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?

The best girls’ school in the country is St Paul’s Girls School, hands down.
Very bright girls also go to Sixth Form at Westminster.
The various girls’ boarding schools are okay - not PM creators (just my view). Wife of a PM yes. Brutally honest but I’ve been through the system with a boy and girl.
And in terms of Eton, if you want power and network, it’s the place. If you want superlative academic excellence it’s Westminster, or St Paul’s Boys School, not Eton (unless a King’s Scholar).

Habs girls, posh? . Not even as posh as North London Collegiate . It was the school in An Education, the book and the film with Carey Mulligan, before it moved from Acton to Elstree. Always academic but never 'refained' enough for the Hons.

Btw they've dropped the Aske's. Slavery links.

But why would you want to spoil their childhood trying to save to put your Dd into a mega expensive school. It isn’t just the fees that need saving for it is all the rest to go with it.

Friend put her Dd into a really posh school. She arrived the first day with her hair and nails done in her nice car in a nice suit and heels only to find the carpark full of vans and lorry’s and people wearing work gear and steel toe capped boots accompanying their little ones into school.
She said she felt a tad overdressed but realised she wouldn’t have to trawl websites to find any plumbers, roofers or electricians ever again

Honestly she doesn't have the voice.

Cheltenham Ladies College seem to be raising girls to be empowered and to become world leaders from all over the globe, not just the UK.

The various girls’ boarding schools are okay - not PM creators (just my view). Wife of a PM yes.

Not sure the most recent crop of Etonians is much of an advert for supposed ‘cream of the crop’ though is it?

Cameron and Boris both seem stuck in a world where who gets to be Head Prefect is more important than the impact on the people who live in it.

Also ‘wife of a pm’ is a bit 19th century. Cherie Blair was at least as smart and capable as her PM spouse for one.

Roedean is the girls equivalent
to Eton.

Just enjoy your life, work less and focus on her education - if she’s bright you can get her in on a bursary.

Roedean is most likely the closest thing to a female Eton.

Wasn’t Boris a Kings Scholar? Am sure he was.

I'm not sure this has been mentioned but posh girls used to go to Swiss finishing school back in the day. A flat mate of mine had been. Our 2 got bursaries to a good prep. school. It was in Scotland but some of the boys still went on to Eton, Harrow and Winchester but by far the most popular was Fettes in Edinburgh where Tony Blair went. It's co-ed and the brainiest girls all went there. Some went to Gordonstoun where Charles went.

You know that Shouty Shola from GMB. Argues with everyone. She has three girls and the first went to Roedean, the second CLC and the third starting somewhere else this September. She’s hedging her bets on which will get her kids where she wants them to be. Such a shame to all board away from home and away from their sisters.

Roedean is the one that's most often referred to as the girls' equivalent of Eton.

I haven't seen much evidence of its rivalling Eton for producing talentless, amoral, entitled arses like Johnson, Rees-Mogg, Kwarteng, etc., though, so perhaps the comparison isn't valid.

There's several - Cheltenham Ladies' College Roedean Wycombe Abbey. Top day school St Paul's. I'm.against boarding schools myself.

I remember a TV programme, a very long time ago, called Public School, based in Radley. The main filming was in the 80s IIRC, but they had a revisit about a decade ago to find out how the boys featured in the programme had fared.

I found the footage of lessons utterly terrifying - maths questions and quickfire arithmetic done orally and on the fly, and a rather sad story about one of the brilliant scholarship boys ultimately succumbing to anxiety and OCD under the pressure of greater and greater academic expectations. He did all right in the end, but only after moving to Australia.

I remember an institution called Lucie Clayton advertising in the 1980s, half secretarial college, half finishing school. It used to run courses on how gels could get out of sports cars without exposing themselves at awkward angles, as well as typing and office practice.

My immediate thought was Marlborough College but I think that’s co-ed.

Roedean is not linked to Brighton college.

St Paul's girls school very much leads young women to powerful leadership positions, Shirley Williams is a rather well known political alumni. But it's not a boarding school so has a different cohort to Eton.

@CountTessa Roedean is not linked to Brighton college. You are right, it is not. I have apologised upthread for posting outdated info.

Roedean and Benenden. Toffs have been sending their girls there since 1885.

My daughter was at Roedean for 8 years beginning In the late 80's, nearly all of her class went to university and studied various medical sciences, physics, law etc., they were career focused. I didn't know any girls who were interested in politics or power they were encouraged to become financially independent and were taught to do this by being successful in their chosen field.
There are a lot of politicians from Eton, perhaps being male has something to do with it, an old boys club culture?

Yes I was surprised to read that, it is only an opinion though and I really hope that we get a decent PM soon - a truthful, normal person who wants the best for our country.

Well for starters, class size. My dd spent a year at a top super-selective grammar school (offer 110 places from 2000 applicants) and it was over-crowded, very little personal attention, and very exam oriented
Later at a private (‘public’) school she had extremely small class size (never more than 12) lots of personal attention and mentoring and academic support, extra intellectual/academic opportunities, etc.
no comparison. Pupils were taught to think critically rather than memorising for exams. Creates different sorts of people, who enjoy the challenges of learning for its own sake, creative and interdisciplinary thinking, versus rote and siloed memorisation for exams.

@MrsAvocet
I think maybe Maggie Thatcher was groomed by her father.

I would say Cheltenham Ladies. Quite academic these days.
My DD went to a Cotswold rival. No trousers. If you want equality for women find a girls school that allows trousers. I looked at 22 in the south. However that was a few years ago.