Guildford State Schools - Insights

[piplongstock]

Looking for insight into Guildford County and George Abbot - impressions of educational achievement, pastoral care & extra curricular provision would be really helpful. Plus any local knowledge on 'true' rather than published catchment area. Thank you.

Didn't you just post about the Gordon's and Charters catchments?! If you live that way, you won't get into GA or GCS unless you are moving - and vice versa!

County is smaller and would be my preferred one. Both are very good results wise. I have heard that GA can be a little 'sausage factory like' as it is so large to stop anyone falling through the net. It depends on your child's personality. Can't go too wrong with either.

Thank you! Yes, looking at a relocation so a few areas of interest driven by Schools!

Have friends with kids at both. Both really good schools, heavily oversubscribed so you have to be careful where you move to.

I think County is a bit squashed space wise but has a good ethos. GA reputation of being heavy on discipline, abide the rules and you will do well.

Thanks visiting GA this week so useful to have everyones input.

Hi, I have two children in years 7 and 8 at GA - we like the school. It is huge, but there are lots of opportunities in terms of extra curricular clubs, on the rare occasion I have had issues (only twice and they were minor) the school have been very responsive. Progress monitoring seems clear, we receive reports on a termly basis and at parents evenings the teachers have been almost universally helpful and informative - it does feel like the teachers know the children which must be a huge challenge given that there are 300 per year group. Discipline seems quite tight, although being a big school, even a small proportionate number of troublemakers can be disruptive - I'm sure this is true in all schools though.

GA has excellent SEN provision. New head has changed some things (same is true of County). Both good schools, as is St Peter's the Catholic one. A lot is personal taste.
County does have its playing fields mainly "off site" for boys this involves a coach journey. It is also more a "town" school being in the centre of town. Girls blouses are horrid (I think).
George Abbot girl swear ties. Its strict but humane in my experience eg. it is very strict over punctuality but if you email with a genuine reason (boiler broke for example) they will let student off the detention.
Neither is like Charters, or as disciplined as Gordon's.

I'm repeating what I've posted on another thread (so apologies if you've already read this) but most of Guildford's state schools are very good.

At the secondary level, last September's Maths Challenge evening hosted by Guildford High School (GHS) saw Guildford County School achieve the highest results across the 4 years participating (Yrs 8-11), with 3 podium finishes and George Abbot were on the podium for at least one year group. I think some 10-12 local schools participated in the quiz including the 3 private Guildford girls' schools, City of London Freemen's and Charterhouse. (See twitter.com/GCS_Maths, post dated 28th September 2017).

I also know of at least two County School sixth formers who've achieved Oxford offers in the last two years (if that kind of thing floats your boat, I appreciate that not everyone is that bothered by Oxbridge places and that other universities offer better courses for a variety of subjects). I don't have any second-hand knowledge (!) about similar for George Abbot. Good luck with your choice.