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

Yes, I absolutely would not have gone for prep school under any circumstances. DD went to the school in our area that everyone goes private to avoid and it did her absolutely no harm and quite a lot of good.

Obviously I am picking schools for my DD and not anyone else's DD. Obviously I am posting about my DD's experience since I can't comment on anyone else's. Obviously that is what matters to me!

i don't know what you mean about doing even better. As you've previously pointed out, even English Language which they don't even teach or practise until a few months before the actual GCSE gets a large majority of grade 9s.

She doesn’t want to go, you don’t think she’ll fit in, it doesn’t cater to any of her strengths and it would stretch you financially. I’m not sure why you’re even considering it, unless it’s just an ego thing for you to say she got in?

It's not rare among Asian kids who do grade 8 as early as 7yo sometimes.

Zero pressure sounds great and exactly what I would choose any time. It is also what we experienced at SPGS. I don't care about pushing for academic or any other excellence at the expense of all else. It's not important given that all these girls are going to do very well with a balanced and sensible amount of effort and commitment.

From my experience looking round other schools I did not feel that any of them would suit my daughter as well as SPGS did and that is all that matters.

DD went to a state primary rather than prep school. I would not have bothered with prep school under any circumstances.

You have some great questions for your DD! They can be answered at the school, go to the open day & take your daughter. That’s what open days are for-to get a feel, ask the kids their experiences and have your questions answered by the teachers.

As the parent, surely you also get to suggest options for your daughter to consider.
Imho the decision should be 75%parent & 25% child. I chose my DD school & she couldn’t attend the open day, so it wasn’t top of her list. I could only show her the research & reasons why we felt it was better suited for her. She absolutely loves her school!

But to me - it's a pity that SPGS does not, in fact, do more to extend the more academic girls. Not to go through the curricular faster - but to go deeper. To be more inquisitive, rather than do really well at exams and get into Unis.

You see, I feel that DD got absolutely loads of that! Her teachers were amazing in offering her ideas of how to extend herself and every now and then I'd get an email from a teacher saying 'she did this amazing thing, please get her to show you'. The thing she's really good at is more on the creative side, though.

There were a number of things they studied that simply did not feature on the GCSE syllabus, or they did quite a bit more of whatever the topic was than needed. DD discussed this with one of her science teachers at one point, who said 'well, some of those topics we could have taught you in a couple of lessons - we can't just do exactly what you need to know for the exam or we'd all get bored'.

She talked to teachers in the subjects she liked about what she'd been reading and got useful recommendations which she then went and discussed further.

And DD entered all kinds of national competitions based around stuff she had an interest in, especially in the last couple of years. She even won some stuff in them and got a bigger platform for the things she's good at. Most were suggested by school. Others she found off her own bat.

There is not even any sort of healthy academic competitions between Girls and Boys schools - apparently so as to not create upset.... But mostly - because no one bothers to even think about it.

I wouldn't want this at all and it would actively put me off! I don't believe academic endeavour is a race or a competition.

Having said that, DD attended a few academic events with the boys' school over the years - English conferences etc. Not sure how useful they were to her.

Do you also have sons at Westminster? From what I hear from friends, it's a much more traditional rules-bound atmosphere. It would not have suited my daughter at all.

For me the strength of SPGS and what my daughter has loved has been the emphasis on creativity, of whatever kind. Even scientists need some of that!

At you looking a music scholarships? Distinction at Grade 8 piano in year 4 is so rare it's close to unheard of. Is she a piano prodigy?

If you're here amateur teacher, you must be incredibly musical as well.

Yep, I'm puzzled tbh :)

@BonjourCrisette I agree that there are a lot of extra-curriculars. Lot's of sport - for those who are interested. Lots of musical opportunities - within the school and some joint with boys school. There is Drama too - for those who are interested to be involved in productions.
As you said - your daughter's path through school was shaped by extra-curriculars. And I agree that there is lots of that.

But to me - it's a pity that SPGS does not, in fact, do more to extend the more academic girls. Not to go through the curricular faster - but to go deeper. To be more inquisitive, rather than do really well at exams and get into Unis.
We don't see teams of SPGS girls participating in Maths or Sciences competitions at National level, for eg. They do the Maths challenges, sure. And at Six Form - they do the Physics and Chemistry challenges. But not much before that.

There is not even any sort of healthy academic competitions between Girls and Boys schools - apparently so as to not create upset.... But mostly - because no one bothers to even think about it.

It may sound like I do not like the school, but it's not quite the case. I feel that it can be more - especially given the sort of kids they get at 11, and the quality of teaches they largely have.

And, I do think Westminster has more of the sort of deeper approach to education. Sadly, my girls are too old to benefit from it. Yes, they could have gone to there for Six Form - but most of the benefit of what I am talking about would be actually in middle-GSCEs years. The Six Form is a short stretch to do as much as you can in the first year to apply to Unis in the fall of second year. And then prepping for delivering the grades. So - not the time for going wide.

Strange how differently two families can experience the same environment.

Look - Tiffin a a different demographic, for sure. You can see it by the fact that the top destination - about 20% is medicine. And another 10% (ish) is law.
From what I heard - Henrietta Barnett also has medicine as one of the top destinations.

As to SPGS - there is way too much made up lore and misconceptions about the school. In the end of the day - it's just a selective school that picks high IQ girls - who can afford to pay for the good quality education. And a handful of bursaries.

It does NOT do huge amounts of enrichment. It does not try to teach off curriculum. The results you see, especially at GSCEs - are specifically BECAUSE it does not. It just makes sure the bright girls do what they need to do to get top results within the curriculum.

@Ubertomusic - the language Olympiad link you posted is an optional thing. No prep needed - and they sign up for fun. Many at SPGS are multilingual, and also a lot of them like solving puzzles - which is what those linguistic tasks are more alike.
The actual regular teaching of languages at SPGS is at the usual UK level, and poor, in my opinion. But I speak more than one language myself, so probably am a harsher critic than average.

@swdd as to being self-starter at Y4-5-6.... These are very young girls we are talking about. Maybe there are kids of tiger parents that are expected to be. Mine were curious, and loved reading. But at the same times they were kids and loved their friends and playing. Did they only chose doing educational activities that were enriching? Of course not. But at the same time - they were obviously bright and liked learning - did programming and robotics.

In the end of the day - schools like Tiffin, SPGS, and other high performing schools will all have pressures that these girls would feel. And most of if will be self-imposed. They will all know they are in top selective schools that delivers excellent results. And they'll know that those will be expected off them.
So - pick the school that works for your family/DD - based on all factors that matter to you - financial, academic, geographical, etc. And remember that when you go to visit schools - you are looking at a one snapshot on one day. And it is in NO way predictive of what experience your child will have in a school - which will be more due to their friendship group/specific teachers combination that you will not able to predict or control.

Oh, I see. I don't know about that really. DD's journey through the school was more defined by her extra-curricular activities than anything else tbh. But there are definitely lots of opportunities to get involved in pretty much anything you have an interest in! And I like very much how if the thing you want to do doesn't exist they are perfectly happy for anyone to start a club or magazine or other activity. DD started something up while she was there and met really lovely like-minded people in other years as a result.

Oh I didn't mean sets, more something like groups of special interests eg. those more interested in humanities or STEM or sport etc and they would be doing more extensions in their field of interest, and therefore individual educational journeys within the school would look different. I may be wrong though.
I don't know of any other top school that does a linguistics course, especially for younger ones.

I understand there are sort of streams within the school

@Ubertomusic I don't think there are streams (unless they are very recent since the new High Mistress started). The only subject that is set to my knowledge is Maths.

I seem to remember DD getting homework similar to that in Year 7 which is when they did the linguistics course and the taster courses for different languages. They also have problems like this in the entrance exam.

I'm no expert on piano studies, you'll get more answers on the music thread https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/extra_curricular_activities/5502662-spring-summer-2026-music-thread

It's interesting re. languages as I've seen homework similar to this https://www.uklo.org/past-exam-papers/ , part of it is basic structural linguistics and a bit of logic, and it would be difficult to figure out some answers with no previous teaching of some principles. The HW was not for clubs but it looks like not for everyone either? I understand there are sort of streams within the school so may be that's the reason but at least this type of tasks were made available/set by the school.

I have no skin in the game as my DD is specialising in music and dance but I'm generally interested in education so always curious to know about different schools and their approaches.