Surrey schools (guildford area and beyond)

[londoner01]

We are moving down from central London, where my two daughters are are independent schools. We have bought a house (after a long search for anything vaguely affordable!) in Guildford, we love the town and are very excited.

We are currently renting out the house until we are ready to move. We will be hopefully moving in time for the next academic year. (Sept 2011).

We have registered DDs for some entrance tests but havent been able to look round all the schools. We like the look of schools which are modern and with the times, good facilities, supportive and caring, mixed or single sex (preferably latter). Our girls are academic, not extrememly outgoing. Eldest not mega sporty but would like to have the chance to have a go and is very arty. She is pretty academic and hard working. Youngest not that outgoing but varies in different sitations and can see her quickly growing in confidence at school (but only 3 yo at the moment tbh!).

We are looking for state or private schools with good reputations. My youngest will be starting reception and other daughter starting Year 7, so secondary school.

Any opinions on... (for primary)
Holy Trinity Pewley Down School, Sandfield Primary, Boxgrove, Northmead?
Then...
Guildford High, Tormead,Rydes Hill, St Catherines, St Ives, St Hilary's, Danes Hill, Rowan, Notre Dame?

Ideally for primary we don't want an extremely posh, traditional school (wouldn't fit in!) but do want a good atmosphere, academic, good facilities, happy school where our child will be supported and known as an idividual.

Then for secondary we are looking at
George Abbott, Guildford County, Christs College
But ideally..
Guildford High, Tormead (but there is something im not sure about with tormead), Priors field, st catherines (but seems vv posh!), -which other girls private seniors are there?

For secondary we want a school where DD will achieve her potential and be supported and pushed, lots of opputunities, mixed or single sex, a school which will really bring her out of herself and give her confidence.
...
Not too much to ask!!!
Also generally any other school recomendations!
Thank you!

I went to Guildford High, as my name suggests. I'd suggest that you think very carefully about whether it's the right school for your girls.

Academically, it is fantastic. The girls are hard-working and motivated and the teaching is outstanding. If your daughters like being intellectually challenged and stimulated, they'll enjoy the lessons and come away with brilliant exam results and a great deal of academic confidence.

The Christian ethos gives the school a nice spiritual vibe from which many girls draw strength. However, nothing religious is ever imposed on any girl and free thought, discussion and debate are actively encouraged in a way that would make a girl of any faith welcome. Music, too, is a real strength and the sciences are also particularly well taught.

However, it is pushy and pressured. The "less able" girls (ie those aiming for 10 A-C grades at GCSE rather than 10 straight As) and those with learning difficulties or physical disabilities or medical issues can feel stigmatised or devalued. The pastoral care is not great and there are scarily high rates of serious eating disorders throughout the school. And the competitive atmosphere does not always encourage girls to be kind and supportive to one another. There is more bullying than the school would dare to admit.

So I'd suggest that you consider GHS only if you are confident that your DDs have strong social and interpersonal skills and plenty of emotional resilience. If they have any sort of SENs or tend to lack confidence or struggle with anxiety, I'd suggest another school.

exGHSgel- This has really put me back...!
I've been talking a fair amount to someone we met at the GHS entrance exam for my youngest, and she has elder daughters as well as her sisters girls were in the senior school and I spoke to the eldest daughter too who is in the sixth form as i was waiting for my DD! To sum up our conversation...

The other girls mum said her daughters and nieces at GHS were all quite shy (we were btoh having a nervous mum moment while our DDs were being assessed about how shy our daughters can be!) but she said the eldest girls seemed to have really come out of themselves as they reached year 11/sixth form and that her sister felt the senior school in her opinion had changed a huge amount in recent years with change in senior leadership of the senior school.

The girl in sixth form said the pastoral care has improved a lot, I think at all girls schools there is going to be bitchiness, but she said it was dealt with well and the teachers are generally very approachable, but she said in her younger years (but that is 5ish years ago) there wasnt so much support but puts this down to the teachers who used to be there and the old atmosphere of GHS (in the past when she was year 7 she thought it was v pushy, with lack of values and care in many ways compared to now).

She did agree the girls who lacked confidence or generally wernt as outgoing didnt get the support or push perhaps they needed but once you get to older years she said if you need help or have problems, however serious or not, the head of sixth form and pastoral staff are very caring and will give up their time to help and she knew girls who in the past had had a lot of support from teachers.

Talking to her she said GHS has become much more friendly/everyone have a go although effort is still not rewarded much in the senior years but once you get to sixth form everyone has their 'route' in terms of career and their passion and its very friendly with smaller teaching groups, great relationships with teachers. She said she didnt notice pressure at all and despite not being top she copes.

She said she genuinely thinks she could not have gone to a better school and that she is very lucky to go there, it couldnt have prepared her better for the future and she had made the most incredible friends out of it... which is what made me think wow i would love my daughters to be saying that at the end of their time there!!

out of interest when did you leave? just wondering if it was recently or a while ago?

Im wondering if maybe i should ge tsome more opinions/look at GHS a bit more closely than I did before. neither of my daughters are mega confident and my 11yo i know from our family circumstances lacks emotional resilience as she has had a very difficult past... so now Im a bit lost I thought GHS was perfect for her!

I'm really glad you've had such honest, up-to-date advice - to me it speaks volumes in favour of the school that the sixth former you met had the maturity to give such a mature and balanced view. And for the sake of the girls there, I'm glad that pastoral care has improved. It rings very true what the sixth former you spoke to told you about a group of older teachers opposing any sort of pastoral innovation, and I can see from the GHS website that those I'd suspect her to be talking about have now all left or retired.

So yes, please don't go on my experience alone. The other thing I perhaps should have said is it seemed to me that a lot of how girls manage and feel at GHS (and I would imagine probably at any school) was determined by the strength of their families. Some of the hardest, saddest pastoral situations I remember were when girls painfully unsuited to the school (ie through being not really academic enough or with autistic-type traits that GHS couldn't work with) were sidelined by teachers and bullied by classmates whilst their parents did nothing, either because they couldn't be botheres or didn't care or just because 'things like that don't happen at schools like this'. Many of the girls come to school by train from across Surrey and beyond as the daughters of commuterville professionals without much time to invest in their daughters welfare. So I think the question of whether or not your DDs would have sufficient confidence to cope with the school depends to an extent on you, and whether you would be prepared to fight for their interests against unfair or inadequate treatment or bullying. And from this thread you come across as such a thoughtful, caring mother who is so careful really to do the very best for her children. And you'll be living in Guildford itself, too, which I think is an advantage.

I left GHS in the mid 90s. I hope that I won't diminish my credibility by declining to provide the specifics, but it's a small school and Guildford is a small place.

I think you'd do well to keep asking around for opinions. Good luck, and let us know what else you dicover. I'm sure, too, that I can't be the only ex GHS gel on MN!

As I posted before, my DDs are at GHS and I'd agree with ex-GHSgel it is what you put into it, and as long as your are supportive of your daughter she will do fine. Two of my DDs were not very confident but have done absolutely fine. My eldest has left but was saying similar things to the girl you talked to from the 6th form on her last day and she certainly had the best possible education there and grew so much as a person.
I'd agree GHS has changed, especially on the pastoral side, in the last 3-4 years, with much more support and the school is very on top of issues now.Please don't let ex-GHS gels original post put you off- while some is true, it is harder for less confident girls (but I would say this is true in most schools), I think GHS has changed a lot and gone from strength to strength in the last few years.

just to let you know.. we decided to go for Guildford High for our youngest DD as Surrey CC said we are unlikely to get a place at Holy Trinity Pewley Down because we live too far from it and GHS seemed right for her and she despite usually being extremely shy left her final assesment laughing and talking endlessly so it just felt so right for her. We decided going out of guildford was silly with such good schools on the doorstep and our friend said we were mad to decline a GHS place, apparently not as easy to get as we thought(!?) Surrey CC did say we are likely to get Boxgrove though, which I've heard is a good school (esp for George abbot!)..so I am wondering if perhaps that would be a (cheaper!) and better option! :S! DD is sold on GHS now though!
We also found we are just in the George abbot catchment and so are keeping our fingers crossed for eldest DD, and also DD is doing the 11+ for GHS and Priors field, godalming, in Jan so she will choose between those three if she gets in any!
Thanks for all your help.