Girls Boarding School’s Reputations and Recommendations

[Mumthisis]

Hi all,
I’m considering girls full boarding schools for my DD and was wondering what they are like.
Such as,
Downe House,
Wycombe Abbey,
St. Mary’s Ascot,
St. Mary’s Calne,
Tudor Hall,
Benenden,
Sherborne Girls,
Cheltenham Ladies College
Heathfield, and
St. Swithun’s.
Can anyone share:
What the reputations of these schools are?
Such as what are the girls like who go there, are the nice and down to Earth, very rich and out of touch, academically pushy, are the girls more from country preps or London day schools?
Also how full-boarding are girls boarding schools these days? Mostly international girls or instead more traditional local British girls, is there much to do on weekends?
Which of these schools lean towards more traditional versus more modern boarding values?

What about some of the smaller girls boarding schools or ones that don’t have as many girls full boarding? Such as Mayfield, St.George’s Ascot, Malvern St.James, Roedean, and Queen Margaret’s School?

You may do better to describe what your DD is like and what you are looking for in a school, rather than asking for full reviews on 16 schools.
(Isn't there a 'good boarding school guide' or similar that summarises the basics for each school?)

How old is your DD? What age to start at school?
How academic, sporty, musical?
Do you want traditional full boarding, or weekly, or flexible?
Maximum travel time from your location?
Do you care about ethnic mix of school?
Etc.

It would be good to know why you are considering boarding school for your daughter. Some children are happy boarding but some very very miserable. Is she keen to go and will you let her leave if she's not happy?

Sherborne and Tudor Hall have a reputation of being being lovely places for nice down-to-earth girls. A bit less academic than the likes of Wycombe and Downe . SMAscot is Catholic and you need to be ( genuinely) to apply . St swithuns is a little closer in feel to a Grammar than a traditional boarding school - a bit less religious etc. Unless she’s very academic I’d probably look towards Sherborne, Heathfield, Tudor Hall on that list. The others are all quite pressured.

ETA I don’t have much useful info on the smaller ones you listed, but if you are looking for firm to earth, not too pressured they might be worth investigating.

Just started on a search for boarding schools for DD which is why I wanted to keep things broader to start with.
Yes I believe boarding will suit DD so not overly worried about that aspect.
I am more worried about trying to find a balance between a school that is still academic but not overly pressurized and overall more well-rounded with nice down to Earth girls.

Yes that’s how it sounded.

I’d start with Tudor Hall and Sherborne.

@Calliopespa Thank you, I will definitely look into those schools then!

Those schools are all very different. You need to list what your priorities are and what your DD is like.

If she's very academic then go for the more academic schools rather than average schools. It won't take long to find this out. They will be harder to get in to. If sport is important look at what sports they do and which leagues they are and see how good they are.

My dd and grand daughter will be touring; WA, St. Swithuns, Benenden, and Woldingham over the next 8 weeks.

I'd say WA and DH are the two academic powerhouses, along with St Swithuns which as pp put it has more of a grammar school vibe. WA and DH are formiddable but also very demanding and pressured- you would need to do due diligence about mental health and eating disorders. Closeness to London means they also tend to empty out at weekends- would this be an issue?
I agree about Sherborne Girls- it's academic enough without being a hothouse, and the close link with Sherborne Boys offers the advantages of both single sex and co-ed schooling. It's far enough away from London and its position in a town makes it less of a pressure cooker than some campus schools can be.
You will get both very wealthy and down to earth girls in all these schools but probably the closer you are to the M25 the more of the former group. Certain schools are also very well supported by overseas families which could be a positive or negative but worth checking out either way.

Very interesting about WA and DH being viewed as similar. I always thought WA was more academic (and pressurized) than DH, and that Downe was more well rounded although attracting bright girls?
I would say DD is bright and would do well in an academic school but want to avoid one that is overly pressurized. Is DH too pressurized these days? I had thought in the past it was meant to have more socialite-ish girls rather than academic, has this changed? Is it one to avoid if you are looking for a more well rounded school now? I liked how Downe seemed to offer a lot in different areas including sports and arts but is the culture there too cutthroat?

As I understand it one of the differences between WA and DH is that while WA is fairly openly competitive, DH is maybe a bit more subtle in the way they present . I think probably it’s true the DH girls present as a bit more “ social “ but underneath they are fairly bright and driven! I’m not sure it’s a school I’d choose if I particularly wanted non pressurised …

I’d add to that that from what I understand it probably is true that there is maybe more focus on the arts and music at DH - though even that is quite high level!

Why do you want to send your DD to boarding school?

my dd/grand daughter/son-in-law did a private tour of WA, my dd came away talking about the architecture/updated building, grand daughter smiling gave me a thumbs up, and son-in-law mentioning the l o n g hours of study time the kids put in; early bed time, long day time hours (till 5pm) and classes saturday am (pretty easy to see how they can get top grades with the kiddos putting in many hours undistracted dedicated to studies, phone use 30 minutes from 2000-2030 each evening) per day 6 days per week. children going home for the weekend is limited to saturday afternoon till sunday evening. son-in-law said the boarding houses were cute. he was a bit conflicted regarding church attendance (their daughter has not really been introduced to much in the form of religion).
he got the impression that the staff had a very clear idea of the type of student they were looking for.

CLC ticks all boxes and is the best of that list, imo.

@GildedRage The lessons until 5 / Sat am may not be all it seems.
When I was at WA a million years ago (1980s) we had that too. But Mon pms were house lacrosse, Wed afternoons finished early, & there were study / prep periods randomly throughout the timetable, so in no way was it solid lessons. Higher years had house study after supper too for an hour, lower years didn't. In theory you could get all your prep done in official study periods at least prior to y11.

I would say that DH is less academic/ pressured than WA, but it's certainly academic enough. I very much liked it. The school that I think is very underrated is St Mary's Calne. Similar A level results to DH, a bit smaller, but really lovely atmosphere and beautiful, albeit compact, campus. Own bedrooms from Year 10, which is unusual. Is in a town, whereas DH is slightly isolated.

However, key question- where do you live? None of these schools (bar Sherborne) is a "full boarding school", by which I mean the boarders only go home for fixed exeats and holidays. DH has just introduced flexi/ weekly boarding and London buses at weekends which can only mean it will empty out more. WA is already basically weekly boarding (very London). SMC somewhere in the middle between full and weekly.

On that basis, I would look close to home so that you can accommodate at least every other weekend. I feel like I bang the drum on this a lot, but honestly, my DC go to a school where the only boarding option is "full" and he is home every other weekend (which is fine as we live close), but I have friends who live overseas who are tearing their hair out as they were told that certain schools were full boarding but they are empty at weekends other than the international students (many of whom just study all weekend).

Surprised Roedean isn’t on the list as it doesn’t look like you have a geographic restriction.

I don’t think SMC is underrated I think the religious requirement on top of the grade expectations makes it difficult to get into.

Plus 2 week half terms and 2 exeats (so Friday and sometimes also Monday off) each term. The hours actually aren't much more over the year than a typical day school. DS also only has afternoon lessons 2 days a week- the other three it's lunch at 1, then sport 2:00-4:30.

That's St Mary's Ascot- St Mary's Calne isn't religious- I mean it's nominally C of E as most of these schools are, but there's no requirement to practice.

St Mary’s Calne is a very good call . I’d say it allows for a greater spread - very academic girls and some a bit more horsey ( I think they can take their horses with them). Also very arty.
It has no more religious requirements than the others on the list: that’s St Mary’s Ascot.

The only one that really isn’t religious at all is St Swithuns. It’s less of a traditional boarding school.

I feel like I understand more about Downe House now, thanks everyone! So, what I’m hearing is that overall Downe does tend to have a pressurized environment including high levels of sport, art, etc. And that it tend to empty out on weekends….
Think DH might be crossed off our list then as it doesn’t quite seem what we’re looking for (in terms of academic yet not pushy and we’ll rounded traditional boarding). Just don’t think I would want an environment for DD where she always feels that she has to compete?
We’re based in London for context which is why the list is also very broad. Most schools seem to have some sort of transport to and from London, so I doubt that will be an issue?
We’d obviously be happy to drive a few hours to visit DD or have her home at weekends, but I feel that a full boarding is preferable to make the most out of boarding life and give her the option to stay in rather than feel that there’s nothing to do at weekends.

Would be interested if anyone has more information about St.Mary’s Calne as it also seems like it might be what we’re looking for. I know it’s a smaller school, but not much else… didn’t realize it was thought to be fairly academic, sounds like a nice school.

I also know some people mentioned that St.Mary’s Ascot is a catholic school, which we are catholic, but have never been deadest on only sending DD to catholic schools. (Completely fine with religion being a part of school life though, just not a requirement for us) Is St.Mary’s ascot very religious? It seems to be popular recently and I’ve heard it gets good results but it doesn’t appear to be a pressurized school?

Looks like our list is currently looking like this:
Tudor Hall
Sherborne Girls
St.Mary’s Calne
(Would still love to her about any other schools still too)

Also, how academic is Tudor Hall thought to be? I feel like in the past it was maybe thought to take slightly less bright girls, but then again I think all girls boarding schools have become more academically inclined in recent decades.

Forgot to add earlier too, both DH and WA seem like very lovely schools just maybe too academically focused for what we’re looking for! Very much appreciate the insight though!

Morning op,

In answer to your questions and from what I know, yes you are right schools are getting increasingly more presssurised and academic generally and this I believe applies to Tudor Hall as well. Certainly sm Calne are pushing their academic focus. But a lovely school with lovely facilities and generally some nice thoughtful touches for the girls that must make daily life nice ( nice food, lovely gardens, beautiful new library space with gorgeous apple blossom trees, wonderful (almost luxurious!) sixth form accommodation a little separate from the younger girls). People love Sherborne too. Of the three you listed in your last post, I’d say Sherborne sits in the middle academically/ pressure-wise so could also be worth a look. I’m not too sure re SM Ascot.