London prep for very sporty DD

[sanam2010]

I have to start thinking about which prep school to look at for DD and am finding it hard to find in-depth information on school sports for girls at various schools. We're only renting by the way and could move for the right school, though I have a preference for Central / SW London.

Our daughter is extremely sporty and very talented, a little gymnast and acrobat basically, always climbing, running and doing lots of things years before others figure them out. She loves ball games, climbing, running, dancing, scooting, anything really.

I've looked at our local state school and they provide one hour PE per week so that's absolutely out of the question. They say Hill House is good for sporty children and they do sports every day but I don't they do fixtures and am not sure if they really do sports at a "professional" level at some point, plus facilities are not great so I am not sure if they can move at all outside of their games.

Then lots of preps only offer the usual rounders / netball / swimming / tennis for girls whereas I'd like to see a wider range including athletics, football, gymnastics if possible. Academically, I like Ken Prep and I like their facilities but I heard they're much better for music and arts than for sports. Would Putney High be a good choice? Is further out like LEH better? Any other ideas? Maybe Highgate (although on their website is looks like athletics is only offered for boys?)?

any ideas welcome!

Sorry - Spencer hockey is completely full at the moment for all age groups with massive waiting lists - girls cricket is fine (v busy section but so far no cap on numbers)

The sportiest preps in this area are the Thomas's ones although Finton House usually do fantastically for swimming and Hornsby House do girls football and cricket and their gymnasts are currently national champions.

For girls football try BedHead in Battersea. From their website it looks as if they now train at Newton Prep.

Not many schools seem to offer girls football before 6th form though Streatham High used to. Mixed preps will often allow girls who are good enough to play for boys football and cricket teams. Never rugby though. Perhaps the girls are too rough. Worth asking individual schools about their policy in advance.

Glad to see Spencer getting a mention, great hockey club :-) that's why it's full I suppose....

Also - look at Hammersmith gymnastics club - they use Bute's gym for training - waiting list is long, so makes sencetheatre to sign up early.
Harbour club in Chelsea also does gymnastics and other sports. There is also a good gymnastics club towards Little Venice - can't remember the name. Will ask a friend who goes there.

Generally here is not much homework in early years, even in the more "academic" schools. In Reception, mine only had 3 reading books/ week. In Y1 spelling was added and in Y2 we now get a little w/e homework. School finishes around 3:30, some even a bit earlier.

So in my experience, once kids adjust to new schedule in Reception, doing a couple of activities during the week and maybe another on on a weekend is not an issue. And that still leaves a day to relax and to have a play date.

would you move to N London ? you'd be on the bus route for Habs which has great facilities.

slowcomputer - yes! though Habs seems quite far out, NLCS is a bit closer. I wouldn't want to live further out than Highgate / Crouch End.

I've often seen girls in NLCS uniform walking around Fortis Green and I know personally at least one that gets the bus. Pretty sure the Habs bus would also go from round there.

My girls went to Bromley High; one is still there in the senior school.

Neither of my two are particularly sporty, but there are a number of girls there who are fairly elite in their chosen sport. (Nationally ranked, county champion, that sort of thing.)

Sports at primary level are netball, hockey, fencing, swimming, gymnastics, cross country, athletics, tennis, cricket and rounders. I may have left some out.

As it is a Girls Day School Trust school, I should imagine you will find other GDST schools are similar in their provision.

Putney High has a good gym club & plays lacrosse. I think most of the independent schools offer a lot of sport but the girls (& boys) who are good at sport play outside school.

Bute House has good sports facilities and as it is 60 girls a year from year 3 they usually have strong teams. Latymer prep/Latymer upper is not as strong at girls sport as it is boys.

Check out the City of London gymnastic club. They are in W2
www.cityoflondongymclub.co.uk/

How about JAGS in dulwich. I don't have first hand experience but here it is a very sporty and academic school.

This thread has been so great - thanks to everyone who contributed to it. little update: DD has started at Richmond Gymnastics club now and she absolutely loves it. I was very impressed how they learned proper new skills right in the first lesson instead of your usual hopping and jumping about. Will try out some of the other suggestions from this thread in coming years for sure!