Wilson's vs. City of London

I think if the fees are less of a consideration then consider your aspirations for your son - are you likely to want him to do a trad job like medicine, accountancy law etc? If so then he may as well go to Wilson's.

If he is more creative and likely to need to network and make connections, have access to top notch art, music and drama then City.

For sport it would be Wilson's.

Culturally where do you as a family fit best?

We had a similar decision and went with the super selective and never regretted it. You can always switch to independent at sixth form but might be difficult the other way round. Results at City and Wilson similar.

@BunnyLebowski1000 ,We are exactly in the same boat -Wilson vs City.
Spoke to quiet few city mums who had only good things to say.Is the fees justifiable given the loads of extracurricular clubs and the pastoral care ,don't know.Wilson again is a fab grammar school.
It is a difficult decision for us .

Wilson’s. Take the money you would have spent on City. Invest in family time or in a fund for university or first home. 140k can go a long way. Wilson’s is a fantastic school.

Great insight @GI76
@BunnyLebowski1000 Same predicament here and we are swayed towards indie offer
After all practicalities are considered (results, travelling, fees, subjects, extracurriculars etc) then what is left is personal feel (or reasons that better not be said publicly)
We'll never know what will happen if we send DS to the other school so just have to go with our gut and hope for the best

I am in an unique position with two of my kids: one at Wilson’s and another at a top independent grammar school-not City but same/better results.
So far, two and five years in, I do not see a big difference between the schools. Similar clever and hard working boys, maybe slightly less driven kids at the top independent. Sports opportunities very similar if you are in the A/B team. Music is better/more inclusive at Wilson’s. Every boy has to play an instrument in the first year ( free tuition and instrument), they all learn. Same subjects, Latin etc using same textbooks. Teachers very dedicated at both schools. Boys at Wilson’s very proud of their school and rightly so. Very caring staff, who have done a lot to support sports interest for their pupils. At the top independent same caring staff, but have not seen the school go out of their way/set schedule to accommodate specific pupils interest. But very happy with both school, cannot really find significant differences. Apart from the fees ...

If you can wait, Wilson's had OFSTED in before half term. It's due to be published in the next couple of weeks and is likely to be overwhelmingly positive if my source is correct!
My DS will be going there in September and I know a lot about the school.

Obviously both school's results speak for themselves. I don't know much about City of London so cannot say where they fit on these things, but for us, Wilson's strengths relevant to my DS are: music, chess, working beyond the curriculum in STEM but still placing a lot of value on English, arts and humanities, A-E teams in some sports so boys who enjoy it but aren't incredibly sporty (my DS too) have opportunities, fantastic Headteacher, and caring staff and environment which filters down to the boys.

Good luck with your decision!

Is CLS 13+ results announced? They had said by March 20th, we haven't heard.

Try and remind yourself what your thought process was when you applied - did you like the grammar but thought you'd apply for an indie in case that didn't work out or like CLBS but think you'd put Wilson's in case.

We were in a similar option last year with another independent school and went with the independent choice as we felt it was a better fit for our son, we haven’t looked back on that decision. Maybe have a think about which school feels a better fit if there is no difference look at travel time, if cost will influence etc.