How do a few comprehensive schools produce seem to produce successful people?

[Bahhumbug01]

Hi ,,

We live on the outskirts of London (Beckenham/Bromley postcode area) and have a young family. We are considering moving out to Edenbridge/Godstone/Crowhurst areas in the next few years. These towns all have decent comps, and excellent connections in to Central London for DH.

Our neighbours send both their DS to a Catholic school in the next town, some 12 miles away, which is accessible by tram and then involves a relatively short walk to school. The school has excellent sports facilities (on a par with some independent schools) and pastoral provision. Good academic results too. The comps in Bromley are quite poor on the whole. There is one outstanding boys gs but you have to tutor years ahead if you want to have a chance of getting DS in.

The RC school has an impressive list of alumni and I can't understand why (or how) the school has produced so many outstanding sportsmen, politicians, media types when it is just a faith comp. Is there a pecking order when it comes to comps, or is there some kind of selection involved? Does the same apply to some of the trendy North London comps too?
Also, is there no distance criteria involved for faith comps, but distance is important for 'normal' comps? It's all really confusing.

Me and DH attended normal schools (where everyone in the town went to the same school!!) out of London so are really green when it comes to London schools. We are actually a bit intimidated by it all which makes the idea of moving further out quite appealing.

Anyone else in same position, or struggling to understand the difference in admissions between different types of comps?

@PatienceVirtue 
@Myusernameismud Can only speak from partial experience here (don't live locally/not church, but know kids there and have been through process for another girls' faith school in Westminster very similar school.. but all girls take banding test (same test is used for the other Westminster CofE secondaries, so DC only sit the one). It's NVR + written exercise. Anecdotally the GCH language altitude test, taken separately, is extremely tough & unbelievably competitive. Places allocated 25% to each band, aside from altitude places (not sure how they do those), it's x% church + distance, y% distance only. Church distances inevitably much greater than non. Their intake is hugely spread out across London.

Sorry @PatienceVirtue that was meant to be a at all the selection shenanigans

@Zinnia it was extremely tough when I sat it 20 years ago, so I can fully believe it's got tougher. It was a Swedish language test, and I was 10 years old when I sat it. I'd been to private primary though, so I sat a lot of entrance exams for private schools around that time. I always used to wonder why my parents chose to send me to GCH when I'd been offered a place at JAGs, but DM recently told me that children from working class families 'just don't belong in JAGs'. Which I understand now, as an adult. But as a child, I resented being sent to a different school to all my friends. GCH was the compromise, an outstanding school where I'd fit in socially.

I went to, what was at the time, a very well regarded comprehensive with an excellent track record for Oxbridge applicants. It was a faith school and in a very affluent area so probably why....

@Myusernameismud still a fantastic school by all accounts! (And obviously all those "altitudes" we're meant to be "aptitudes"...) I work very near the school and see the girls all the time. They look like a pretty normal bunch