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?

St Paul’s Girls is highly academic, but it’s a day school.

For boarding highly academic, probably Wycombe Abbey.

I went to Benenden (where Princess Anne went) and we thought Roedean was posh.

Interesting to see so many people say Roedean. I went to Roedean.

I wouldn’t really call it posh and definitely not the “girls equivalent of Eton”. It wasn’t selective in my day but does seem to be now. Not that many notable alumni to be honest.

I don’t think there is a girls equivalent to Eton given the historic approach to educating girls, but I’d say St Paul’s and Cheltenham Ladies College are probably the closest.

Sorry if I got this wrong@TheHonourableHonoriaGlossop Roedean/Brighton merging was the plan when we left years ago, no interest in following this up at the time and assumed it had gone through, that's where I got it from.

Wycombe Abbey, Downe House, CLC - all produce their fair share of doctors, lawyers and other academic high fliers. Of course there are some who go on to be the wives of high fliers. But it’s also possible to be both!

St Paul’s is a day school so, although very academic, is not the equivalent of Eton.

This 100%, the usual jolly hockey sticks posse just can't afford it now!

This is utterly different to my experience at one of the most academic of these schools. It was all about how many lawyers, doctors and engineers they could turn out. The aspiration for girls' careers was evident, if a bit one-dimensional.

everyone sat the 11+ exam until 1965 ( ie born in 1954) so no one aged 68 or above could have gone to a comprehensive school and comprehensives slowly came into existence after that so some younger people would still be in the secondary /grammar school for some years afterwards hence why it was not possible for John Major or Margaret Thatcher or Callaghan to have been at a state comprehensive ( they were state educated)

@Lilo I agree, not posh at all. In the wider public mind if you are a Roedean girl or an Eton boy people (don't really care but) have certain ideas about you. Not sure this applies to many other schools.

Same here.

To a PP who stated that the schools of Edward Heath, Margaret Thatcher and John Major were state funded, that’s correct but that is not to say that they were in any way your average comps!

Edward Heath’s school, Chatham House Grammar School in Ramsgate, had formerly been a boys’ boarding school.

Thatcher’s school was also a Grammar School that was high performing and probably benefited further from the girls of Camden School For Girls and their teachers’ influence and high expectations, having been being posted there during the war.

John Major’s school, Rutlish, was an ex-Grammar School just south of affluent Wimbledon and had no less than two Victoria Crosses awarded to pupils.

These were no ordinary state funded schools in poor areas. That’s got to help!

@Finerthings I think it depends on the school and the era we’re talking about.

For each school one can look up the noted alumnae, and then there are the other pupils.

Gordonstoun is a totally different type of school- or was- much more about building character and independence than nurturing future world leaders. I’ve known quite a few but only one who went on to University (and an Oxford Doctorate) but the rest were terrifically tough, outdoorsy, no nonsense horsey/rugby/sailing/army/RAC types.

To a PP who stated that the schools of Edward Heath, Margaret Thatcher and John Major were state funded, that’s correct but that is not to say that they were in any way your average comps!

No one was saying that they were Comps. However, pre-war Grammar schools were different to post 1944 Education Act Grammars. E.g. late DF won a Scholarship to Preston Grammar pre - war, but it also took fee-paying pupils (quite thick according to DF). Post the 1944 Act, it was no longer possible to pay for your child to go to the Grammar if they didn't pass the 11+, previously called the Scholarship - it was the Sec Mod for you. How many Cabinet members post war are the product of Secondary Moderns? Alan Johnson got a mention, and I would think John Prescott would have been, but Denis Skinner passed the scholarship and went to the Grammar.

Perigrina, I was responding to the post of @entropynow
I wasn’t saying they were comps, my point was to the contrary!

I was making the point to those who may be unaware of the evolution of state funded schools that the system was a selective one.

These schools were not free and easy to gain entry to.

To some, they may assume that state funded = a comprehensive school without an entry exam.

As you have asserted, for grammar schools that was entry hurdle making it selective was the 11 plus exam.

When anyone is talking about public school vs state funded schools, and the PM ratio for that, it’s therefore more complex than that because the child needed acumen to pass the 11 plus and attending a Grammar School in a good areas where property was higher than average to buy made them all the further selective.

The point I was making was that a PM attending a state funded school doesn’t automatically make it the level playing field some would wish for.

Meant to say,
‘As you have asserted, for grammar schools, that entry hurdle making it selective, was the 11 plus exam.’

Except some of the examples quoted went to pre-war grammar schools, when if they had not passed the 'scholarship' they could have paid to go there. No doubt Alderman Roberts would have paid for his daughter Margaret to go to the Grammar school if she hadn't been clever enough to win a place. I don't think it was as eye wateringly expensive then to pay for private education although obviously Alderman Roberts wasn't badly off, but I doubt if they were considered rich. So we are not comparing like with like when we talk about an older generation of PMs.

The point I was making was that a PM attending a state funded school doesn’t automatically make it the level playing field some would wish for.

And indeed our departing PM attending a 'good' comp in a nice area with well educated parents would have had a head start over a considerable number of other children. So it's the Lloyd George's and the Denis Skinner's of the world who really did well for themselves, not Ms Truss.

John Major’s school, Rutlish, was an ex-Grammar School just south of affluent Wimbledon and had no less than two Victoria Crosses awarded to pupils.

John Major wasn't as far as I recall a good advert for the superiority of the grammar schools. Didn't he only get two O levels?

I was at WA in the 80s. It never occurred to anyone that we wouldn't have a career and be successful but no one was encouraged towards politics at all.

Lots of women from my small peers group from my house now top women in their fields, lawyers, investment banking, private wealth, 2 authors, probation service etc.

None of them are less successful then their partners. All are the go to parent though.

Parenting in the UK very hard on success. I'm not UK so can compare.

I was at WA in the 80s. It never occurred to anyone that we wouldn't have a career and be successful
Exactly, some pp's perceptions about girls schools can be a little strange.

but no one was encouraged towards politics at all.
No longer the preserve of the few, it's quite a popular A level/University subject these days.

A niece from abroad attended Cheltenham Ladies’ College for 6th form - there were a lot of Chinese mainland pupils. She is extremely bright however - now studying medicine at a RG - and from all I gather the entrance exams are pretty stiff.

Not unusual for the times. Only a minority of the population stayed on at school after the leaving age of 15, so very few even took exams, never mind passed any. Wikipedia, which I assume is drawing heavily on his own memoirs or other published biographies, says the family had a lot of financial difficulties and upheavals while he was at secondary school and he did a lot less well than expected as a consequence. I find that perfectly credible. Schools didn't do much pastoral support decades ago. Very much sink or swim.

I know where you're coming from many have that charisma.. Say what you like about Boris, he ooozed that blasé confidence that comes from being ultra privileged since birth...

Not unusual for the times. Only a minority of the population stayed on at school after the leaving age of 15, so very few even took exams, never mind passed any.

Speaking as one who started Grammar School in 1962, GS pupils were expected to stay until they were sixteen and take exams. They were also supposedly cleverer than the majority who went to the Sec Mods. The pupil with the worst results in my year left with No O levels. About half didn't get sufficient O levels to enter the sixth form.

I think it wasn't until 1975 that the school leaving age was raised to 16. Until then people could still leave at Easter.

But none of this explains why there is no female equivalent of Eton - except that the upper classes didn't bother with a girl's education much. Prince Charles was packed off to a boarding Prep school at 8, Princess Anne was educated at home until she made it clear she wanted to go to school, and went when she was 13.

In the 1970s and 1980s Cheltenham Ladies had very exacting entrance exams and was considered to be one of the most academic. Certainly of the boarding schools. St Pauls Girls was higher but it is a day school.

It is absolutely not true to say CLC produced girls who were groomed to marry rich. Quite the opposite, there was a huge pride in producing girls with careers. But most of them would go into the professions rather than politics.

The founder was very pro academic education of girls, well ahead of the times.

No idea what its entrance requirements are now, or the quality of girls it churns out, but it is false to say that it used to churn out girls for marriage