Hoe Bridge School

[autumn51]

Hi, I am looking for a school for dd in the Woking area. I've heard good things about Hoe Bridge, but my reservation is that it's third-thirds boys? Dd is an only child and quite girly, so I'm not sure about the lack of girls....

However from what I can see the setting looks lovely and I've booked to view the school. My other question would be whether the school has good success at getting girls into great senior schools? For example I like Guildford High School for seniors. Any thoughts or experience much appreciated!

Hoe Bridge is very nice but they do tend to have a smaller proportion of girls. It varies from year to year - in the current year 1 there are so few that one class is entirely boys. They do have good success at getting their girls into good senior schools including GHS. One thing I have heard from someone who taught at a girls' senior school in the area is that Hoe Bridge girls can think that they are going to be 'the best' at everything at senior school because they have been one of so few girls at prep school.
Other schools you could look at are Halstead (all girls), St Andrews (mixed, generally has closer to 50/50 than Hoe Bridge) and Greenfield (mixed, good ratios too). All of these - especially Halstead - have very good history of getting girls into GHS.

I'd have to recommend Halstead - it's a girls-only school, my DD has been going there since she was 3 (she's 8 now) and she absolutely loves it (as do we!). They have an excellent record at getting girls into very good secondary schools, Guildford High being one of them. I looked at a few schools for DD when she was born, and what made Halstead stand out for me - as well as the education record, which is excellent - was the 'family feel' of the school. We just felt like we belonged instantly, and I've never regretted sending DD there for an instant.