Tiffin school for girls insider

[Greenleave]

Hi all,

We started planning for our daughter secondary route and doing research around to know all schools better. My daughter is a little musical(doing grades for both violin and piano and loving it but not talented if you know what I mean). Socialise and loves outdoors, sport. She is ok at school and potentially might have a chance if she tries Tiffin or some other selective private. We also have few private on top of our head: SPGS, LEH, City school for girls etc. She is now in state primary, my experience with our outstanding state primary is it is only ok, its state so I could hardly ask for anything extra to be done for my child(giving her more challenge work), foreign languages are not great either, I understood that indie schools sometimes could be better. However we have heard so many lovely things about Tiffins: music is at very high standard, sports is happening, the girls are less "posh"(we are foreigner and very ordinary although could afford private fees if we are both working).

Please anyone who has girls go/went to Tiffins for girls can you share your experience. Compare with the selective Indie is it ok?

My DD is very happy there. She was at a 'satisfactory/good' state primary. Your DD will need to be more then 'ok at school' to have a chance of gaining a place. She'll need to be the top in her class and be tutored in order to compete with the girls from the preps. Most importantly make sure she reads widely, including classic books and that she's speedy at maths. My DD is loving all the sporting opportunities and the music department is very impressive. She seems to have made a wide cycle of friends. Can't compare with the privates as it wasn't a consideration for us.

Hi Pink: another happy parent!

We are disappointed with our state primary now, there is only PE and music is at very low level, its very relaxed in terms of academic too. I am struggle to understand how hard is it to prepare her for 11+. I only find out now that if she is only doing school works even she is top of all 3 classes then she still doesnt have much chance with 11+ exams(especially Tiffins and selective Indie)
She is at the moment very good at maths, naturally she has been. English might be her weakness even she was free reader by end of year 1 and picked up for some of the school english competitions but I know her vocabulary isnt good yet, loads of grammar mistakes in writing(terrible hand writing too). She loves reading, thats the love of her life which I find I am very lucky.

We havent found any tutor yet I contacted some popular ones and it looks like we are already too late, some people put their children names from reception. I am not sure about the tutor centre as worried the quality might be low

I'm interested, too. Did your DD have lots of tutoring? Mine is in Y4 and working quite a bit ahead of average in general but I don't think I would want to tutor her, apart from maybe giving her a bit of help myself.

I would be really interested to know what the pastoral care is like at Tiffin. Some people give the impression that it can be a bit hit and miss.

Yes, same here

We do have option for private though, I have heard of nice things about private too. But so much more about Tiffins, if its worth a try then we would. The main issue is if we aiming for private only then the learning approach could be different comparing to preparing for a grammar school test. As its only 1 grammar school within our reach so is Tiffins worth it for us to try(and could be losing time, money on investing for private exams only)

All along I have heard about how tough is the entrance exams is, how good is A level result is but how about music, how about arts, sports, especially compare with heavily paid fee private, is it not much less quality to compare?

Hi Pink: also please share your successful experience of how did your daughter make it? Apart from must be bright and should have a tutor to help then what else?

I went to one of the private schools you mentioned in your post, but on balance would probably prefer DD to go to a state school, for a variety of reasons. We could probably afford where I went but it would mean giving up a lot in terms of holidays etc - and violin lessons etc are not cheap, especially if they are going to be on top of school fees.

We are pretty happy with our (not outstanding) state primary. It seems a very happy place - unpressured but DD seems to be achieving well anyway. I think it's great. They are only little once.

My daughter isnt super happy there as she is quite academic and not being given any challenge work, I made a mistake listening to the teacher wholeheartly last year to "slow her down" and she had a very boring miserable years, so boring that from a well behave child she drew on her friends shirts during lessons and or taught other children even we told her many times not to. She would be thrived in a competitive environment(either private or state). Which might be a different story for our second child who doesnt seem to have the same personality at all

Yes cost is one of the thing, we have to shop wisely although if its worth it we will always put our daughter secondary school of her choice first

DD gets lots of challenge, though it varies to some extent teacher to teacher and year to year. She is highly academic but they seem to get lots of individual input. She's also good at challenging herself so hasn't got too frustrated. She's pretty well-behaved on the whole. Also, I would be horrified to find my child drawing on someone else's shirt. There is really no excuse for that in a NT child of this age, bored or not!

Yes, I was, and it happened twice. We tried to understand why it happened as it wasnt her normal character(she was told in many ways not to have it happened again), to us it was horrified too.

What year your daughter is in now, how did you help her through her 11+. Does your daughter do any music at school now? How is foreign language class? Overall how is the quality of teaching? Are you happy? Is your daughter happy?

I think I said before that my DD is still in Y4 so no 11+ yet. She is at a primary school rated good (but unpopular). She gets OK foreign language input (French only, though I have taught her some Latin). She does violin and piano at school, plus a ton of music clubs. She gets wonderful teaching, though. Her teachers are, mostly, amazing.

@Indole: sorry I got mixed up!

Your daughter is lucky being challenged and having amazing teachers. Our teachers are ok, I dont have any bad thing to say about them, although I am not fully appreciated, I am hoping for more enthusiastic, more care for above average children. We try to tell our daughter hang on their, enjoy having fun at school, its ok when all subjects are easy and no challenge, revise them again, she stops complaining but every time I asked her "did you do anything fun in the literacy lesson today? How about what you learnt at your maths table" the answer is always "its ok mom, still times table, numbers sequencing", she loves her literacy lessons though, the answer is much more enthusiastic "mom we played this character today..." It never stops. I so wish they do more with her maths. She loves her school and going to school though.

We didnt go to school in uk, I have been working full time and long hours for my whole and it looks like I will have to do that in the next 20 years or so so I have very little time during the day with her to teach her anything. We rely so much on school and her time during school. Academy is the most important to us but other extra curri like sports, especially musics, foreign language, arts are as important which is very poor from my daughter state primary