Southend High or Westcliff High for girls?

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My DD is sitting the 11+ tomorrow, hopefully she will pass 🤞. I'd love to hear from mums with experience of the two girls Grammar schools.

Both are great school from what I hear, traveling to Southend High would be more straightforward (we live in Thorpe Bay). Any advice would be much appreciated.

My DD has been offered SHSG, any advice on the best commute from chelmsford to Southend. I have seen the Stephensons bus routes to SHSG but not suitable, pick up points are very far from us and very early too (around 06:55 am). She is on waiting list for Colchester and CCHS but now wants to ask for a local school if possible 😉. Any advice on better bus routes or commuting options?

I interviewed for a job at Westcliff and couldn't abide the place. Everyone had such high opinions of themselves and there was no place or empathy for anyone poor different, but probably I should never have applied for a grammar school job.

How did you envisage your DD getting to SHSG when you named it as a preference? Has that route now been withdrawn?

DD was at SHSG from the very end of year 7 to GCSEs (made the mistake of moving to WHSG for sixth form, for the reason that she thought a 20 minute walk would be preferable to a 30 minute total train and walk, but she stuck it out and has moved on) and DS1 moved there for sixth form - we all loved the school, but I wouldn't even have considered it if it was 20 miles away instead of four.

Depending in where you are in the Chelmsford area, there are various permutations of public transport - train to Southend Vic, changing at Shenfield, then bus / X30 to Southend then bus / X10 or 300 to Basildon then train, then bus (bit convoluted, that one) / ??3 (not sure about timings Chelmsford -S'end at that time of the morning, then another bus - but all will involve a pretty early start.

Do you currently have a place at a lower preference local comprehensive and this is a WL offer, or was SHSG your offer on March 1st?

If you don't currently have a local comp and would be making a late application / change of preference, unfortunately all the Chelmsford comprehensive schools (with the possible / probable exception of Hylands) are usually well oversubscribed and the deadline for on time appeals was three weeks ago, so an appeal lodged now may not be heard before September.

Thanks for the response, I initially thought sbc coaches go to SHSG only to realise today that they go to all the grammar schools except shsg.

She was offered st John Payne initially but I rejected it for shsg 2 days ago. I'm regretting that now

my daughter got offered a place at SHSG in July after we accepted a place at local comp! She absolutely loved it & did not mind the journey as a lot of camaraderie on the bus!she is now at WHSG as she offered a place in November which was higher up in preference list!yes we moved because the journey is shorter -she gets the bus at 7.30 instead of 7am & gets home at 4.40 rather than 5.15!she had not made many friends so had not settled so it was a no brainer!
Had we not got the offer at WHSG she would have happily stayed at SHSG & having the opportunity to attend both schools preferred SHSG!
we turned down a good local comp school offer at Moulsham high school where all her friends were going & at the time I was really nervous but I can honestly say it was the right choice for us!
is there anyway you could call St John Payne as after a certain period they run their own waiting lists which means you can give SHSG ago first!my DD was the last admission under the local council list & it goes back to the school in January but not sure if all schools operate the same way!

You can contact ECC admissions team and ask to 'reactivate' your application to St John Payne and ditto / add any other local schools.

Thanks for the advice, very helpful and reassure. We have decided to go ahead with the offer at shsg as my DD is very determined and happy to commute and looking forward to making new friends on the bus and school as well. She is an early riser anyway, we can catch the bus on time. I'm the worried one as she's a tiny 11 year old and only child, so I'm a bit overprotective, but I think she is ready for some independence and believe it will boost her confidence as well.
She also not interested in St John Payne anymore 😕.