Girls' Boarding Schools for Sixth Form

Not a Girls' achool, but my sister has just left Dauntsey's School in West Lavington where she boarded for 6th form and she absolutely loved it.

cop - do agree a bit re: the selection process with the now departing head and the HK hothouse schools. but still differ on the relationships and integration of the girls once they are there. Bryanston is beautiful btw - wished we'd sent our No 1 son there. my daughter would def have preferred a less 'chapel centric' educational experience FWIW - but thought St Mary's Ascot wasnt' that catholic bells and whistles in these more secular times?

No experience of Badminton or St Theresa's, St Mary's Ascot and St Mary's Shaftesbury are strongly Catholic, you are signing up for a very Catholic ethos with all the bells and whistles, and St Mary's Ascot is very selective.

Benenden is beautiful, lovely buildings and grounds but very closeted deep in the country, good pastoral care but I felt it was somewhere to hide away your Princess from the big bad world and the academics and facilities did not stand up to comparison with the other schools we saw.

I would visit four schools altogether to give you a basis for comparison.

St mary's Ascot? heard good things about. also Benenden supposed to be a nice slightly gentler place. St Swithuns is very good - friend's DD has flourished there - also quite sporty. St Cat's?

jade I am afraid that the other schools I would recommend because they have worked out as for International pupils I know of, are mixed which clearly you are not looking at. I would probably visit some of the other girls' schools simply because it gives you a point of comparison and you might find that they appeal to your DD . Why are you against mixed? They have pretty tight boundaries on any sort of risky behaviour and it is a good preparation for university. Haileybury in particular is popular with expats. Also if you really don't want pushy Bryanston is quite popular , very good for creative arts, although actually otherwise pretty much a local school.

lardass I'm not sure it is worth arguing the toss but this wasn't about one girl giving a tour, it was the attitude of the Head ( not the current one who incidentally was a heroine for coming out in public on the GCSE scandal, which DDs' Head was in denial about, even to the parents) Head of Boarding House, Head of First Year and when we asked a sixth former who had joined from a similar school to their International School she also admitted she had had a tough time losing the stereotype and getting to be seen as another girl rather than an "Asian girl". All that contributed to my reaction and DDs friends decision that it wasn't the school for her. Ironically the Head was about to fly to Asia but openly admitted she was only going to visit certain schools (not British International Schools) with whom they had developed a relationship because they produced the sorts of candidates "that we like to apply to Wycombe" which knowing the schools concerned read to me as very hothoused and very rich. It was a very blinkered approach.

also agree boarding onsite is pretty vital. can't imagine it any other way really. have heard great things about kings canterbury btw - and brighton college if you go the mixed route.

copthall - don't be sorry - i'm sure this lost candidate did just fine somewhere else as you say - but it would be short sighted to go by one person's bad tour experience. there are loads of great schools where that could happen. i would judge a school by the girls that you know that have actually gone there. i had a friend whose daughter's tour consisted of a goth 6th former who announced that the school was 'crap' - and this is a top london day school. my sensible friend took it with a grain of salt - both of her daughters have flourished at this 'crap' school! and btw - i'm sure lost good candidate at cambridge is in good company with loads of WAS girls!

oooh i finally clicked what u meant by CLC, well at least it was established to prepare girls for work and university unlike some of the others mentioned, but then I am biased having attended its sister school.
Miss Buss and Miss Beale,
Cupids' darts do not feel.
Miss Beale and Miss Buss,
How unlike us!

Maybe have a look at St Mary's Shaftsbury, St Anthony's Leweston nr Shaftesbury, Dorset and The Royal High School in Bath. Both good schools, I have known girls who have boarded at all three and been happy. They suceed academically but not pushy. Some less sporty than others.

I would add lardass that one of my closest friends has a DD there so I know that for an academic girl who enjoys the traditional Boarding School experience it is a good choice.

Jadey nice residences at Headington and good mix intl. Oxford itself tends to be quite intl due to lots of people coming from abroad to be/work at University and hospitals. Have a look at their website. Very good results and lots of the girls head to Oxbridge if that's what you fancy...

lardass I am sorry but a school that could give someone that 4 hour experience isn't one I am going to recommend. They lost a good candidate too, now doing Law at Cambridge.

To give you a further perspective my DDs are at a traditional selective independent girls' day school, one that is near the top of the league tables, so I am probably influenced by the fact the CLC feels most alike to that.

well copthal i only have my daughter's 6 years there with all her asian westernized and non westernized friends to go by - whereas you had an entire 2 hour's tour worth of experience!

CLC sixth form very selective, only for very able. They'll only admit those that will thrive - v thorough & sensible criteria used to select.

I'm afraid lardass that Wycombe treated my DDs friend with appalling cultural insensitivity. They are very wedded to some hothouse schools in Asia and seemed to have a one size fits all attitude to Asian candidates, they really could not relate to a very westernised English speaking pupil who had been in a British International. School. She was corralled with girls who lapsed into their native tongue (which she barely understands let alone speaks) as soon as out of earshot of teachers, and were, as she put it, "overachievers". I witnessed all this and the attitude of the head of first year, who looked straight out of Bunty magazine, was like something out of the last days of the raj. I know Wycombe is a happy choice for some of my DDs English friends but I would not recommend it to anyone coming from a British International School which tend to produce pupils who are very adept at interacting with all cultures. Frankly I was disgusted with them.

jade yes I did mean not being otherworldly would be a positive for me. It was also possibly the friendliest school. It just felt that they don't seem to have found their market niche IYSWIM, and try a bit to be all things to all pupils/ parents. At other Boarding Schools you get a much clearer sense of what they aim to be and do. This sounds washy washy but I think with schools actually going there and experiencing the intangible is important. Having said that there are plenty of happy Roedean parents who have posted on other threads.

Quite a few of the schools I have seen/ been a guardian to pupils at, are mixed but the girls schools I have seen are Woldingham (very otherworldly, you can't even get a phone signal!), Downe, Wycombe, Benenden and CLC and of those I would only recommend Roedean and CLC and would chose CLC as head and shoulders above the rest but again this is a personal perspective. Another positive of CLC is their openness and good communication with parents. They positively embrace you as a member of their community and I have never experienced problems with arrangements etc. whereas other schools seem to find having to communicate with parents/guardians a chore. I think that is especially important if you are overseas, it can be very frustrating if you are getting the brush off when trying to make arrangements from afar. To be fair the main problems I have experienced are with a mixed school that is predominantly a day school.

BTW where we lived there is a Boarding School networking group for parents and pupils at overseas Boarding Schools, so they can share knowledge, meet up etc. are you in KL? I am sure there must be similar there?

we loved Wycombe. DH is miles away from anything (taxi to Newbury nearest town) when you want to buy a pair of tights or see a movie or trawl thru topshop you'll be out of luck - which means extended london trips. WAS is very convenient for Heathrow - and they make the Asian overseas girls very comfortable. superb academically and knocks socks off all the other girls schools for sport - with England team coaches etc. also brilliant for music and we found the pastoral care to be just right.