Claires Court or Pipers Corner over GS??

[Mumto2two]

We are currently looking at potential secondary schools for our year 5 daughter. She is very able and have been told is highly suitable for GS, assuming she passes the test of course! The school have also suggested she should try out for scholarship to some of the independent schools, of which St. Helen's school has been recommended. However, our daughter has a long term health condition, and we feel aside from the journey being that bit too far, feel that maybe the pressure of an ultra pushy academic environment might be a little too much for her, so are questioning whether somewhere like Claires Court or Pipers corner might be a better fit. Does anyone have any experience of these schools? I hear good things in terms of the schools being nurturing and supportive, but are they likely to stretch the academically able, to the same extent as schools such as St. Helen's or Grammar? Would appreciate any feedback on either of these schools. Thank you.

Thank you, that’s good to know. We have now seen both Pipers and CC, and Pipers was expectedly impressive. Lovely site, nice feel to the place, and our daughter really liked it. However she particularly liked CC, which surprised us a little! She really wants to try the taster day and says she liked how small it was and thought the girls seemed friendly. Just to add to our dilemma, it’s been suggested following her latest Ed Psych assessment, whereby mathematical & NVR scores averaged 146, that an ‘academic’ school is a must, and CC might not be suitable. Even in top sets, an element of differentiation is required, which perhaps explains a few things in her current school, but that’s a different matter.
I think we’ll book the CC taster day regardless, as it’s important that she liked it. Would also be good to know how well Pipers caters for higher ability stretch, particularly in maths. Thanks for all your comments.

Pipers has an “able, gifted and talented” programme but what that actually entails for academics I have no idea!! I would give them a call to find out more with the specific details.

Added benefit to you is if she’s that bright then they do offer academic scholarships.....

Thought I would pop back with an update, having had a busy few weeks visiting schools, and a chat with the HT which has really put a cat among the pigeons in terms of where we were at.
Having been drawn by the nurturing feel at CC, and Pipers being recommended by many in terms of its improving academic perception, with scholarships being a comforting possibility to pursue at both, we were almost set to register. However HT has completely discounted either school being in any way suitable. They send many children to both schools, including their own as it happens, and while they are hugely complimentary and supportive of both, it is felt that neither school would provide the academic stretch they feel DD would need. They have acknowledged that PC has become more selective, but stressed that it is still predominantly an average to above average ability intake, and aside from academics, they did not feel our dd would fit in there. This did not come as a surprise however, as having visited the school, our daughter had sadly felt the same. She did however like CC, and felt the girls were friendly and warm, so this has really thrown our thought process. Having talked to a couple of parents with children who had passed 11+, yet still chose CC, we were feeling quite reassured, however on mentioning this to HT, he felt that even accounting for typical top set academic range, there would be differentiation required for a child with really high ability levels, so a school that could offer plenty of subject enrichment such as the QA mathematics masterclass etc. would be most beneficial. If we are considering independent alternatives to GS, with potential for scholarship where possible; then WA, The Abbey or Queen Anne's at Caversham were recommended. Having previously discounted WA on the basis of boarding, we looked at Abbey and QA. QA really impressed, and our daughter absolutely loved it. I gather the Abbey is considered more rigorous in terms of selection, but it just didn't feel right at all, and we are definitely not just interested in academics.
Unfortunately QA fees are scarily steep, and we have no idea how remote the possibility of a scholarship discount might be. If we could secure something, it might be possible at a painful stretch..but without this, we would have to walk on by...
So that's where we are at....so near, yet so far :)
If anyone has any info on QA or advice on how to approach an application that could subtly suggest this, it would be hugely appreciated!

If I was you I would move into catchment for the grammar school Borlase - but you would need to live in actual marlow - recent intake no one out of Marlow got in.
I have two friends whose daughter's love QA's - my concern about QA's would be the long hours if your daughter has an illness. Something like 12hrs from pick to drop back for my daughter's friend who loves 45mins from the school.
QAs do do taster days so worth asking about them.

Thank you ittakes2. Although QA are introducing another shorter day, Wednesday & Friday I believe, it is still a concern for us too. We have booked her onto a taster day, so will see how that goes.
In many ways, she is perhaps more resilient than most children, because she has had a lot to cope with this far, the small stuff doesn’t phase her. So while we want to ensure her health & well being are paramount, we also want her to spread her wings and not be held back by anything that’s thrown at her. And that is certainly how she feels too.
Having said that, and in spite of HT recommending otherwise, we are not discounting CC, and it’s still very much in the mix. We’ve had a really good impression so far, and there’s a lot to like about the school. Maybe not in terms of swish facilities and thumping A grades...but there’s a caring, warm feel to the place.
We’ve also seen Borlase, which we also liked. I’m still not sure whether co-Ed is what we want for secondary, but plan to return for another look. Also want to look at Wycombe girls, we’ve had some really mixed feedback on that, so want to see it for ourselves. Thanks for all your comments.

Just to follow up on this, the planning application for the new Claire's Court campus was rejected last night :

www.maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk/news/maidenhead/149266/claires-court-plans-for-cox-green-rejected-by-councillors.html

My daughter passed both her bucks and berks 11 plus exams and got 120 for both maths and english in year 6 SATs - she did a year at Wycombe High and then we moved her to Pipers. Wycombe High is an exam factory - lots of parents/students want this as they are very focused on GCSE results. Lots of the students had tutors in year 7. We decided that with the smaller class sizes at Pipers there is no reason why our daughter can not achieve the grades she was expected to achieve at grammar school. I also know of another grammar school girl who moved to Claire's court. I think with your daughter's illness she might benefit from being in a private school who will actively catch her up if she misses classes. The grammar schools only do this through offering general workshops. My daughter could have had a tricky bunch of teachers but the atmosphere at Wycombe High by some teachers was to discourage questions. One of my daughter's teachers only allowed each girl to ask one question per class. Another told a girl off in front of the class because she dared to ask the teacher about the homework - it was made clear she was expected to ask the other girls.

Thanks LAlady, we had been watching that with interest. Have to say it is hardly surprising; it seems school development is never high up on planning agendas, but cramming hundreds of new homes under the pretext of ‘affordable housing’, usually holds sway, even though as was the case in our village, the schools are already oversubscribed. I don’t trust the process at all. It doesn’t seem as if CC are ever going to get it through. Will be interesting to see what they do next.

Thanks for the update ittakes2, how is your daughter finding Pipers?
We weren't very impressed with WH on our last visit. Daughter found it quite overwhelming, although Open days usually are! Some uber short skirts around, which raised a few amused eyebrows.
Head talked at length about academic success of the school, and how proud she was of each and every girl, and knows how to get the individual best out of each and every one.. which seemed amusing when we asked our tour guides what they thought of their HT. Confused shrugs all round, they didn't really know, as they never really see her around. Yr 9 girl had not actually met her yet, 6th form girl had been there 6 years. I guess it's just not feasible to know each and every one of approximately 1,400 girls! You did get the sense that this school was more about holding your own, lots of small fish in a very big sea. The minnows wouldn't really stand a chance!