Grey Coat Hospital School

[heinrichvonkleist]

My daughter's due to start there this September and wondered if anybody else had experience of the school? Particularly how your daughter has adapted to the commute at such an early hour of the morning ... thanks.

Anybody?

No kids at Grey Coat?

Are you Michael Gove? Sorry, can't help but at least I've bumped your post

Hi, whilst I can't say it was entirely painless (DD was used to being dredged out of bed for primary a short walk away at a time she now goes for the train) and took a good couple of months to manage by herself (I went with her until she was confident), she is now very good about it. She leaves earlier than I would tbh, as she likes to read in the waiting room before the train comes.

The school does operate a sort of "learn to commute" group, run by the sixth formers. Unfortunately it doesn't come all that far out, so we didn't manage to use it, but they'll tell you about this at the BBQ in June.

I haven't sent children there myself but know the school well - yo are very very lucky! Lovely school

I know a few girls there and they all seem to get up fine, including one who has a mammoth commute.

TBH, loads of secondary kids have to get up pretty early and get to school independently - it seems like a big deal when they are in Y6, but after a couple of weeks it feels like they have been doing it forever.

Does she have any friends to travel with? I think they do some sort of buddy system with an older girl to help them when they first start.

Loads of secondary kids get up v early. OurDD is at GC and fairly leaps out of bed. Desperate to get there early. All the girls who walk there look very jolly as they're heading in. Most on bus leave at least an hour before school starts so they won't be late. What will your DD's commute be like? (Bus/train/tube/etc)

Congrats, by the way. Hope she'll be very happy there. My DD says the only problem with GC is it's not boarding (ie she'd rather be there than home!)

It's a pity the school no longer "educates the poor of the parish", which is what it was set up to do.

Thanks all! She'll be travelling by overground train and then tube for the last part, I think it will be an hour at the most, maybe 50 mins on a good day but it will be on busy trains etc. She's awful at getting up in the morning though and it's always a real struggle to get her to primary which is a 5 min walk away!

And no. I am not Michael Gove!

You can wave to him at school events.

As this is getting closer, I'm still a little nervous and wondering if anyone else has any words of wisdom ...

You might get more relevant advice if you start a new more general thread about long journeys to secondary and how DCs managed, rather than one specifically about Grey Coats which only a few parents know about and many girls attending live locally anyway.

I doubt many live locally. The "catchment" is tiny with most places going on religiosity.

A real pain as Pimlico's catchment is also shrinking, leaving many local children having to commute out of area. I suggest heinrichvonkleist's dd simply count her blessings.

How is yo DD settling in?