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!