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Please help me find a decent state secondaries for a central London girl!

35 replies

Janni · 13/03/2013 00:37

Hello, we live in the City of London and have a daughter in Year 3. There is no state secondary for girls in the borough so I need to look further afield. We would like a mixed or single sex school state school that is fairly nurturing and has decent exam results at GCSE. Our daughter is bright and sparky but not an academic high flyer and I don't think she would be in the running for scholarships. We are not religious but would not mind a church school. However, we won't be pretending to be churchgoers in order to gain admission. There are two things that might give our daughter priority with regard to admission in certain state schools: she was adopted from local authority foster care when she was 2.5 and she has cystic fibrosis, a chronic health condition. I have looked at the websites for St Marylebone School, Greycoats School and St Mary Magdalene. Does anyone have any advice to offer us about any of these schools or about any others we could consider? Many thanks.

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Virtuallyarts · 13/03/2013 11:13

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Janni · 13/03/2013 11:05

Thanks so much for all your replies. I will look at Camden School for Girls and also the ones mentioned by Mondrian.

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tiggytape · 13/03/2013 09:16

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ComeIntoTheGardenMaud · 13/03/2013 05:28

Mondrian - I think the difference is that the old admissions code gave priority to children who at the time were looked-after, but the latest admissions code gives priority to children who at any time have been looked-after. So a child whose adoption has long been completed wd not have benefitted from the old code but will from the new.

AmericasTorturedBrow · 13/03/2013 05:17

Camden school for girls? I went there and loved it

Mondrian · 13/03/2013 05:14

Not sure about central London schools but all the state schools (including grammar) we have looked at give priority to Looked after children. Have a look at the following comp's that also have a decent ranking and are fairly central; Camden school for girls, Cardinal Vaughan in Holland Park, Preston manor in Wembley.

ComeIntoTheGardenMaud · 13/03/2013 04:57

Looked - after child

ComeIntoTheGardenMaud · 13/03/2013 04:57

Check the admissions criteria for any school you're interested in. If I recall correctly, having been a looked-after hold will put your daughter into a high priority group, in which case you wouldn't need to argue on social/medical grounds.

ComeIntoTheGardenMaud · 13/03/2013 04:27

If you want to argue for a place on social/medical grounds, you will need to show that that particular school can meet your daughter's needs better than any other school. You will also need to support your application with statements from health care or other professionals.

Janni · 13/03/2013 00:38

Please excuse the typo in the thread title!

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