Private school Guildford - 2021 intake

[Franguildford]

Hi all,

My husband and I would like to send our daughter to private school in Sept 2021.
We live in Burpham, Guildford.

I’ve noticed that no schools are offering in person tours and most of the videos on their sites aren’t really helping us get a feel for the facilities/ atmosphere etc.

I have a girl and a boy so probably thinking GHS for her and then Lanesborough for him (in 3 years time).

1. How do people manage the drop off/ pick up between the two schools?
2. Apart from RGS, what other options would we have? I’m not sure why but not overly keen on RGS?
3. Anyone on here with young kids at GHS/ tormead etc, happy to meet for a coffee so I can ask some questions? :-)
4. I’ve noticed that traffic is REALLY bad for drop off to GHS in the morning. Because we’re in burpham, we could easily consider cranmore/ st. Theresas. Thoughts on these?

Thanks everyone.

What an awful time to decide on schools, when you can’t visit any. The deadlines for applications are October - eek!!!!

Take a look on twitter feeds, they are often much more indicative of day to day life at the school. Tormead's at the moment has lots of lovely pictures of what's going on in the primary school.

1. Lots and lots of parents park up by Lanesborough, and walk to GHS or Tormead. Time between the two is 2 mins for L/T and 8 mins for L/GHS. Or they drop of at GHS first, no stopping, it's drop and go, and then go on to Lanesborough and park up.
2. Sorry, no insight there.
3. I only know these schools from secondary perspective. So not the best person.
4. Not really. There is a good system of drop through which works well. Getting there early 8.00am is the best plan. The later you are, the more you get hung up with Guildford bound traffic. Tormead doesn't have that problem, and yes, lots of Burpham people head off to Cranmore/St Theresa's, but traffic through Merrow is bad too.

Do give tormead a look too, it’s a great school. Lanesborough is right next door and there are always spaces to park outside in the mornings. You definitely don’t get much of a rush of traffic in the area for drop off & pick ups. Ghs is only a 10 min walk from there too if that is your preference, you could just park and walk the remainder. Twitter feeds are a great way to see what life at the schools are like. I’m not sure what the online tours are like, it is a difficult time to choose a school! Good luck!

Hey Fran, It is a hard time indeed, isn't it! Another thread had some stuff on it about Junior Schools in the area too, have a search through as that may help with your choice too. I know most of the schools are having virtual open days, I know Tormead is doing one and you can google it, or use the link i copied www.tormeadschool.org.uk/virtual-open-day/
Also - if you contact them/any school they might be able to arrange a socially distanced tour of the school, perhaps outside school hours? I know a few schools are doing this. Geography wise - Tormead and Lanesborough are literally next door. Handy! Good luck, you're spoilt for chocie! x

1. I think most park near Lanesborough and walk up, parking round their is easier and depending on the age your DS, she could walk herself the rest of the 10 mins to GHS as time goes on?
2. Not many unless you go Co-ed maybe?
3. Sorry I'm long gone, but I reckon some lovely mums will offer to help!
4. The traffic is awful and I think they field a lot of complaints from residents about it. However, you can park nearby and make it work.

There's lots of posts on here about the St. Theresa/Cranmore merger not going quite as well as they'd hoped, maybe have a search on that and message some of the parents who seem to post about it. Posts seem to indicate that kids are leaving to go to other local preps. BUT, as I said, always try and ask people who are there.

happy hunting!

We have done many years of GHS and Lanesborough (both great schools), my son is now at RGS (even better than Lanesborough).

Lots of parents have kids at both schools and drop offs and pick ups work really well together. GHS do drop off between 7:45 and 8:20 which helps to stagger things and the drive through is effective and swift especially if you go earlier. Lanesborough is a bit more of a pain as you have to park up and there is always a scramble for parking spaces but again if you go earlier it's better. In practice things are always at its worst in the first and last week of term - at other times various clubs are running and people tend to arrive and leave at different times, which helps. The two schools tend to coordinate term times quite closely which makes it easier to manage holidays, the new Head of Lanesborough is ex Deputy Head GHS Junior so hopefully this will continue. I know that's not always the case with other schools.

We live not far from you OP and traffic is not too bad - in the morning it's worse later on so if you can leave earlier it's quite quick. You soon get to know what times and routes work best.

Girls are spoilt for choice in the area with at least three great schools for academic girls - GHS, Tormead and St Cats. We applied to all three and just going through the assessment made it clear which one was the right one. May be this would work for you too? You then have plenty of time (and hopefully better viewing conditions) to decide for your son depending on where your daughter gets in. Apart from RGS other popular choices for Lanesborough boys are Reeds, Reigate Grammar, St John's, Churchers and KCS Wimbledon.

Not heard great things about the Cranmore/St Theresa merger.

Hope this helps and good luck with your school hunting!