Can anyone 'rank' the SW London selective schools

[FlumePlume]

Inspired by the SW London thread, I was wondering if there's a generally agreed 'ranking' for selective schools in SW London? The usual advice is to go for three - a stretch, a should-get and a banker. But what does this actually mean in terms of schools? Coming from a state primary, the whole thing is very opaque.

sorry - not FOR us I meant

Can anyone tell me which schools offer Chinese?
So far I've only found it at St Pauls Girls and at City of London Girls
Surely somewhere else must offer it

I think Streatham & Clapham High do - they definitely do Mandarin from yr 2 in the prep section so assume it can be continued in the senior section.

DS school has Chinese fortnightly usually on a Friday. He's not that keen as he finds it too greasy compared with our usual takeaway of choice.

In reference to further above, you'd get a season ticket for a train journey and therefore would still pay for any gaps in use. However the school coach is often vastly more expensive than public transport - in our experience.

Kingston grammar and Hampton boys offer mandarin

Mandarin from Y7 in Notting Hill & Ealing and Latymer Upper to offer another 2...

I live in another part of town, but was curious. I found a site that ranks private schools based on A-A* GCSEs (I supposed there are many possible rankings, perceived social cache, entrance to Oxbridge, etc. but this is an easy measure because it is objective and the data is available.) This was the breakdown of the schools mentioned on the thread:

7 LEH
10 City
12 WHS
14 G&L
19 JAGS
29 Alleyns
32 Notting Hill & Ealing
38 Putney High School
70 FH Regent's Park

SPGS wasn't on the list at all. I assume they didn't share data. I also assume they would be right at the top, if they had.

www.best-schools.co.uk/uk-school-league-tables/gcse-grades/

There probably isn't much difference in schools, they all do really well, but it might give a rough indication of how selective they are.

eeyoresgrumpierfriend - I couldn't find it for the seniors. Y7 French & Latin, then Y8 add Spanish or Italian

Putney offer Mandarin from Year 8. The girls do German and Spanish in Year 7 and Mandarin and Latin in Year 8. They then choose 2 to carry on with in Year 9 - although I think some may only take forward one language.

Thanks

To be honest, southwest London is spoiled with great indie. Our neighbors have children in LU and they love the school and cant say enough good thing about it. I am surprised it isnt in the above list

green, a lot of the independents have withdrawn from submitting/not included in league tables due to them doing IGCSEs. Prospect parents do need to be mindful of performance tables now but that's why there are some big school names missing

re some of the Tiffin comments here. DD and I walked from Kingston Station last week. It was 10 minutes walk tops. We are fast walkers to be fair, but it certainly isn't the 30 minutes mentioned.

Just realised this thread has been revived. It made me think, there's probably a market for an app or something that would allow you to put in your postcode and then showed all the schools within an hour by public transport / school bus.

Anyway, I now have a long list of schools and am slowly going through it looking at websites and trying to get a sense of where to visit next year. One of the things that really stands out, coming from a state primary, is how much time / effort / importance is given to team sport. It's not dd1's thing - she generally enjoys PE at school but doesn't like team games and isn't very good at them, and much prefers dance and swimming. So now I'm looking for schools which don't force tons of team sport.

Interestingly, I've had the first ever acknowledgement from a teacher that we should be looking for selective. Prompted by me saying that I thought she'd be happiest in that type of school, but I was surprised by how vehement the agreement was, given that her primary's ethos is very much 'the local comp is great, all go there and it will get even better'.

Can I revive this thread to ask a couple of questions about other schools?

How would the following be "ranked" in terms of difficulty to get into:

St Johns
Kings
Dulwich College
Trinity
Hampton
Reeds
RGS
Whitgift
KGS

Thank you!

Olennas, "difficulty to get into" is perhaps a better question. Some schools, like the Harrodian, can be very hard to get into simply because they don't have many boy places at 11. Whereas Dulwich is a big school and so can take a wider range.

If looking at league tables schools will bob around in the same sort of area, so it is worth looking at several years and at trends. Results in inevitably influenced by selectivity several years before, so Emanuel, say can be expected to have an improving trend, whilst Surbiton High's result may have dipped a few years after their expansion.

Ultimately though the bast ranking is which school is best for your child. I would not pass, say, WHS to get elsewhere, except perhaps for a natural co-ed, or that rare child who is a natural Paulina. Especially for girls, where 11-16 can be tricky socially, and the last thing you want is too much academic pressure and a commute on top. It also matters where your child is most comfortable. Is this a child who likes to be in the top third or who is reasonably secure and content to be in the bottom third.

Lots of girls switch for A level, so if they want extra challenge, co-ed or a bigger school at that stage it is not a problem.

On that list I would say from hardest to easiest:

Kings
Hampton
RGS
KGS
Dulwich College
Trinity
Reeds
Whitgift
St Johns

I can compare most of them from our applications and the academic level of those that I know gained entry - though I'm guessing at Dulwich and Trinity.

Building on the theme. I think "grouping" is probably more accurate that "ranking." The cohort can make the difference and often those differences are quite small or vary from year to year. I also think that if you are looking at league tables, you need to consider how the schools get to those results. Some of the girls schools have a firm policy of guaranteeing all the girls a sixth form place regardless of results because they do not want to add anxiety to children who are already under so much academic and social pressure. Other schools limit who can take the exam for certain GCSEs (ie. Higher Math.) SPGS does not offer drama and art GCSE, they do their own course. Art and Drama can be difficult courses to gain A*. KCS gets amazing results but they also "weed out." A few years ago 20 boys were told pre GCSE that they would be asked to leave if a certain set of results were not achieved. Another year, four were asked to leave after lower 6th. Some children may need the "push" and others need the security but I suspect that all the schools being mentioned offer a great education for the right child.

On that list I would say from hardest to easiest:

Kings
Hampton
RGS
KGS
Dulwich College
Trinity
Reeds
Whitgift
St Johns

Spot on with list SAHD
DS sat top 4
Was offered all but Kings.
Said Hampton was hardest paper, thought KGS was harder than RGS

Thank you Chicky and SAHD

I'm going to put up a word of defence here for KCS. My DS spent a happy ten years at the school and the pastoral care was exceptional. In my experience the boys who couldn't cope were over tutored in the first place by parents who were slightly delusional, including some who disregarded advice at prep level. I can put my hand on my heart and say my ds was never swamped with work except for U6 when he pulled his finger out to aim for 45 IB points and prove a few masters wrong about his overethusiastic social and sporting activities.

Yes, it's a tough school for academically and socially tough boys. It has fabulous music and arts provision alongside the sport. Andrew Halls would do well to be mindful that the liberal arts play a massive role in people's lives and often the children of the wealthy can chose to follow their hearts.

I'd say if you live in Wimbledon focus on Putney and WHS. One will feel more right than the other. Apply for both and see what you get with an insurance school in your back pocket.

When they are 15+ it pays to be local. They need to be gaining independence and you don't want them stranded in Lewisham on the way back from a party in Beckenham with a friend from JAGS. Rush hour Wimbledon to JAGS is gross if you have an emergency as simple as list my oyster, got no money at 6pm after a practice when the office I closed.

Coaches - great but flashpoints for bullying and much misery.

It might be worth keeping an eye on Lady Margaret, especially with murmurings about grammar schools. It had a new head and I hear is returning to some of the values that made it so popular a decade or so ago.

For girls, it's St. Paul's. I'm not a mother of girls, but as far as I know there's nothing nipping at its heels. Latymer is possibly next?

For boys, it's Westminster.

There aren't any real safety schools anymore, back when my son started reception it was Emanuel but even that's competitive these days.

Last year Trinity only offered 60 (or possible 65 in the end) places in y7 which has to put it further up the "harder to get into" scale surely? assuming similar number apply. I thibk it was nearly 500 sat the exam last year, is that similar to the other schools? Whitgift is definitely easier in terms of the papers and places.

schmack - I don't know Trinity that well compared with others, I'm mainly going off others comments and friends' applications to the south london schools - Trinity/Whitgift/Dulwich.

I would say that numbers can be misleading. It's the academic ability of the numbers that matter. Out of 500 say, you could find that there are many applying on the off chance of a good day, or as a backup, or as a mock. It's impossible to tell. For example for DS2 school out of 8 that applied to it from his Primary school and others I know, I would've put money on 7 of them not making the grade (or anywhere near it). And I was correct. There were many boys from his Primary that applied to Tiffin that were wasting their time!

That's just a small example but I think you have to be wary of seemingly vast numbers applying being perceived as creating great competition or increasing the typical academic entry level to a significant degree.

I don't think Trinity can be considered 'harder to get into'.

I am pretty curious about Hampton, it seemingly crept out of nowhere into a fairly top space. Or did it not? I hear it's very maths-heavy.