Guildford High

People come from London / Cobham / Esher / Hampshire / Surrey especially down the county roads 🤣. It can be a 1 hr away from the school in peak time. You are literally years away from secondary. Who knows whether ghs will be a girls school when your 1 yr old makes it to secondary. Make your life easier especially when they are tiny. Do what you see fits job wise / location. I’ve done hours of daily driving and I wouldn’t recommend it 🤣

If you live in Guildford you won’t have the grammar catchments. Things will change hugely in a few years (which it already is - demand isn’t as great as people don’t have the cash) Or go for a prep school within the catchment of a grammar which is convenient for your work / train lines etc. Make your life easier / or rent / or plan to move in a few years - driving hungry / grid lock Guildford traffic / grumpy children around isn’t fun 🤣

Hi everyone,
Sorry to hijack this thread, but with the wisdom of all of you with older DDs I just wanted to ask some questions.

I have two DD's (1 and 3 year old). My 3 year old has a GHS offer for reception next year. We absolutely loved the school ethos when we visited, and are very likely to accept.

We are relocating from Maidenhead anyway, and applied to a few different schools (she also has an offer from STAHS which is the other side). But we are very likely to accept GHS, and wondering whereabouts most people live? Or do you just relocate if your DD's secondary options change?

We have had a nightmare selling our current house so my view is to try and move somewhere that gives us the most options for secondary school too to avoid moving for the foreseeable future.. i.e. for Tiffin Girls to be an option at secondary, we'd have to live atleast a 30 minute drive from GHS which I'm not sure is a good idea in the junior years. I appreciate it's all a bit further down the line, but any ideas/advice would be greatly appreciated!

@pianistly Apologies for the delay in reply. In all honesty, it was mostly preparing for CEM tests. My advise is to focus a bit more on verbal reasoning as out of all the tests, DD found that a little tricky. Also, creative writing made a difference, I suspect as it had a surprise element and my DD particularly enjoyed it. We did not realise that it was a part of her assessment on the day of her interview and found out about it after it was all over! Preparing for GHS was relatively easy as my little had put in work for the highly selective grammar schools and I believe that it contributed hugely to her achievements in independent school exams. Happy to chat about various sources we used on a separate thread if you wish to. :)

Congratulations @prancerlancer Well done to your DD!! We had fabulous offers at all 3 independent schools- rather generous academic and drama scholarships at Reigate , Caterham and GHS. To top that, our little has also been offered Wallington and we were very pleased as we are out of the catchment area. But we have gone for GHS as she chose it. We live much closer to Reigate and the bus for RGS is like a 2 minute walk from our home. But after much discussion and loads of bribing involved- nothing would change her mind and we will now be schlepping up and down the local train station! From a family point of view, Reigate would have suited us the best but hey ho. Not moaning and really grateful to be in this position but we have made our "peace" and paid the deposit :) xx Wishing your little one all the very best of everything

Way back.... DD1 got into GHS as did 7 others from Rydes Hill. Back then it was very much more a "local" school. Over a few years it got better and better results, by which time DD2 (six years behind her sister) was rejected as oversubscribed by what we would consider "out of area" cohorts.

Is it not just pivoting back to what it was originally?? DD2 went to Tormead and did very well.

I am not sure about the allure of RGS, the boys school, going Co-Ed. There are an awful lot of girls who would rather stay where they are...... The boys at RGS are great for socialising, not so much for spending all day with!

@AndreaKnowsBest which United learning schools are struggling?

Thank you @AGHSmum and @RGRGRG for your kind insights. These are very useful to us. Whilst the fee difference doesn’t make much of a difference to us, we have now turned down our GHS place and accepted Reigate Grammar where she was offered both an art and academic scholarship. Adding to the dilemma, we also received an offer from Wallington Girls.

@tigermum1611which school did you end up choosing?

Good luck to those on the GHS waitlist. Hopefully, the space we freed up will serve one of your children.

The number of kids in the overall pool tends to be similar each year, give or take.

It will be ghs that will suffer from the rgs's move as they seek to bouslter their own results with smart girls. You'll likely see financial incentives too, etc., as its a new venture and they will want it to work.

Of course this will trickle down to the other schools, but critically, this, in turn, will reduce the amount of higher academic ability kids avaiable to ghs. Rgs of course use than critical london rail line too!

If I was tormead or st cats I wouldn't be all that worried, their USPs are very very different to GHS, in fact people actively choose those two schools over ghs for various reasons. These two are also well established, not hard-up, charities that can pivot... and as a PP mentiomed, United learning is a business, and ghs is its cash cow.

Strangely, i actually see this as a opportunity to steal a march on ghs, who will have to open its mind to a broader spectrum of abilities, lowering its elitist 'main sales pitch / appeal', whereas rhe others never pretended to be highly academic, and their USPs will stand.

It won't happen over night, but id bet £50 on that being the medium to long term direction of travel in the local area.

Ps. Before anyone says it, im not a disgruntled ghs reject parent!

GHS doesn't have a standard number of classes in the senior school. Some years have 4 classes (like my dds year) and some have 5 (like the year above her). They have always done this. This is not a new thing. It gives them flexibility with their offers. Despite this their results remain impressive. Every school is reacting to VAT and changing markets. They have to! RGS going co ed will also have an impact on GHS, plus Tormead and St Cat's and they need to have a good strategy.

There's not much 'bulge-year' about an additional 24 kids. That's an active decision that requires staffing and timetabling too. Schools tend to have a sweet spot where actually taking more than you usually do becomes uneconomical until you hit a certain much larger number.

Given how tough the market is at the moment, as many people have noticed and said across here and in the coffee shops, theres defiantly been a step change this year.

Like most ghs girls, your daughter did very well, congratulations.

However, the observation on this years approach seems to have been widely noticed. United Learning are not a charity like most indepedent schools, they are a business, and with other parts of it rumoured to not be doing so well, plus RGS on manoeuvres (yes I know it will be fully co ed in the coming years, but sixth form first on the senior side of things), they are seemingly bolstering the numbers/cash.

Some bizarre responses here to the additional class. Like all the schools do, they over offer every year. However, in some years they get significantly more acceptances than expected and in these years there is an additional class. One of my DDs was in a bulge year a while ago. Standards across the cohort were definitely not any lower than other years and said DD got a place at Oxbridge for a highly competitive stem subject after sixth form.

Also RGS is transitioning to full co-ed, not just Sixth Form, so there will be girls in both Year 7 (from September 2028) and Sixth Form (from September 2027). RGS Prep will also go co-ed for certain years from 2027.

They've got an extra class, so standards across the cohort will be down on last year's by a margin, its just maths. If they are seemingly aiming to be bigger and fuller, I would calm them and ask - if you dont get a decent response, just move on. Plenty of just as good options out there.

Yes - reacting to market forces. Their other schools aren't doing well, they're about to be stuffed by RGS going sixth form co-ed shortly, so the strategy seems to be pack-em-in as low down as possible, including in the prep.

Hello, my daugter is currently on the GHS waiting list for Year 7 entry this September. Any idea upto how many places the movement happened last year? Many thanks.

Hello, late to the game but asking for a friend who’s child go a high WL place at GHS but has been told places have been allocated. Is it true they took on another year 7 class for this years’ intake?

I have a DD at Reigate in year 7. I would definitely agree with @AGHSmum that you should really consider the length of commute as an important deciding point.

I honestly didn’t value a short commute enough when looking at schools. Having said that we live very close to RGS and I am so glad about this multiple times a week. We end up at school at least once, but normally twice a week for things like matches, concerts, drama performances, parents evening, late pick ups from school trips, pick ups from Friday events (when late buses don’t run). I can also pick up from clubs after school as soon as she finishes rather than her having to wait for the late bus to leave at 5.45.

Her friends who live further away are a)much more exhausted and b) get involved in fewer extra-curriculars so they can manage the tiredness.

I think DD might have marginally preferred/been better at a girls school - but she enjoys the impact of a short commute far more.

What was a deciding point for us was RGS’s flexible GCSE programme - with no requirement for humanities or language. For my child who loves the arts and sciences this was a big selling point. I’m also not a huge fan of United Learning so was happy to stay away from that.

While my DDs are no longer at GHS, just thought it might be helpful to make a couple of comments:

• the school site itself has actually been expanded significantly over the last 15 or so years, with the purchase of three adjacent properties in Nightingale Road, which have been redeveloped into new buildings.
• unless the reduction in fees makes a big difference to you, I’d not be too concerned about whether your DD was offered an academic scholarship or not. Unlike with music scholarships there is nothing additional offered to those with academic scholarships - it is just a fee reduction
• there are scholarships in 6th Form - the way they are awarded has changed over time. DD1 sat scholarship papers in the November of her GCSE year, but in DD2’s year I think they were simply based on the GCSE mock results. Not sure what is done now.
• Re Reigate versus GHS - I think academically the gap between the two has narrowed a lot over recent years. So I’d base the decision on whether you want to go co-ed or not, and which has the easier commute. Do not underestimate the impact of a longer/trickier commute on the actual day to day life of your DC. One of my DC was offered a generous scholarship from Reigate, but the savings would have been almost entirely wiped out by the additional commute costs.

My DD has been offered an academic scholarship to GHS and the other 3 schools that we applied to. However unlike the other schools, GHS only applies to award up to the end of GCSEs and not for Sixth form years. Does anyone know the reason for this? Do many girls leave GHS at Sixth form?

*does anyone know how the experiences of GHS scholars vary from those of other girls without scholarships?

Hey @tigermum1611congratulations to your DD! We seem to be in exactly the same shoes. DD got into GHS and 6 other schools, including Reigate Grammar. GHS is her top choice, but is also the only school where she’s not been offered a scholarship. I’m wondering if we’ll be better off going with one of the other schools that have affirmed her by giving her a scholarship.

Does anyone know how the experiences of scholarship vary form those of the other girls at Guildford high?

also keen to hear from parents who have DDs at Reigate, or intend to send their DDs there

Well done! Is GHS academic scholarship based on only the computer based assessment in November, or is the scholarship based on both assessment in November and interview day in January? Thanks x

Thank you. All girls who take the exam are automatically considered for academic scholarship. It is based on merit. There is no special application for academic scholarships as such. DD has also got offers with from Reigate Grammar and Caterham school with academic and drama scholarships in both the schools. We feel very fortunate and now need to choose one! x

Congratulations! Could you please share how to secure the academic scholarship for GHS? Thank you :-)

congratulations! Could you please share how to secure academic scholarship for GHS? Thank you!

Not really. Its pretty landlocked like most city schools. We had a family member attend GHS so pretty familiar with the school.

Weirdly, by a different route, it does feel like we're going back to the GHS of old times, and I do somewhat agree with the sausage factory analogy. If true.

Its a great school, and academically strong (for now), and no beef, our family did well out of it.

But on the flip-side, how can you deliver a nurturing education when you've packed-em to the rafters? That perception of a factory style, hot house establishment was historically always their issue (not that it kept people away!), I wonder if that will resurface to the benefit of others locally who have always been way more pastoral and focused on the individual.

Whats the most interesting though, is from a economic/political perspective, even the tough times we are in and independent schools are in is even starting to show in the GHSs of the world - i guess like someone else said, its a cash cow and needs to produce the dolar for the rest of the group.