Independent Schools

[ParentingDiscussions]

I live in SW London and am looking for advice to chose independent schools around the area.

My DD prepared for 11+ grammar schools and has managed to pass Wallington/Nonsuch entrance test, although probably not by sufficient margin to secure an OOC admission. She did not manage to pass TGS R1.

I am looking for good independent schools in the area, and understand the best approach is to choose aspiration, realistic and backup options.
My current thoughts are

• Wimbledon High / Putney High as aspirational (very selective).
• SHS / SGS as realistic (still reasonably selective)
• Which schools could be considered for backup option?

• Are there any schools that do not require (or pay less importance to) interview/activity morning as part of the selection process?
• Are there any school that do not require (or pay less importance to) creative writing during the selection process?

My DD currently finds these areas challenging.

Are there any schools that are particularly generous in providing academic scholarships?

Also, do schools (formally or informally) consider child's address i.e. whether the child is living in a 'private school like environment'?

In an open morning, Suriton High came across as a school that is focused on sports. If my DD is not sporty, would that make it difficult for her to get in and / or fit in?

Would greatly appreciate responses/insights/thoughts. Thanks a lot

have you looked at hall school in Wimbledon? They are non selective but still achieve good results at GCSE. I'm afraid i don't have much info about the other schools but hopefully someone will be along soon who knows more x

Looks like you’re after a single sex school? Sutton High and Streatham and Clapham High are both GDST schools and could be considered back up for someone who got through the Wally/Nonsuch test.

I don’t think the schools will mind if your daughter lives on a coucil estate as long as she does well in exams/interviews. I also wouldn’t worry about interviews as long as your daughter has got something to talk about and can string a sentence together (rather than be monosyllabic or ‘I don’t know).

Look at Farnborough Hill. About 25 minutes on the train from Clapham or Wimbledon. Five minutes walk at the other end. Lovely school. Less selective than the others but does really well for each girl depending on her abilities. Strong value added and majority into Oxbridge/Medicine/Russell Group

OP, it would help if you could state your nearest train station of if you are on a bus route for Twickenham - st Catherine's & Radnor House. Are you near Claremont Fan in Esher & Notre Dame in Cobham. Although you should be ok with SGS due to your Nonsuch result so probably no need for a last minute new school registration.

It's unlikely you will be offered an academic scholarship to the schools you have listed if your dd didn't pass TGS round 1.

Do you have a state school back up?

Don't worry about sport at SHS, the level of sport is so high that many dd who consider themselves sporty end up in low level netball/hockey teams at school & end up playing outside school. SHS offer rowing to all from year 8 which is very popular & welcoming.

Yes all schools will consider written ability & some do not interview - SHS asks for a form to be completed as part of exam instead. They all want all rounders with an interested outlook on life.

Best of luck, at least your dd has got exam practice under her belt already.

Very few schools offer generous scholarships - the money is mostly used for means tested bursaries - is that what you had in mind. The n that case you need to contact the bursary departments to ask about criteria. A candidate doesn't have to be scholarship standard to secure a bursary (although it presumably can't hurt!) but the means testing is key.

Thank you all for your valuable suggestions. I will look into the suggested schools (Hall school, Streatham & Clapham, Farnborough Hill, st Catherine's & Radnor House).

We are in Wimbledon and were not particularly looking for a single sex school (although grammars and a few independent we came across are girls only).

If you wanted coed, then Wimbledon is on the coach route for Epsom (not really a back up, though and pretty pricey). Or if you’re near the tram, then Royal Russell could be an option - co-ed and does offer generous scholarships. Sutton High also offers scholarships and is dead easy from Wimbledon.

@ParentingDiscussions , I know a ds who travels from Wimbledon to Radnor House, it's quite easy as Radnor is a short walk from Strawberry Hill train station. Check the date of the entrance exam and if it doesn't clash with the other entrance exams then it would be worth visiting the open day in a couple of weeks and you could go into the exam period in Jan with a good back up on the list. I have mentioned on other threads that there was a heart breaking thread in early Feb this year from a parent who's dd had failed first stage Tiffin and the parents / tutor hadn't taken this as a warning sign to change secondary school selection, the dd sat 4 x high achieving girls & mixed schools and received rejections at their first stage before the interview stage. Following the parent's thread it sounded like the dd got an offer of a late exam sitting at Radnor so the opportunity of an offer as they waited for state school allocation in March.
As you must be feeling it's a very long process to go from early sept to 2nd March with so much uncertainly for a young dc.

Radnor House got 40% grades 9-7 at GCSE this year which is in line with the desirable non-selective comps. I wouldn't consider it nearly academic enough for a girl capable of acing grammar exams on a good day. In my experience, with a bit of luck she should get an academic scholarship at schools such as Surbiton/Sutton/Streatham and Clapham.

Have you considered Kingston Grammar? Sutton High School (also GDST like WHS and PHS) is also very good.
Royal Russell has amazing grounds, is right next to a tram stop and offers very generous scholarships - worth investigating, perhaps?

Just coming in on comment about Radnor results - the school opened in 2011 my DC there - a very mixed ability cohort to start with, reflected in results - I know that quite a few children this year gained 10 or more GCSE at grade 7 -9 and a number got all 8 & 9's. - bright children do well there. If
a school only offers the top 5.% they don't have to do too much to get the results! IMHO Radnor have provided my child with a superb education..
I understand that that they have become far more selective, but more moderately selective than some as they offer a strong pastoral and values based education. Lots of happy children there doing very well. - they have a coach from Wimbledon as well. BTW it is Coed though and you might prefer single sex.

Thank you all for your suggestions. Pleased that DD has managed to get an offer from Sutton High with a modest scholarship.

Looking forward, keen to understand the exam pattern of Putney High and Surbiton High.
Putney high exam is said to be based on SAT (similar to Sutton High), however, I assume it's likely to be more difficult than Sutton High. Does anyone know what to expect in Surbiton High questionnaire and creative writing? We were highly impressed with Surbiton High in an open morning.

DD is also planned to take the KGS exam.

Would highly appreciate your inputs on exams for these schools.

OP, my experience with my dc that isn't recent I can advise:

SHS - the questionnaire is important, they like dc with interests. Questions include
What are you good at
What do you enjoy
What do you find hard
What do you want to do when you are older
Why do you want to come to SHS
What other schools are you applying to?

Try to include things like piano, choir , guides , swimming, love of reading, science, it's always good to tell a teacher you love helping people & would love to be a teacher, doctor, lawyer etc. Have a least 8 things your dd has in her head & can write down quickly. Remember SHS has 8 super sports - look at the school website with her so she is familiar with them, ie I love skiing & would love to join the school ski team or I recently started playing cricket & want to go to a school with cricket.

For KGS, the maths is straight forward, your dc needs to do well. The English comprehension can be hard & the essay is a continuation piece. The VR is speedy, you must practice as a good score is needed.
Make sure your dd is reading a good book she can talk about at KGS interview.

Sorry no tips for Putney.

Best of luck & well done on Sutton Scholarship, a good confidence boost going into Jan.

Gingercat1223, thank you very much for your very helpful inputs.

Hi Parenting,
We are looking at similar schools for our DD next year. What makes you prefer Surbiton to Sutton? Our DD not at all sporty and Surbiton struck me as favouring that. What did you think of Sutton? Wasn’t aware of it until we were told about it on here.

Hi Corblimbea,

Apologies for the delay in replying.

We absolutely loved the open morning for Surbiton. My daughter also enjoyed another workshop. One of our acquaintances also recommended the school - her daughter is very happy in Surbiton. I do agree with you that it came across as very sporty.

We did not attend any open event for Sutton and don't know anyone who goes there but it may certainly be a very good option as well.

Thanks all for your suggestions so far.

We are in a fortunate situation now as DD has received a few offers from schools of our choice. We are torn between Surbiton (with not insignificant scholarship) and Putney High (without scholarship).

On both visits, we loved Surbiton high. Surbiton is also likely to prove better financially, although terms of the scholarship require DD to be in top x% every year to retain the scholarship. Not sure if this is a typical condition in every school and what % of students typically retain their scholarship for 5 years/multiple years. We have also heard positive things about pastoral at Surbiton.

On the other hand, Putney seems to be highly regarded in the area and has better GCSE results so it looks counter-intutive to leave the option (even if costlier).

Travel time does not seem much different, although there is more dependency on SW train running normally for Subiton High (Putney is of course well connected).

Will be grateful for inputs to compare these schools.

@parenting, you need to move from Education to the Secondary Education thread on MN that is full of SW London girls school chatter. I have a dd at Surbiton (SHS) and when she joined in year 7 there were 7 academic scholars out of 22 girls in the class, this is partly because we live near the school so there were many prep schools girls in her class & a lot of the prep school girls use to get scholarships (this is a few years ago). Don't worry about your dd keeping at the top of the year - there will be up to 150 girls and in the year and 20+ academic scholars.

Thank you Frostyskies1223 for your reply.

I am not sure how to move the conversation to a different thread. Maybe amin can help.

@OP, rather than choosing Education from the menu choose Secondary Education, you can start a new SHS v PHS thread or add to the SW London girls school thread.