is always said about Hampton's results and how hard the boys work, but one of the things that has struck me since he started there, is just how much time he spends playing sport and developing the extra-circular aspect of his education. He also plays in a school rock band and does rock climbing. The opportunities - beyond school work - are vast.

My only words of warning; there are lots or extra costs. Lunches, uniforms, coaches, kit, trips etc. and ALL these costs are casually added to your term bill. Believe me, these costs quickly mount. Yikes!

Although I should imagine that this would be the same at both schools....

I would talk to RGS. For Music it is fab, lots of ex-choristers from the cathedral. How easy will it be for your son to get there by train? (I'm not sure which line he would be using.)
The boys have lots of interaction with the girls of Tormead, St Catherines and High School; including some joint music lessons.
However I wouldn't have put it down as a sporty school.

How much do you need the financial help? RGS has Bursaries for those in need, so its worth talking to the head. (But a lot of boys come from State schools, and quite a few from single parent families, so there is a lot of real need.)

Again, my experience of Hampton's music department is old - but I was in the Hampton School Orchestra (it was unbelievably superior to my own school's one!) and it was very good. We also did joint choral stuff, I particularly remember the Mozart Requiem. They had excellent resources and were very active musically/theatrically when I was "there" but that is over 20 years ago now, so things could have gone down hill there.

One other thought - have you considered the radius around each school, say 45 mins commute, 'cos you can assume your DC will be bestest friends with teh child tha tlives on the furthest other edge of that radius

Oh, if you didn't see the boatclub that Hampton has jointly with LEH, then you really should! The Millennium Boat Club on the Thames - I went there a couple of years ago and was blown away; it's better than most rowing clubs I've been to (and I've been to a few!) and I think national crews would be of it!

Meant to say - Hampton railway station is only about 1mile from Hampton School as well, with a bus that services the school directly from the station. Plus they always used to have private coaches for transport but I don't know whether they still do. Hampton is the last station inside Zone 6, whereas Guildford is definitely outside Zone 6 so if you were considering train travel, Hampton is cheaper for that too (depends where you live though).

On the facts - double the scholarship & five mins difference in travel, personally would be a no brainer for me . Hampton has very good sporting reputation, I thought? We definitely considered for DS who has sporting G&T register.

Has Hampton School's sporting opportunities gone downhill then? They used to be pretty good for sports too, especially rowing.

I was at the girls' school next door - there was a fair bit of interaction between the two, so we had the benefit of single-sex education but with more access to the opposite sex than some other single sex schools within a school setting, iyswim. (Probably not an issue now but I felt it helped me, anyway).

Can't offer any more useful info than that, sorry. Oh apart from the traffic in Hampton isn't as bad as that in Guildford.