Thought I might as well offer my opinion for what it's worth! Our daughter started at Farnborough Hill last year and despite our initial misgivings we feel we definitely made the right choice. Myself and my husband looked at several options within reasonable travelling distance for us and looking at the list of potential contenders Farnborugh Hill seemed to be ahead of the rest. The only snag we could see was that we are both atheists and were a bit put off a first by the fact that it's a catholic school, worrying that our daughter would be feel under pressure in such an environment. Fortunately we have friends who also send their daughters there - one family like us who don't have a religion, and one family who are Muslim - and were reassured that there was no forcing of religion on pupils if they have a differing or indeed no particular belief. So we took the plunge and are so glad for our daughter's sake that we did. There's no pressure at all over religion with a refreshingly liberal live and let live attitude pervading the issue, and the education provided is proving to be second to none. Daughter had a tendency to coast along at her previous school, being bright enough to have worked out the minimum amount of work she could get away with doing(!), but Farnborough Hill has succeeded in engaging her interest so that she has a chance of achieving her potential whilst also encouraging her to enjoy her time there, so no danger of 'hot housing' thank goodness. She's also made some good friends and is involved in the many extra-curricular activities there, such as the various sports and dance clubs.
That's our take on it anyway. Hope that it's of assistance to anybody else who's trying to pick their way through the thorny issue of secondary schools :-)