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?

My daughter boards at one of the schools mentioned and believe me lots of people want to send their children to the big public schools.

And ridiculous to think they are being trained to be 'support' acts.

I would say Wycombe Abbey. Very academic, posh. Regular socials with Eton and Harrow. Hated it….

So recent! That's awful.

I was wondering if maybe you were going to say the 1980s.

It would definitely be Cheltenham or Wycombe.

Eton is massive - 1300 boys and actually takes a range of intelligence.

Whereas St Paul’s is smaller, day, and more academically focused. The bracket is London professionals.

Not many got to run their own wing at Holloway.

I think she went to Roundhay in Leeds- a common or garden comp. It's got a good reputation now, but when Liz went there, not so much.

Cheltenham, Queen's and Marlborough all do. But of course, those reputations take a back seat to the ones catering for males. As was ever the case.

Yep this

She went to a state school. Made a big deal out of how rough her state school apparently was and generally tried to get maximum political mileage out of it. 🙄

Woldingham

I suppose if the number of Prime Ministers produced from Eton is anything to go by, then we could look at other public schools to check for number of PMs, if at all and then look to their sister schools, if any.

St Paul’s Boys’ School produced Spencer Compton as PM and George Osborne as Chancellor. There is St Paul’s Girls’ School so that could be seen as an equivalent to a girls’ Eton in some ways. It churns out many successful women.

Westminster produced Nick Clegg, girls are admitted in the sixth form.

Habs hasn’t produced any PMs.

City of London Boys’ had Herbert Asquith as Prime Minister and Earl of Oxford. There is a sister school.

Dulwich College has no PMs

Stowe has none.

Wycombe hasn’t produced any female PMs, although plenty of successes in other areas.

Cheltenham Ladies’ College and Roedean have traditionally been held in high esteem.

Then you could look at members of the Royal Family, Victoria Crosses awarded, QC appointments, etc.

The Public Schools Act of 1868 lists:

Eton, Harrow, Westminster, Winchester, Charterhouse and Rugby, with City of London School added at a later date.

St Paul’s and Merchant Taylor’s’ were excluded because they were deemed by the Clarendon Report to be ‘private’ rather than ‘public’ schools, so any abuse could not be legally challenged, unlike all the former which had been originally established as charitable schools.

Sadly fairly recently, ‘bring it on’/ ‘mean girls’ era that mentality and copying it was rife, especially if you weren’t as wealthy as some such as me.

i do sincerely hope that it’s changed now and there is more awareness around mental health, abuse and safe guarding. I imagine that a lot of private schools are similar as there is no system of accountability

That's interesting, she had the public school speaking voice down to a t!

She really doesn't.

And you do know that you don't actually have to go to public school to have a RP accent?

Not everyone that goes to a state school sounds like a cast member of East Enders.

Wycombe Abbey is the nearest thing there is to a "girls' equivalent" to Eton, but it's still very different. One thing it does have in common with Eton is that the majority of the pupils are academically extremely able, rather than just "posh".

However, there's a lot more choice for parents who want single-sex schools for their daughters than there is for parents who want single-sex schools for their sons. Many of the girls' schools are very good indeed (including day schools).

No clue but Roedean would be my guess... I am biased because a distant family member went there (and I met a female Tory MP at her wedding!)

i take it that was a joke?

you forgot

David Lloyd George
Andrew Bonar Law
Ramsay MacDonald
Harold Wilson
Jim Callaghan
Margaret Thatcher
John Major
Gordon Brown

Yes, agree with Mrs Avocet, there isn’t really a certain equivalent.

A lot of young women would leave public schools with good qualifications but were conditioned to think it wasn’t becoming to proceed further. They would become PAs, secretaries, nannies, florists, then marry, perhaps set up a business from home and continue that unpaid organisation role for their husbands.

Cheltenham Ladies

My DH close friends boy is at Elon and girl at Cheltenham ( both boarding of course)

Emeritus is an academic term that means retired but still recognised as a Professor at that university. They often continue to be involved in research.

Thanks @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

Did it have a dip, then? I was at secondary school in Leeds in the 1970s and always heard of Roundhay as a good school.

This is so sad

I would have said Cheltenham college for young ladies as that is where the absolutely uber rich poshest girls or girls with very aspirational done-good-for themselves parents, that I knew at Uni went.

Zara Tindall went to Gordonstoun

Many private schools have a charitable status, which means they are entitled to claim tax breaks