Putney High/Kingston Grammar/Godolphin

[lonelyplanetmum]

Hi,

To our great relief we have offers at Surbiton, Kingston Grammar school and Putney High starting in September 2010.(We are still waiting for Godolphin and Latymer results as well.)

If we are in a position to choose between all these schools how do we decide?!

Does anyone have daughters at any of these schools who can summarise their thoughts on the atmosphere,ethos etc please.How happy are the girls there?Which is the least stressful and the most fun?

We have been to see the schools and they all seem fine to us! I'm a comprehensive girl after all,and all these schools seem to have great facilities.

How do we choose when we have no instinct about a particular school whatsoever!

Any thoughts appreciated.Thanks!

LPM

I don't know but do know several people with children at Kingston Grammar who are extremely happy

Thank-you!I think that's the one that seems the most friendly.A little bit worried about the journey though...

how far away are you?

Mortlake..so it's a train journey and then a walk through the shopping centre.

chose the one easiest to get to

Great choice.

Kingston Grammar the only mixed though. I would have hated being at a mixed school but depends on your daughter.

Go round the schools again would be my advice, talk to the headmistress/master. Ask the advice of your current school who know your daughter well.

Lonelyplanetmum - well done to your DD - what a relief to have such good offers already! We have two offers, but Kingston Grammar is the school we really want, and the boys' offers don't come out until next week....aaaargh! How did your DD's interview go? DS's seemed rather short and they asked him to read a paragraph of the exam comprehension (but didn't ask him any questions on it) which seemed rather odd. Before he did the interview, the lady who called said it was a "general chat" so I was surprised the comprehension text came up. Probably over-thinking this!

Yes it is a relief.

DD's interview was fine just a general chat.It seemed to consist mostly of her being asked questions about extra curricular activities,hobbies and so forth and her then asking questions about the school etc.

I think the fact your son got an interview is a really good sign,although I know it's not a complete 100% guarantee of a place. I do know some children who were disappointed not to get an interview.

I also think (but don't know) that the contents of the interview are partly dictated by how the children did in the exam.One of DDs friends is slightly weaker at Maths than English and was asked some Maths questions in the interview.I think they are gently testing strengths and weaknesses...so perhaps he did better in the other papers than the comprehension?

I expect you will have more good news next week and not long to wait now.Also the fact that he has two offers already probably means things run in threes!You do hear a lot of parents from previous years saying their children got offers at all the schools they applied to ( with the exception of the Tiffins and St Pauls).

I sometimes think that parents (myself included) get worked up into a complete frenzy when really most children seem to get the school they want.It's just because you so want them to be happy though!

Thanks for those very comforting words - "general chat" does seem like a good sign but we'll see...I totally agree with you about working ourselves into a frenzy - that describes me for the last 3 months exactly! - but it's so hard not to. I think the most worrying thing for me has been that my DS would feel he'd "failed" if he got rejected from everywhere - luckily that hasn't happened and I agree that in retrospect (so long as you do a reasonable spread of schools) it was never likely to - ah the benefit of hindsight! (Now my DS2 is coming up fast behind - yr 4 at the moment - wonder if I'll be any saner next time around!)

Thanks to everyone for their insights and good luck to those with results still to come!

I'd like to think it is a less anxious time with subsequent children but from reading other posts I don't think it is!

Well done for getting all those offers!

My paternal grandmother went to Putney High, as did one of my favourite girlfriends - albeit decades apart. Strangely or not, they have quite a lot in common in a good way. I have a very favourable impression of that school from this alone.