My daughter is currently in Year 5 a state primary school in North Bristol and having visited a number of schools we have decided that our favourites are BGS and Red Maids. She will sit the entrance exam for both in January 2015 with a view to joining Year 7 in September 2015.
I am finding it difficult to decide which school I prefer although the results of the entrance exam may mean that there's no decision to be made! There are pros and cons for each school.
Red Maids: Excellent results, IB, caring atmosphere, not overly pressurised. Not sure if I really like single sex education or not since when they go to work life will be dominated by men in the office and I think they should get used to the gender imbalance growing up. However all the studies seem to say that girls do better in single sex schools and are more likely to pick subjects such as Physics and Maths than in a co-ed environment
BGS: Excellent results, nurturing environment, great leadership from the Headmaster but fairly high pressure environment and girls only make up about 40% of each year's intake. I liked the co-ed side of things but am now asking myself how do girls fare in this school. Are they tending to choose Foreign Languages and Arts over Physics and Chemistry? How do A level results compare between boys and girls? Of course this information is not available on their website but it would be interesting to see what parents of children attending BGS have to say about how girls fare in this school.
My daughter is probably able to get into either, is very sociable and not easily intimidated. She is also very pretty (mixed-race parentage) and I am wondering if we should let her join the boys or keep her away from them!!