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?

I had a similar experience. Long time ago I met a posh young man one night in the Hacienda (yes, it was that long ago!) He was in his first year at Oxford whereas I was doing my A levels - he assumed I must be at "Manchester Girls' (i.e. private school). We dated until he discovered that I was at a tertiary college (that also covered prison education for the area) and prior to that I'd been at a rough comprehensive (which had made regional news headlines not long before for 'terrorising residents' and fighting another school repeatedly). My background was far too poor and working class for him. 😕His loss. I earn 6 figures in the City now so my plebeian education didn't hold me back.

Yeah and they wonder why the girl, started ditching classes, not doing school work, not attending period. Poor girl was being bullied at home and at school, what was the schools solution… pile on the punishment and ban her from lessons, so all learning had to be self taught independently. At a level no less. That’s the solution right? We as class mates were all told she was a trouble maker and a bad influence and to give her a wide berth. Shock horror that made things worse for her

looking back now, it’s a miracle she didn’t kill herself. No one stopped to think actually maybe years of abuse (it was violent, she wasn’t allowed out much and one time we got pissed at a party and she told me everything) and then bullying at school might actually affect someone.

Just out of interest, no-one has mentioned Gordonstoun? Too many scandals? Fear of upsetting the King? I met someone at uni who was ex-Gordonstoun. She was bright and pretty tough (went on to be a lawyer and then emigrated) although her family was merely wealthy rather than aristocratic. Well, their house was huge to me but given my background (see my previous post), anyone who lived in a just detached house was a bit awe-inspiring.

State grammar if I recall correctly

Sorry, missed the last page of posts where Gordonstoun was mentioned.

@HundredMilesAnHour Gordonstoun is not v academic and unashamedly so. It’s more of an all rounder school.

That’s because the Redesdale wasn’t a great brain himself so didn’t value education for girls. But my great grandmother on one side went to North London Collegiate back in the 1880s and then on to Cambridge, and my great grandmother on the other side went to Cheltenham.

Eton - rich and bright
Harrow - rich and middling
Rugby (and Stowe) - rich and needing a bit of a gee up academically.

Very bright Winchester

Girls:
SPGS - rich and uber bright if you live in London
St Mary's
Marlborough
West Heath - rich and not very bright

My DC were London and are now mid to late 20s.

I am 60s - Roedean, Benenden, St Mary's, CLC were highly regarded when I was a girl. They have dropped off nowadays I believe.

Much of the smart money/wealth is in and around London - with the drop off in boarding, that's where the really good schools are. SPGS, LEH, KCS, SP's, Westminster, etc.

Looking at contemporaries' children in London, those who were not so bright were generally sent to board. A boy could get into Eton if declined by Westminster/KCS.
Winchester was the wild card and Sevenoaks too.

No, John Major, Edward Heath and Margaret Thatcher were all state educated

I agree with@NCforthis864 Definitely St. Paul's Girls in London. Which althought it's a day school is such a top flight school it is the closest equivalent to Eton.

A bit part of the Eton cache is the social network that comes from it - ie. the sons of the great and the good.

St Paul's Girls is the same level and is better academically. Roedean etc. are not the same academic calibre. In the modern world, high fliers with income want their girls to be educated to a high standard not just rubber stamp a boarding school education.

I'm really surprised by how few mentions St Paul's Girls has had on this thread.

Curious where you got the idea Benenden is crammed with Asian girls, but each to their own. I went to Benenden not so long ago and still have a strong connection to the school and it is definitely quite sparse on Asian girls, highly academic and national/international level sporty.

It’s interesting seeing different perspectives though and the number of people saying Rodean. To be clear, I have nothing against Rodean; I went once for a Swimming competition and all I can say was the match tea was good! Sometimes what happened when girls couldn’t hack the academics at Benenden was that they transferred over to Rodean. One term they were there and the next they were at Rodean.

On the inside in these schools, there is a joke about ‘The Rodean Academy for girls who are not bright enough to get into (insert name of school here)’ Obviously teenage girls are bitchy. I have good friends who went to CLC and really rate their education too.

The actual high achievers will go to St Pauls, Putney High and Lady Eleanor Holles.

Merely rich girls go to Benenden, Roedean etc etc.

No, I don't think I did misinterpret the post.
I'm trying to explain why if you ask which girls' schools are the most prestigious, people find it harder to identify.
Ask Joe Public to name a high profile public school, they will almost certainly be able to identify Eton. Maybe Harrow at a push.
Ask them to name a prestigious girls' school, I suspect they would struggle.

The OP asked what was the female equivalent of Eton, I believe my post directly answered the question.

St. Swithun’s is probably closest to Winchester College.

Well, they don’t breed out the bitchiness, that’s for sure.

SPGS

I didn’t say you misinterpreted it, I just said your interpretation of ‘equivalent’ was not what the OP was asking about. Not invalid - just different.

Kirkcaldy High School was still the Scottish equivalent of a grammar when Brown attended. Whilst we no longer have any form of state selective schooling in Scotland we did have back then, and instead of Grammar schools we had High schools and the secondary moderns. Kirkcaldy was the High School covering quite a large geographical area (well beyond Kirkcaldy itself) and was attended by those who passed the 11+ (including my parents who are a similar age and a grandparent; none of them lived in Kirkcaldy though).

It is a standard comprehensive now though.

St Paul’s is a very, very different kind of school to Eton. Culturally, socially politically completely different. Its equivalent is Westminster.

I have swishy hair but I’m no leader’s wife; I’m a leader in my own right.

I'm old too, and Benenden, Cheltenham and Godolphin were also considered posh when I was at school. And James Allen's in Dulwich was nearly as posh as St Pauls if thinking of day, rather than boarding.

I know this was asked ages ago, but seeing I (randomly) know the answer, it's Hill House.

All his children go there - so is co-ed. Don't think it's Catholic either - surprisingly.

Nah, plenty (Brown, May, Wilson, Thatcher, Major, Callaghan, Heath) went to state school, but they were grammar. Truss was the first to go to a comprehensive.

Mostly a function of their times though because Comprehensives didn't exist. Comprehensives started to come in in the late sixties and then seventies. I believe May's school went comprehensive during her time there. but I imagine that like my school, it only affected the lower part of the school - the grammar part was allowed to 'grow out'.

But for a State school product I would offer you Lloyd George, who was a product of a Board school, some sort of state school forunner.

Roundhay School

It's always been a good school in a very privileged area in the time that I've known it too. Perhaps this was before my time. But anyone who tried to claim Roundhay and its school were rough would be laughed out of Leeds in my experience!