Sutton Grammar Schools

[Aleksandra44]

Could anyone tell me do we stand a chance of getting into Sutton grammar schools if we live in Kingston borough? We have a school bus to Sutton Grammar at our doorstep so travelling to Sutton grammar schools would not be a problem but we are not in the catchment area according to our postcode. Does anyone know if Sutton schools do take children from other nearby boroughs? Many thanks.

Yes they do. I think there are less places allocated for non - postcode kids. It was about 60 last time I checked.
You'd need to look at the admissions policy for the school though for exact numbers.
Btw the journey on a bus in the rush hour can be very long!

Yes, children can apply from anywhere. However, it's not that many places (small school + some catchment places). It's also the most convenient for commuting as it's close to the train station. That means it's even more difficult to make the cut.

Are you asking about Sutton Grammar School particularly or grammar schools in Sutton? Has your child passed the SET or are you talking about a younger child?

The details of catchments, numbers in each category etc are all published on the individual schools' websites. The information is not a secret or hard to find.

I agree with PP, rush hour bus journeys can be horribly slow.

Hi again. I was interested to find out about Sutton grammar schools in general. My son is currently in year 5 so we have another year until he sits 11+. We live in the Borough of Kingston so our local grammar is Tiffin's. However, when we visited the school in September, neither my son nor I liked it very much. My son loved SGS and Wallington Boys - wasn't too sure about Wilson's. Having read the admissions policy for SGS, Wally Boys and Wilson's, I can see that only SGS gives 75 places to catchment area and the other 60 solely based on SETs. Entry to the other two grammars is based on SETs alone. It is going to be a steep competition !!

Sutton and Wilson's have a joint second exam (they joined the exams for the first time this year). The ranked order is based on the results of the Selective Eligibilty Test and the second exam. Wallington Boys only does the SET.

It will really up your chances if you consider all the schools. Having said that, it'd be quite a trek from the Borough of Kingston unless your right on the border with Sutton.

Sutton to Kingston bus can take over an hour in the rush hour I've been told

Sutton to Kingston bus can take over an hour in the rush hour I've been told

Suspect it could take considerably longer on a bad day. And probably depends which part of Kingston you live in too.

SGS is really nice and had a great feel when we visited it last year. My DS and myself really liked it and we liked Tiffin which is easier for us to get to so we put that down above SGS on our CAF. He has just started Tiffin and is loving it, so I'm sorry you didn't get a great feel when you looked around. When we went it was really crowded, we couldn't hear anything and the boy showing us around was very shy and didn't seem to know much about the school as he was a new year 7 whereas at SGS we had a 6th former show us around who was really impressive. I'm really pleased with Tiffin, so keep an open mind. They're all good schools and have so much to offer the boys. Commuting is hard and IMO it is important to weigh that into your decision making so the boys can make the most of their time there. Good Luck.

I think it's not too bad if you're on the X26 route. It's an express bus and barely ever stops so quite a good option.

You have to factor in traffic.

You don't really want a commute of over an hour.

Just thought I'd add that my DC went to school in Sutton and we live in the Kingston borough. She took the bus and it usually took around 40 minutes and she was fine with it. There were always lots of Sutton Grammar boys on her bus who also lived in the same area anyway, so lots of children do it.