St Paul's Juniors or Westminster Under School?

[frecklesro]

Thank you for any advice

Do you have offers from both or are you considering the pros and cons?

They are both excellent. I marginally prefer Westminster. However if you also have a girl who might go to St Paul's girls that might sway it.

These struck me as very different schools. Think Hogwarts in real life vs Uber Country Grammar.

Compare the heads teachers - one wears full gown plus hat and calls it the "Great School", the other comes from up North and abhors ceremony.

Can't imagine how they can be marginally preferred, if you like one you probably shouldn't like the other at all.

The poster is asking about WUS and not the senior school.

Understood, but my distinction between the two still stands. I went to both WUS and Colet Court open days. The then WUS headmistress also talked of the "Great School" and asked the prospective boys if they knew when the school was founded. The then CC headmaster talked about how boys get muddy and loose things frequently. Chalk and cheese.

MN164, I think you are being a bit unfair. The gown and the nomenclature come with the job, and not obviously the aspects Westminster's current Head prioritises. But I agree with the Hogwarts analogy. Boys often seem to know which of the two different environments they prefer.

That said you are right. Any choice now, essentially includes the choice of 13+ school. The occasional WUS pupil might go on to board, but very few will switch from the Westminster system to St Pauls or vv.

I also disagree with Enormous Tiger. Lots of boys at Westminster have SPGS siblings, especially younger siblings. A surprising number of Westminster sixth form girls are siblings, so presumably the thinking is that by selecting Westminster over St Paul's for your son, your daughter has a better chance of accessing a top notch co-ed sixth form experience.

I don't agree about chalk and cheese. They are both very good academic schools. The similarities are there and many many parents if they have a bright child are choosing between the two.

We don't live in the centre of London though so did not consider those schools.

(And we had girls at NLCS and Haberdashers by the way from 4 - 18 and I have always thought with those two girls' schools how similar rather than different they are even though people would spend a lot of time trying to find out from me what the differences were).

Do you live north or south of the river?
Journey is significant. We discounted WU because the journey would have been too onerous, whereas SPSJ was a short bus ride.

St. Paul math exam 11+ is quite challenging this year compare with Westminster under.

Depends on the boy really, but I personally prefer CC