City of London/ St Paul's Boys/ Westminster

[BubbleRain]

Narrowed down the schools we'd like ds to apply for next year to these 3 and we'd to hear people's opinions.

He'll be applying to enter at 13+
He's academic and quite sporty and also really enjoys drama.
Not overly musical but does play violin and takes part in the school choir.

You need some fall back options! 3 if you are going for those isn’t enough, due to the volumes of children that apply to them all. You need someone that is a safer bet as a fall back.

You need to speak to the head at your current school for advice.

This was also my son's 13+ short list, some years ago. We had in mind that is none of them worked out, there were school's we could apply to later on eg MTS. But he ended up getting offers from 2/3.

Obviously fees are higher at SPS and Westminster. Also Westminster has Saturday school and boys often stay into the evening. Apparently it has more of a boarding school feel. Presumably City is a bit easier to get in. But all 3 schools are fantastic so you can't really go wrong. Best of luck to your DS!

Citi is a terrific bargain fees-wise, and if he is a safe Westminster/Paul's candidate, he might be in the running for a scholarship too, which happily doesn't require an extra exam at Citi.
But all use ISEB for their first sift, so if he biffs that up, you need another route.

I don't think City offer generous scholarships any more - they used to give up 50% without any means testing but I think they've gone the way of the other academic schools in putting their money into bursaries.

But double-check that as I'm not certain. They're quite far away from each other the three schools you've mentioned - is one not a standout in terms of location? And I think of City very differently to the others, it's much more an day school than a public school with loads of kids coming from state primaries.