PART 3: SW London Girl's Indies 11+ Results, Decisions & Panic Over?

@Skatingpark97 we will be commuting from Wimbledon and were wondering if it is a minority group or there would be many from here .
Anyone having an idea of that
We have seen the drop off locations which are a 10 min walk from the house

@Trialsat11 , if you have time ask the LEH registrar if you can see the drop off locations of the late bus so if your dd has to stay for a drama or sports club you can see where you need to collect her from. It's not as many locations as the normal bus route and you have to pay extra for it.
Otherwise the bus is very social and fun esp if you are on a Wimbledon route etc.

@Flossietea@dazedandconfused11plus you are both such superstars helping at such short notice with so thorough details
Will come back on the thread to tell you where we end up finally

Hi @Trialsat11 fantastic news about the Putney and LEH offers! Sorry, have been dealing with a lot of life stuff recently - fortunately all fine - so haven't had time to comment but amazing to hear the numerous updates from everyone!

Tbh, I think both are amazing schools and you can't really go wrong. Luxury of choice really! Would echo everything @Flossietea said about the facilities at LEH. I don't think there is another all-girls 'London' school in the area that has better. So light and airy, and incredible playing grounds all onsite. The connections with Hampton are also an advantage as further up the school the girls can socialize with the boys without needing to go to a fully co-ed school. And a school dog!

But Putney is a fantastic school too and I love the use of space on their site with the modern and traditional buildings. I think it would be fun as a teenager to mooch around the high street with friends. The school year group of 100 is a good size. Seems a happy school! I can imagine the proximity to central London would be useful for doing school trips and having speakers into the school. I think they're excellent for languages? And a new science, music and debating building? Well done @Stircrazyschoolmum on making your decision!

I'd say LEH and Putney might be most differentiated by the urban vs suburban location. They both have top-notch results so your daughter will be well-taught at either.

She's going to be a LAX player!

Hope that helps

Thank you! Don’t know how you ladies have tagged me! So sorry! New to mumsnet! Narrowed it down as ds is at local school and great to have dd in same vicinity!

Starry we’re Alleyn’s but it’s hard to give insight as we haven’t seen much more than online stuff.

I know other people with dc who’ve loved it.

What attracts you to either?

@Starrynight7 - that's super tricky! I don't know either school, so I'm not able to really help you distinguish them. I guess the obvious question is whether you/DD are more drawn to co-ed or all girls?

If not, is your DD particularly into sport/art/music/drama, where one school slightly has the edge in some way?

None of this is very insightful unfortunately, but I feel your pain and am keen to help!

Both the same time
and same location ...

Eeek! Does this mean you’ve been offered a waitlist place at LEH too @trialsat11? Congratulations!

OK I saw both schools (I’m a keen bean who went to open days in year 5, which turned out to be very fortunate!) and I saw things to love about both. But what made me love LEH more was the space. PHS makes amazing use of the space they have but there’s no denying it’s a smaller site than LEH. I just got such a sense of openness and light from LEH and PHS felt quite cramped and in parts pretty dingy by comparison. Some of their older buildings particularly were quite shabby inside too. Sorry if that sounds harsh. I don’t mean to be and I know it’s a lovely school and these things don’t really matter, but it did colour my impression of the place a bit.

Things I did like about Putney - the head seems brilliant. Really enthusiastic and switched on and an unapologetic feminist. The sixth form centre looked wonderful and the sixth form girl who showed us around was really lovely and confident and articulate.

Things I liked about LEH: the facilities are the best around. The music department is huge and so well-equipped (DD is a musician) and the head of music is incredible.

But honestly what it comes down to is gut feel. I know that’s really unhelpful! Walking around LEH I could just picture DD there being really happy and settled. Didn’t get the same feel from PHS, but others will feel the opposite.

@Colapip thanks for the feedback .
My DD is enthusiastic about LEH but I'm thinking about the commute .
I think she is perhaps signing up for very long days without understanding the impact but finding it difficult to convince her otherwise
She is very interested in drama and feels LEH does really well in that
I don't think there is much difference in the schools academically
@Flossietea@dazedandconfused11plus any views on which can help please

When do JAGS need to know?

Alleyn’s is Friday - just going to double check though ;

Sorry I meant decision between JAGS and Alleyn’s x

We’re in exactly the same position and similarly last minute!! Know that we’re incredibly fortunate to have this conundrum but still need to make a decision 😬

@Trialsat11 - yikes, sounds like you're under pressure.

I'm conscious I keep talking about gut feeling, but I think it's genuinely helpful - which one are you/DD most enthusiastic about?

All things being equal, I'd go for the closest option. As others have said, travel time at either end of the day really does mount up. If you factor in clubs after school, weekend sports training etc, then a school in closer proximity to home may be a real bonus.

Another factor with both those schools is their immediate vicinity - the Putney v Hampton location. As your DD gets older, is the proximity to cafes etc in Putney likely to be a bonus - or possibly an unhelpful distraction?!

Good luck with your decision-making

Thanks to everyone has has contributed and eased the panic! Last minute as ever here! Wondered if anyone could help with decision making between Jags and Alleyns?? Thanks so much!!

Hi ,

Looking for some urgent advice on PHS(15-20min) v/s LEH (45 min ).
Please pour in your thoughts or what helped you decide in similar cases

We’ve accepted our offer at JAGS and declined our other offers. Such a relief that we’ve made that decision!

Thanks to everyone who has been on these threads this year - it’s made what was a
fairly stressful process much easier to handle! Good luck to all your DDs (especially those on WLs).

Agree completely with the above post except year group is nearer to 100 in both schools and that at WHS you can of course do 3 if you want but only have to do 2.

Re PHS / WHS... It won’t help your choice but the reality is that both schools are so so similar being both GDST. Both schools are on busy roads but both set back from the traffic, I actually have never heard noise from cars at either sites when inside the school building and PH have done a lot of work to plant trees to be a little protected from the traffic (am sure WH will do the same when building works are over) most of the classrooms are at the back of the school and don’t face Ph. Both have the same buzz creativity and atmosphere. Reality is that the year groups are relatively big (about 120 / 140 girls) so you can’t tell me everyone is supportive, not clikey and not flash. There will be lots of different characters and in the end a lot will depend on who DD becomes friends with. One plays lacrosse one Hockey. PH has more tennis and at WH you can swim. If you think rowing is for your DD (difficult to say at this age as the 6am starts end up putting some of the girls off!) then yes PHS has a boat house walking distance. One does 9 GCSE and other 10. Musically very similar. Have a look at languages choices which do differ if this is your thing? PHS does the main ones plus Italian Greek and Mandarin. WH does main ones plus Greek. At PH you have to do all 3 sciences at WH you pick two. PH building completes later this year and WH in 2022. Sites similar sizes. This won’t help hugely with your choice but I think most people will come on here to try and convince everyone their choice is the right one so will have few nice words about the other school they didn’t chose (not you Cola! I think your post is nicely balanced)

I see quite a few where talking about Tiffin Girls. Does anyone have any first hand knowledge of Nonsuch. We liked it at open day 2 years ago but now trying to make decisions it’s hard. Thanks.

Hello all - just popping on to say I'm more than happy to help with any WHS related questions

DD is in Y7 so the decision-making anguish is still fresh in my mind! We had various offers and spent ages weighing up the pros/cons. Ultimately though it came down to which option sparked most excitement in my DD. She was jumping up and down when she got her WHS offer. I guess what I'm trying to say is sometimes it really is down to which one "feels" most right.

On the WHS v PHS question, that's a tricky one. We were waitlisted for PHS, so didn't have that particular dilemma. WHS was our preferred option over PHS in any event - for practically the same reasons that others preferred PHS!! The buzz, creativity, atmosphere. I honestly wouldn't spend any time trying to distinguish them academically - there's nothing in it as far as I can tell!

This has actually turned into rather a long ramble - sorry!

It is always interesting to read this thread. We are deciding between
IPS, Emanuel and Sutton High, having said no to Queen's Gate and SCHS. We are leaning towards IPS. If anyone has any knowledge of lockdown learning provision there, I would love to know.

For those deciding between, G&L, WHS, PHS, and TGS, we faced this decision 2 years ago. We went with TGS. I looked pretty carefully at the exam data and leavers' destinations, analyzing grades and subjects and doing some statistical analysis.

For a child interested in maths and science, TGS clearly dominated. For most other subjects, TGS was stronger than WHS and PHS. The most common university destinations at TGS are Oxbridge, Imperial, UCL, KCL and Warwick.

In terms of pastoral care, TGS has been excellent. I am rather surprised at how well my daughter's form tutor knows her. Sports provision is strong. My daughter has played hockey and netball. She swims and rows outside school. Music provision is top notch.

Just wondering if anyone in here accepted a place at Sutton High?

@Itisa if you look at the last page of last years threads there were some great insights into WHS from a lovely mum called colapip.

Because both schools are GDST they will have a similar feel in many ways. I seem to remember last year it boiled down to sports and languages taught in y7 if all other things were equal. Try the coin test that someone else suggested and see what your heart says. Ultimately let DD decide if you can’t call it.. she will be more committed on rainy days and dark mornings if she felt ultimately she got her first choice!

I have 2 at WHS, also happy to answer questions. If it helps they have handled remote learning very well. Comms to parents are very good. Lots going on in normal times. They have a very progressive attitude to education, only 9 GCSEs rather than 10, willing to be very flexible on GCSE choices. Very supportive of creative subjects alongside STEM. They have really put a lot of effort and resources into sport in the last few years and have great ambitions for rowing (before the pandemic hit anyway).