Should I push my CAT4 138 DD to SPGS open day?

Re : SP, I only know one person who went to the boys one, excelled in languages, very confident though has chosen to send his DD to less pushy cheaper schools. He says you can get the same level of education in other places without the huge cost.

The girls' school is completely different from the boys' school in approach and atmosphere, IMO.

@swdd your DD sounds really smart so I would go see all the schools then narrow it down. Also remember people here may have a vested interest in putting you off given it's so competitive. I saw lots of schools and was surprised by those I thought id love and vice versa. Dd only came to one and liked it despite being negative beforehand.

Re : SP, I only know one person who went to the boys one, excelled in languages, very confident though has chosen to send his DD to less pushy cheaper schools. He says you can get the same level of education in other places without the huge cost.

Sounds like Alleyns would suit her better then on to Westminster for 6th form?

Three thoughts after reading this thread, to the extent they are helpful

1: Stories about schools are sometimes useful, but they may mislead
When researching schools, I often found factual information on mumsnet genuinely helpful (thanks to those who post links to the factual information). But after experiencing three different schools with my kids, I was sometimes surprised by how different the reality was from the overall impression created by the stories or single opinions on the forum. The stories can be completely true while still being unrepresentative. So it might be useful to take stories/opinions with a grain of salt and distinguish "this happened" from "this is typical" for a specific school. Btw, some information might simply be outdated: SPGS does have a bunch of STEM clubs (a number of maths clubs, science, engineering, 3D printing, etc.)

2: There is no "best school" in isolation
Rankings, exam results and reputation matter to some degree, but they don't tell whether a particular child will thrive in a specific school. Open days, talking to the school's students and teachers, and studying factual/verifiable information might be more helpful in answering whether a particular school is the best for a particular child. Thinking about SPGS, my impression is that those who love learning thrive there

3: Perhaps children don't simply lose their motivation to learn?
Young children seem to have a natural curiosity about the world. When a kid lacks motivation, I wonder whether school, parenting, pressure, comparison and other circumstances can gradually suppress that curiosity? It feels like preserving kids' curiosity for as long as one can is important on the learning journey

In answer to your OP though

No, you shouldn’t take your DD to an open day if you think she’ll struggle with humanities and more importantly if she doesn’t want to go.

16+ is a way off and she’ll barely remember the open day at 11 by the time she’s 15.

SPGS parent here and I agree with other posters.

This is my experience of how they get nearly all 9’s at GCSE?

The girls are all bright but no brighter than the very top cohort at every other school in the country, it’s just that they are all at that level.
The parents are generally very ambitious for their DD’s.
There is heavy tutoring outside of school.
The pressure comes from the parents and family/child's ethos not the school.
The school is set up for the girls to be self motivated, not many rules, no uniform, questioning is encouraged which has been great for my DD’s learning beyond the syllabus.

However, IME the teaching standard is very mixed. Some exceptional teachers and some well……. This might be one reason why there are such different views of the school from parents.

Additionally the pastoral care could do with a revamp.

@swdd Two SPGS girls participated in the 2025 EGMO. One represented Ukraine.

@swdd

I do remember a girl from SPGS on the IMO team a few years back who went on to MIT.

No SPGS girl has ever represented the UK in the IMO. However, I don't know if SPGS girls have ever participated in the IMO representing a different country. I suspect you may be thinking of Yuka Machino who attended Millfield School.

DD loved Additional Maths (they didn't do the Level 2 one). It was quite challenging for her but overall she was glad she did it. It was offered to everyone who wanted to take it. She was actually in the bottom maths group but moved up a group so she could do the Add Maths since they weren't going to be covering the content in the bottom group. She got a decent grade but it was quite hard work for her as it's definitely not the thing she is best at. Further Maths isn't available at SPGS but she would probably have enjoyed that too.

DD at WHS is lower in the school so no direct experience as yet - my understanding is that
AQA Further Maths (which I think is level 2) is offered to around 1/3 to 1/2 (top sets) . Usually all entered tend to get 7-9. There maybe other options but I am not sure.

When we looked around, I remember Emanuel was quite similar.
Not sure about other schools. I recall that information on Additional Maths being quite sparse in terms of numbers entered and results, hence why I distinctly recall WHS and Emanuel.

I completely agree with @Ubertomusic - beyond the stats, the schools can feel quite different on certain fronts at least to quite a few parents (us, for instance).

Although our DD is at WHS (and it was a very conscious decision) and she (and us) are very happy, we know plenty of families that are equally happy at PHS. As with many things, not better / worse, it just depends on the DD.

This has to be the longest thread about one child choosing a school in the history of mumsnet.

Sorry I won't go into details as people get defensive about their schools and the thread will be flooded with arguments I have no appetite for. We can clearly see opposite opinions on SPGS from the actual parents so individual journeys even within the same school may differ a lot.

I just considered both schools for DD and did my research based not only on data (stats can be very misleading) but having friends at schools, comparing homework, speaking with teachers etc, and I added "in my opinion" to my comment :)

For a bilingual and very musical child, she will want a school that does enough GCSEs as standard. It’s an easy 9 in Music and her native language (on the side if not one of the European ones). Add in AdMaths (that is more than a GCSE and help for FM at A level but only the most academic schools even offer it) or Further Maths GCSE she is looking at 11 or 12 GCSEs.
The grammar DS is at only does triple science and 10.5 GCSEs minimum, those doing Further Maths are doing 11.5. Plenty then do their native language too. Only top set does AdMaths if they want to- it covers a fair bit of the A level syllabus, or so DD tells me who is in year 12 doing Maths and FM.

My nephew is in top set in public school and says a lot of the teachers go off piste regularly and semi sneer at the GCSEs. Like it’s something for commoners. However, my nephew then borrowed all my DD’s notes - as at the end of the day the kids want to pass well and get into good unis. It’s really no surprise that the work ethic and pass the exams well ethos instilled in grammar school is now translating to more elite uni places than some of the best private schools. The going deeper can be left to A level and reading widely around your subject is encouraged in most excellent state sixth forms too these days.

I cannot comment on your agreement with @Ubertomusic (if you refer to other nuances, I wholeheartedly support it).

But on the number and types of GCSEs, I think worth clarifying a few things. It is not true that only top set do triple science at WHS (girls choose a minimum of two sciences, but there is no double science option as such in the way it is done in most schools and definitely not choices on the basis of ability)... PHS girls can do the same but can also do 3 sciences in the 'double science guise' (i.e counting as 2 GCSEs). More generally, on the number of GCSEs at GDST schools, it varies (and there are other girls beyond those doing Further Maths, [which incidentally, it is not done as a GCSE], doing more than 9 - for instance, a PHS girl doing 3 sciences plus the other required 4 options will be doing 10, and that is pretty standard. It is a bit of a myth that GDST schools have the same curriculum - number, range and flexibility of GCSEs varies.
As for Emanuel doing more GCSEs,, students doing double science (and no further maths) will be doing 9. As above, it depends on the child. In all those schools, plenty of kids doing additional languages beyond the 'scheduled' GCSEs.

Beyond that, I am personally not convinced that looking at the number of GCSEs is a useful indicator of the intellectual challenge provided by a school in general or, more particularly, for the type of girl being discussed. On that vein, worth considering also which other curricular (e.g. non-examined courses or activities) or extra-curricular provision.

Just to clarify- at Wimbledon you don’t have to take all 3 Sciences but it’s nothing to do with ‘top sets’. You can just choose not to. The majority still do. There is no such thing as ‘top sets’ anyway- except for Maths.

Agree with @Ubertomusic , Putney at this time not strong in Maths. Wimbledon only top set gets to do triple science.
GDST do 9 levels, 10 with further maths GCSEs.
LU now doesn’t do GCSEs only internal exams, so a bit marmite for families.
Check out Emanuel, Westminster and City of London they do more GCSEs.
Assuming the Dulwich schools too far, otherwise JAGs and Alleyn's should be on the list.

Yes, I got it but you also made some assumptions that are too simplistic - "Maths and Physics are among the few A-levels where, if you have the natural aptitude, you don't actually need to sink a massive amount of time into revision".

My DS has ASD and is highly gifted in maths - exams are a different matter. You need to show your working out for example and "natural" mathematicians often struggle to do that as they just "know" the answer.

There are other nuances too.

Putney is not the best fit for a mathsy girl imo.