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

[user1494871340]

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!

It's worth bearing in mind that getting into these schools is quite difficult, even for a bright child.

I would add NLCS to the list. I think Emmanuel and Forest wouldn't be academic enough for the girl described. Maybe not Channing either.

That may be true. I'd heard that Channing and Forest have become far more academic (and more difficult to get into) but they may not be as academic as, say, City or NLCS.

It's true CruCru, demand for private school places in London is growing faster than the number of private school places.

Apart from NLCS, South Hampstead, I'd add Wycombe Abbey, which is mainly a boarding school just outside London and is very academic (but also has a fair few international students). Its usually one of the top 10 schools in the UK.
The girls there get amazing results and around a third go to Oxford/Cambridge and if your niece is quite a high flyer then it may really suit her.
Its also very close to Heathrow.

could hill house international meet her needs?

Hill House is a prep which finishes at 13.

All the other suggestions are secondaries covering 11-18.
Many London girls day schools have their main (or only) entry point at 11+.

OP: how long will she be here for? If it is just 2 years, would she prefer a prep (easier to secure a place).

If so, I suggest Newton Prep

Kingston Grammar (mixed) and LEH (girls) would both be suitable I should think

St Pauls
LEH
Jags
Alleyns
City of London Girls
WHS
PHS

All very good and very selective. Many families are wealthy (bear in mind a three bed terrace in any catchment is at least £1m), many are two income professionals. What I have never seen is a sense of entitlement at these schools but the bar to get in is high.

Oh I don't know where to start with this one. Everyone has been so kind and helpful and I am about to be viperish instead.

User, your cousin and your cousin's friend both sound unpleasantly judgemental about other children and subjects they don't understand. They are completely not looking for a non-elitist school for her DD but are just looking for one with a different elite.

Writing as the mother of science students, I feel obliged to say Art and Art History are just as important and valuable to education as science, maths and engineering. It is a different cultural perspective from the India/Dubai culture you are describing - but it is what she will be buying into if she comes to London. There are schools full of children being pushed into subjects their parents want them to do rather than what they love - but also plenty of schools where children have the academic freedom to follow their love of art, and the world is a better place for it.

I hope this young girl will be given some freedom to choose too.

Your cousin is looking for North London Collegiate. It is ethnically diverse with a majority of children from Asian backgrounds and is highly academic. Not my cup of tea but one of the most academically successful schools in the country. Also Habs girls, nearly as good academically but a far nicer ethos IMO and ethnically diverse.

Thank you so much everybody for your suggestions!! You've given me so much helpful information here.

WorkingItOutAsIGo- I agree that middle class Indians tend to prioritise scientific education far too much, even for students who have different aptitudes. Like I said, my cousin is pushy and I don't necessarily share her enthusiasm for engineering above all else (although her daughter does enjoy drones and robots and isn't being coerced into these activities in anyway).

At the same time, there are far more women students in STEM in Asia than in the UK and these are clearly careers with greater growth potential and spheres of influence. It does take some pushing to get girls to override gender stereotypes and consider these career options so I think there is some validity to this as well and it can't be dismissed simply because it's different from what is the norm for you in the UK.

While I would never agree with pressurising a child to perform more than her potential or forcing her into something she doesn't love doing (and I will admit that many Indian parents who sadly do this and do go to abusive extremes in some cases) there is no harm in merely guiding your daughter into a career that you know will bring her job security, financial rewards and greater potential to be powerful and influential and then leave the ultimate choice to her to make. After all, there are plenty of organisations and charities in the western world that are encouraging girls to go into STEM or 'Lean In' too.

You have to also understand that they will live in the UK for 3-5 years only and then move back to India - a country with crushing poverty, extreme patriarchy, negligible institutional support for women and no social safety net, so their daughter's independence and career-orientation is important to them in a very different way than it would be in the UK.

And leaving aside the question of career choices, the problem of non-motivated and entitled children who are born into wealth and indulged at every opportunity is absolutely something that exists, at least in many developing countries that have seen a sudden tide of new money and it's something I've experienced first hand. There are schools, both in Dubai and in India, that have an insular and elitist environment where students feel that they are accomplished and influential simply because of their parentage.

I don't think it's unreasonable to not want an environment of that sort for your child or to want her to go to a school where she will be inspired to be ambitious and hardworking. Sorry for the rambling message and I hope I haven't ruffled any feathers or caused unintended offence.

If they are only staying 5 years max it really won't matter on the motivation or entitlement of other students as the ks3/GCSE curriculum is broad. Your cousin needs to look beyond this and focus on what the school can offer to support her dd's interests. If they plan to come soon presumably she'd be better looking for somewhere which could accept her into year 5/6 and move up with that cohort to a linked senior school rather than face an entrance test in the Autumn term and another transition a year in.

Sysysysref: thank you very much! Just to be clear, my cousin is looking for a true diversity in perspectives for her daughter and not necessarily somewhere that has an Indian/ Asian majority alone (although that's obviously fine if it's the case). Even in Dubai, her daughter attends a British school rather than one of the many school here that teach the Indian syllabus. She does value the well-rounded education and extracurricular opportunities it provides her daughter. WorkingOut's comment seemed to suggest this as well so I want to clarify that she isn't looking for an all-Indian swot house or something.

But both schools look great so thanks for the reccomendation. Do you feel that North London Collegiate is too pressurised an atmosphere?

LIZS - yes she is looking at schools that have a linked senior school only. Thanks! It's 3-5 years for now but they may stay longer depending on job opportunities, visa sponsorship and how much their daughter likes it. Nothing is decided concretely yet, but there is a very real possibility that they could return to India so they need to prepare their daughter for that too, in terms of mindset/ work ethic.

I think north London collegiate itself is an outstanding school and the management of the school is phenomenol and the opportunities are endless. My issue with it, and the reason it was not a consideration for us and many of our friends is because so many of the parents there are as you describe and push their children so far and put them under so much pressure. I talk to them at swimming and at drama, I see the comments on groups where they'll go to the ends of the earth to get their girls in there whatever the cost to their mental health. They're tutoring 3 year olds, these girls are turning up at Kumon, it's too much. Even the lady serving me in Marks & Spencer the other week told me that the only schools she would consider for her child was NLCS or Henrietta Barnett. I'm sure there are many naturally brilliant girls there who thrive but I have a real concern at the levels of pressure that parents put on their children to get there and to achieve there.

NLCS would have the advantage that their offshoot in Dubai opens next year so I presume it would be easy to simply transfer back...afaik the curriculum is set in U.K...

NLCS is meant to be a fantastic school but it is by no means the only one. Also, I think that it is actually outside London (Edgware? Harrow?).

It's edgware...not a london post code no!

User - what a lovely answer to my rather swiftly typed worry: I think your cousin is lucky to have you to help with your very thoughtful perspective.

So let me be less viperish in return. There is a very clear results hierarchy in London day schools available from websites. The higher up that list, the more likely the school will have the kind of focus on girl's results that your cousin is looking for. I strongly second NLCS as worthy of consideration: not only does it have the most beautiful campus and buildings, it does, courtesy of its NW London parent body, have a real drive for girls to be career-focused. When I went round there I was struck by the number of girls wanting to be doctors, lawyers, accountants and engineers. If she gets her DD in, your cousin can live more centrally and avail herself of the fantastic bus network.

SPGS is probably the only school to top it results-wise, but I would say has less of a focus on careers for the average girl. It of course has lawyers and engineers and doctors but there the girls seem freed to follow their academic passions and so there are also actors, artists, philosophers and politics students. Possibly dangerous types....!

But mostly just reassure your cousin it's home and family that shape a child, not the school.

JAGS is the other serious contender in the academic sense (I don't think it's ever out-performed SPGS, but has for NLCS). Also a good campus (including a botanical gardens) and a diverse parent body as offers birth schoarships and bursaries to over 100% (iit's part of the same Foundation as Dulwich college and Allyens which have endowments stretching back to Tudor times!)

So the though for which of SPGS, JAGS, NCLS to apply for might come down to which side of London would she prefer to live in, and which back-up schools she likes the look of most (for all are very selective, and there are al lot of clever children in London)

Thanks so much for your highly informative replies. My cousin has done some research based on your suggestions and swill apply to the following:

St Paul Girls School
City of London School for Girls
Godolphin and Latymer School
James Alleyns Girls School

She's also applying to International Community School of London and International School of London which have very good IB results as her employer has told her that the company can help place her daughter in an international school and it looks like a place in the above 4 schools is not guaranteed by any means. Any insight into these international schools would be very helpful if you happen to know about them!

I don't know much about the international schools but this site has some information.

Great plan. Perhaps also add one London school which is easier to get into? And do investigate the international schools properly - I don't know these two but the one I know well sounds exactly the same as the schools in Dubai she is trying to avoid.

CruCru and WorkingItOut: Thanks, I will tell her to research the international schools thoroughly.