What's the girls equivalent of Eton & why?

[Dinaprettyballerina]

Just out of interest which English girls school is the one all sharp elbowed parents are trying to get their girls into? Eton has a reputation for having the pushiest parents with alot of overseas parents who are extremely invested in getting the very best education & getting their child in at all costs.. what is the female equivalent?

She did, she was lying. Or being economical with the truth.

This kept annoying me when reporters were reporting on Truss being the first PM to attend a state comprehensive. It is because she is younger than the rest. Grammar schools were abolished in most of the country. She still got into a posh university, older people who were educated before the comprehensive system was introduced only went to university if they attended a selective grammar state school. Had Grammar schools existed when she went to school she would have attended one.

The oldest Girls school is Redmaids in Bristol.... how does that compare for poshness? Especially their "traditional" uniform!

I have limited knowledge of private schools but was friends with a girl who went to Downe House and I was told it was a female Eton basically. What’s the view on them?

There’s loads of habs schools though, could be any of the hellholes

Holyport. The Co-Ed school that shares all of Eton’s facilities.

Downe House goes to 18. My best friend’s daughter went to DH and was bullied badly for being clever - I mean really badly! Jokes on them - she got 4 A’s and went to Oxford.

Wycombe Abbey

In my part of Kent in the 1980s, some parents might pay for their sons to go to public schools but hoped their daughters would pass the 11-plus and get into a girls’ grammar school.

Eton was never really about being 'bright'.
Agree with PP that there isn't an Eton for girls because, well, the patriarchy and glass ceilings. Also, any women do want to halt a career for children - nothing wrong with that.
There are lots of great schools - St Pauls, Marlborough (co-ed), St Cats, Prior's Field, CLC, Wycombe, Benenden, Roedean......
To be honest, all of the Cheltenham Ladies College girls I know got there on a significant scholarship and all of their friends were full fee paying international students. I think there are more scholarships to attend these places than are appreciated because it doesn't fit the narrative of these school being full of rich, white posh people.

This is coming from the oracle that is my partner- so admittedly second-hand information. He was at school in Leeds in the 80s, albeit a couple of years behind Liz Truss (and not at Roundhay school, though did live in Roundhay). Must say, now that I've learned her father was an Oxford don, I've dispensed with the notion that she might she might have been from a tough background😂

It's St Pauls Girls in London.

Eton is entitled
St. Paul's girls school you actually have to be clever to go there
eton you think bloody toffs on a conveyor belt to power
St. Paul's, you think, hmm smart and driven

Princess Anne went to Benenden.

NI still has academic selection at 11 (or 14 in Lurgan /Portadown I think). Not govt sanctioned anymore so not compulsory but many many children take the AQE or GL tests to get to grammar school. Most towns have a state grammar and state non selective and Catholic grammar and Catholic non selective (with many grammar now opting out of the test). Now many integrated as well. We have no private schools (except 1 boys grammar in Belfast which is a bit of both). Our grammar schools are known to be very academic and in my day (1980s) still taught Latin etc. 13 from my year went to Oxford (not me). I had a brilliant classical education for which I'm very grateful (I was a solidly working class child)

Isn’t that what “finishing schools” were for? As long as they went to a posh boarding they were then finished off ie taught how to host, mix appropriate drinks, walk, talk & act, run a household, throw appropriate gatherings, manage domestic staff, cook, groom their daughters for successful marriage, childcare, managing one’s nanny etc etc so as to play the equivalent role as their future leader husband would do, but domestically?
Usually in the Swiss Alps or some such other where one’s skills on the piste & already ski are another social advantage.

There was a tipping point in the late 70s. I am a year older than the late Princess of Wales. Many, many girls of my era got 2/3 O'Levels despite being bright albeit not academic. It was perfectly acceptable to go to secretarial college, cordon bleu cookery school, do an interior design course, or even go to finishing school and/or do a few ski chalet girl seasons. We were the last generation allowed to "fail" with an F on the O'Level certificate. Boys of the same age or just a bit older could still get into the City with Contacts - I did and broke the mould as a girl. It wasn't de rigeur to have a degree if you were well educates. Within a year or two of me leaving school the landscape changed.

There were always "power" schools and SPGS, CLC were among them that empowered girls to be v v well educated and qualified but 45 years ago they were the outliers.

Eton gets a bad rap because the boys need to be bright and rich to get in. However I am aware that my ds and his friends at their SW London independent were very disenchanted with the attitude and the entitlement of the LED lights blaring out Eton College when they had matches.

Many schools have subsequently risen through the academic ranks alongside the decline in boarding.

I think the importance now attached to academic qualifications has created much of the mental health crisis. We don't accept people any more for who they are, they need certificates. It is entirely possible to be well educated without being being academic which is now the holy grail. So many young people struggle with expectations alongside neuro diversity whereas a generation ago they were allowed to be not academic and still had life and career options.

I went to a GPDST school. One girl in our year moved down to Benenden because her Mum said she needed to go somewhere to 'finish off' (whatever the hell that means) with the properly rich.

I've actually never heard of Wycombe - off to have a google and a dream! I've sadly got no chance of sending my two kids to private and wouldn't dream of asking/expecting my parents to fund another two kids through!

In our view, Wycombe Abbey is Eton equivalent, while Benenden is Harrow equivalent.

Only PM to ever go to a state school.

Thank goodness I live in a country where no-one cares where the PM went to school - and in fact no-one cares where you went to school whatever job you have.

I hope to send my daughter to Marlborough (or similiar) and I'm not rich. I had her later in life (39) and had been saving hard for her education for about 15 years prior. I still don't have enough for the full 5 years... but she's only 1, so I've got another 12 years to keep saving!
I drive a 19 year old, clapped-out nissan, haven't been on a holiday in 10 years... and I work my side hustles like mad. So I think with enough pre-planning and the willingness to make a lot of scarifices, many middle class people COULD afford to send one kid to Marlborough. IF they really wanted to.

With on costs £55K a year ? Basic mid £40ks
Most people couldn't afford that

Ignoring politics all 3 female prime ministers have been state educated. Male Prime Ministers used to have varied education backgrounds but of course Boris and Cameron were Eton and Blair also Private.

Seriously? St Georges’s state boarding topped Habs fir A level results. A non- selective comp!