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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Independent girls' schools, central London

11 replies

Marcellus · 09/04/2018 11:40

Hello

My daughter is in Y5. We're planning to move to central London in time for her to start Y7 at a day school there and I wondered whether anyone could advise on where we should look at.

She is a good allrounder- very academic, sporty, loves drama. She's not keen on music, however.

My first choice would be St Pauls and I also like City but obviously neither is easy to get into. I wondered whether anyone could advise on other schools we should consider? How many should we be applying to in total?

Thanks.

OP posts:
Mary21 · 09/04/2018 12:04

Francis Holland schools
Queens College
Queensgate
More House Catholic
St Margaret’s Hampstead
Putney High

Canadawet · 09/04/2018 13:46

Latymer & Godolphin
JAGS
Notting Hill & Ealing
North London Collegiate
Lady Eleanor Holles

Latymer Upper is a good co-ed option.

you could also consider non catchment girls grammars, i.e. Harrietta Barnet and Tiffin Girls.

6 schools in total would be a maximum max in my opinion, and that's quite a lot already. Don't forget a good fall back option, the competition is fierce and most girls will be heavily tutored/well prepared. You need to visit them and check the commute before you apply or being ready to move nearby your allocated school.

Lotsofsighing · 09/04/2018 14:23

Central whereabouts? Are you interested in West, North or East (just going by St Paul's and City)?

Channing, South Hampstead, Highgate and Forest are the North/East ones (latter two co-ed).

The London Consortium includes Channing, South Hampstead, Godolphin, Notting Hill, Francis Holland x 2 and others. They've introduced a new paper that you can do in any of the schools you apply for though I wouldn't apply to loads for the hell of it as you'll still have to do interviews and open days etc (and don't underestimate how laborious this is).

For our two we limited ourselves to three exams (though for the girl, that was four schools as two were in the consortium). I honestly think that's loads so long as you're sensible. It seemed to take up the whole of January as it was (3 x exams, 4 x interviews, one of which was scholarship so took all day etc, etc).

If you were to apply to St P and City, I'd add a slightly less academic school and then a banker. If you look at the Sunday Times list that should give you an idea (e.g. v academic but not St P would be LEH or G&L, banker would be FH). However, it's not straightforward - I've known girls who have got into City but not one of these and vice versa. There is a lottery element.

Also make sure you visit. We didn't like City as much as schools that she was more likely to get into so we didn't apply to it - there's no point in applying to one that's a long shot that you don't even want that much, especially as you can end up feeling obliged to take it for the prestige.

helloallllll · 10/04/2018 12:00

Where will you be living?
LEH and JAGS in particular are nowhere near Central London so worth working out if school or Home location is more important. You will need to register at the schools by around Oct/Nov in y6.
Good luck- just been through it all!

AnotherNewt · 10/04/2018 12:10

How central do you require? And if not bang in the middle, which side of London would you prefer?

Definitely single sex? Any particular features/facilities you think are particularly important?

The schools located very centrally tend to have limited on site sports facilities. JAGS in Dulwich isn't terribly central, but there are coaches running from across the southern parts of central London (that's how I see 'central' btw, others might see it differently). A convenient, reliable journey makes quite a difference. And helps you find things like on-site sports.

KingscoteStaff · 10/04/2018 12:43

Agree that JAGS, although not truly central (congestion charge area) is very well connected by public transport as well as the Foundation coaches.

CruCru · 10/04/2018 17:12

People near me seem very keen on:

Channing
City of London
Forest (although mixed and over in east London)
Francis Holland
Highgate (mixed)
JAGS
Queen’s College
South Hampstead
St Paul’s

There will be others, obviously. It’s probably worth mentioning that none of these schools are necessarily easy to get into.

CruCru · 10/04/2018 17:20

People also say good things about NLCS - but that isn’t actually in London. I think it’s in Edgware.

Notcontent · 15/04/2018 21:26

I agree with Lotsofsighing - you never know what might happen on the day so it’s good to apply to four or five schools, across the “difficulty spectrum”.

louroo · 03/11/2018 10:26

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jeanne16 · 03/11/2018 14:17

I concur with the above poster. I have a DD in More House and it is a very happy school where the pupils all seem to reach their full potential.

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