Please help: non-elitist, diverse independent schools in London for new immigrant

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My cousin is moving to London soon with her daughter and will be applying for entry at the 11+ stage in 2018. Her daughter is bright, driven and industrious and my cousin wants to offer her the best private education and facilities possible.

However, she is very worried as the top private schools where we live (Dubai) tend to produce teenagers who are often elitist, entitled and unmotivated in life. High school students at her daughter's present school are split between a motivated faction that who make use of the excellent opportunities and go onto Ivy League, Imperial College and Oxbridge and a spoilt faction who lead extravagant lives, dabble in drugs and expect that they will be setup for life financially by their parents.

She is very keen to avoid her daughter falling into this trap and wants a school that has several professional parents who way worked their way up and passed on their ethics to their kids rather than only the children of oligarchs/ finance magnates and trust fund kids.

My cousin's friend in London was very dismissive of the independent schools she was looking and said that they tend to produce frivolous girls who study art history and then become socialites (we don't really have art history as a subject in Dubai or India so I'm not sure what studying it implies). Would you be able to recommend any non-elitist independent schools that encourage girls to be hard-working and career-oriented for my cousin's daughter? Or is she better off at a state school?

Location isn't a problem as this is my cousin's only child and she will decide where to live in London based on school acceptances. Thank you very much for your help!

If she is bright look at most of the very selective day schools such as city of London girls. Schools such as this offer several burseries. to less well of. Same with LEH.. The girls day school trust schools may also be worth a look.
Mixed schools such as Kingston Grammar have mostly professional parents.
Many London independent schools parents scrape together the fees. They are not super rich
What area of London are they looking in

Mary21, she is a very bright girl. She is 9 years old and she speaks 3 languages (English, Arabic, Hindi), writes short plays for her friends to perform and reads Phillip Pullman and Tolkien which are quite advanced for her age. She also does coding and builds robotic toys and drones -although that might just be because my cousin, like most Indian mothers, is very pushy and wants her to get interested in engineering at an early age.

Like I said, my cousin is willing to move anywhere in London depending on where her daughter gets admitted - she is looking at Dulwich, Wimbledon, Hampstead, St Johns Wood. But I think she'll be open to other areas too.

That is reassuring to know - are there any resources that schools or league tables publish about the number of students on bursaries or ethnic diversity or number of immigrants? Thanks for your help.

Go to a state school. No such thing as what you are looking for.

Academically selective schools in a london, of which ther are many. are surely "elitist". They will all be academically pushy.

In terms of diversity re ethnicity/nationality most london schools will be, some (eg girls day school trust) more than others.

None are really diverse in terms of family income.

The independent schools inspectorate reports will have basic info on pupil characteristics.

Loopytiles: Do you mean independent schools will have an elite group of parents but that the students will be pushed to do well in academics and career rather than just rely on their family wealth and influence? My cousin would be fine with that.

What she is worried about is the kind of elitism where teenagers feel they don't have to work hard in life and can be socialities because they are born into wealthy families and have glamorous lives handed to them on a platter - this type of thinking is quite common in many private schools in Dubai.

Well there will be some DC with families like that in London too. But London selective schools expect good test results etc and DC will be pushed academically by the school.

I agree with Mary that LEH in Hampton and City of London Girls fit your criteria. And what about St Paul's Girls School? There are also state grammars near London, such as Tiffin Girls which exactly fits your desciption. It's superselective, so very hard to get into but has a strong, professional work ethic.
Lots of posters will disagree with me, but I don't think you'll find that work ethic you describe is common in many non-selective state schools. The point of comprehensive education is that it includes everyone and so will have a wide mix of families who don't care or try along with those who do.

And Tiffin girls is very culturally diverse - big Asian intake - Chinese, Indian, Korean etc, as well as white European and British.

I know exactly what she means. I think she will encounter less of that entitled attitude if she heads south of the river to Dulwich or Wimbledon. JAGS & Alleyns are both good schools with a fairly broad demographic. There are plenty of ordinary parents who have to make substantial sacrifices to afford the schools. The movie star/oligarch parents tend to favour north of the river.
Make sure she keeps an eye on the deadlines for application. Registration dates for entrance exams for September 2018 will vary but would typically need to be done by Oct/Nov ish.

Hi... my academic DD in year 10... from a very mixed primary ... we looked at loads and I'd most recommend these two - not least because they take around 50% from state school primaries compared to typically 25% at other independents....which is a good indicator on being "grounded" and down to earth:

1. City of London for Girls - all girls clearly! Very academic and the most "inclusive" of all London schools.... goes out of its way to find people of all backgrounds for its bursaries... very ethnically diverse...

1. Latymer Upper - the most popular of co-ed schools if this is what you're looking for. Yes, some entitled West London kids but a wide range beyond this - and because co-ed it tends to have a higher proportion of European/bilingual/trilingual kids (I think around 20-25% are bilingual but could be wrong)

Hope this helps... good luck

Millifiori, Monkeyface26 and loveyouradvice: thank you so much for the recommendations! I will definitely suggest these to my cousin. So far I have:

Tiffins Girls School
JAGS
Alleyns
City of London for Girls
Latymer Upper

Can anybody add to this list?

I think looking to move to Dulwich, putting JAGS (since sex) and Alleyns (co-ed) might be a reasonable plan.

Or if she'd consider the areas round Clapham Common, those two are still very easy to reach, but so are Putney High School, Wimbledon High School (possibly transfterring to Kings College for sixth form), City of London Girls and St Paul's Girls.

I suggest she uses the Good Schools Guide to get some idea of what these schools are like.

At secondary age, parents are way less apparent in the life of the school so their likely attitudes can be very much a secondary consideration.

AnotherNewt - thank you! What neighbourhoods do you recommend that are proximate to Clapham commons?

If she is as bright as you say and money is no issue, then she should look at St Pauls Girls school. It is probably the top academic girls school in the UK. The girls are very competitive academically and the majority will go to top Unis.

I would agree also with looking at City of London, Jags, Putney High, Wimbledon High, LEH and also Godolphin and Latymer.

It is the slightly less academic private schools where you get tend to get more pupils with a sense of entitlement based on money.

Go for a highly selective school. There may be some "rich" kids, but they won't be lazy or dim. It's just too competitive for them to win places.

Watford Grammar School for Girls fits all the criteria except for one; it's a state school rather than independent.

It's ethnically diverse, the girls are academically able and hard-working but not at all arrogant or entitled.

Or if she wants something closer to central London, I have heard positive things about Henrietta Barnett

Hello, schools it may be worth looking at are:

Channing
City of London
Forest
Highgate
JAGS
NLCS
South Hampstead
St Paul's School for Girls

All of these are really academic so, while some girls may be wealthy, they will also be very focused.

Agree with all these. Habs also if she wants to look a bit further out.

The London day schools don't produce lounge lizards. I might venture that the mother tries quite hard not to feel her child is superior.

Maybe add Emmanuel to your list
And streatham And Clapham girls

If she wants to live around Clapham Common, it would either be the 'between the commons' area of Battersea (SW11 postcode) or Clapham old town, or Abbeville Village (SW4)

There are bus services from these areas to the Dulwich schools, as well as easy transport links to Wimbledon and Kingston

If she is happy for single sex look at the gdst high schools, there are several across South London. When do they plan to come over permanently?

I think sparechange is about right with areas to look for houses, plus areas by Spencer Park and around Wandsworth Common. Clapham Old Toan and Abbeville aren't so good for the possible school runs, but it's by no means impossible from them

The streets off the north side of Clapham Common work well for transport links.

Emanuel has already closed it's 11+ registration list for Sept 18, so no point in looking at that one (it's going to have a new system from Sept 19 onwards)

It is the slightly less academic private schools where you get tend to get more pupils with a sense of entitlement based on money.

Jeanne you are absolutely spot on with this statement.

Based on results St Paul's is probably the best followed by City (of London School for Girls). Both are, and always have been, very ethnically diverse.
I went to City and I can assure you that there were not any girls there who went on to become socialites!