For a musical allrounder What do you think of Wells Cathedral School, compared with a less specialist school?

[lassie002]

Hi, I'm new to mumsnet! DD aged 10 has been offered a special music provision place at Wells Cathedral School. We were told by Wells that this is ideal for her as it allows her to focus on music, yet still follow a full academic curriculum and sport, both of which are also important to her. However, we are still worried about the academic side of things, especially having read some comments here. We are thinking of looking at some other schools, to set our minds at rest. We live in Weston Super Mare. Thinking of Red Maids, Clifton High, Redlands. Music very very important - DD plays piano clarinet violin composes and sings (Dont know where it came from!), but we don't want her other abilities to get lost as she is sporty and bright (not sure where that came from either!!)

All the other schools you have mentioned have good academic reputations in Bristol, and good music provision - choirs, orchestras, ensembles, music lessons etc. However if she is very talented and really wants to develop this I would think that Wells would have far more scope to do this within school.
You need to speak to them at Wells and find out how much time music students get to spend on other activities such as Games - and find out if they are taken off regular timetabled lessons for extra music tuition etc. I believe at some schools music scholars may not have time to play for school teams due to music committments, but if that is important to your daughter then you need to find out the exact details of what will be expected of her.
I can't comment on the academic side of Wells - I did a Teaching Prac there about 15 years ago, and it was a fantastic place to work with a lovely atmosphere, but obviously that was some years ago! We do send children on gifted and talented maths days from the Prep I work in now - so they are actively trying to encourage academic children as well.

How would travel to and from the various options? Is that a factor

Thanks for your advice Jo, that's helpful. Givemeaclue - we need to be able to travel from WSM. DD doesn't mind boarding a couple of nights but neither she nor I fancy full boarding.