Pls talk to me about St Marylebone Girls

[stclair]

I think my DD would have a fairly good chance of getting in. What is the pastoral care like? Is there much bullying? Headteacher said at open day the clubs change constantly due to demand. So do they really take place and do they use Regent’s Park for running or whatever?

They have a cool climbing wall and gym but it's tiny and the girls eat in their form rooms. We looked for our DD who has an EHCP as they used to have speech and lang places. I found that they do try their best but there's not a lot of staff and the girls that it attracts (lots of money, very confident often good at performing arts) are historically girls that DD doesn't do well with. It's academic with not a lot of SEN so not much extra funding. This is just for us though, tons do great there and love it.

Thanks malmontar. My DD struggles a lot with maths. Do you think the support wouldn’t be there?

Our DDs biggest struggle is maths. When we looked around (last sept), she would have been placed in a normal class of 30 for maths and sometimes get a TA. The learning support doesn't really have a designated classroom or area and the senco said there were two autistic girls who would come to the LS office if they needed respite. It is a very claustrophobic school if you need to hide for any reason. Some of the corridors are set up with the width of a house and their PAN recently increased due to funding so it gets very crowded. The SENCO is really nice though, she gave us a private tour and came to visit DD in her school to observe her. They were very honest in that they probably couldn't meet her needs and there were schools with far better provision. If we had known the language spaces don't exist anymore we wouldn't have bothered going.
This is just our experience though, there are people who would sell their soul to go there and it is an excellent school. If you have a confident and capable daughter I'm sure she would thrive. Contact the senco re maths as the provision may have changed/your daughter's may not be as severe.
All the best.

I know many who love it, and also people who have been going to church to get in for 3+ years without even having seen it! We looked at it for DD (no SEN) but were put off by the cramped feel and lack of outdoor facilities, as well as the lunch thing and the level of pollution on the site (and a few other factors). DD wasn't keen. We did like the staff though, they all seemed really committed, and found the head very inspiring. They clearly aspire to a lot for the girls, but as Malmontar says, it's a particular kind of girl who goes there. It's also not very diverse, inherently. As with Camden, the banding test skews to the top of the ability range as so many girls are being tutored for the 11+ as well. The performing arts places are fiercely competitive.

But it gets great results and as I said the people I know with kids there wax lyrical about it. There is a culture of expectation and achievement which is inspiring in many ways. If it would suit your daughter then it might well be one of the best options available. Sorry not to be able to provide direct experience though!

I agree 100% with @Zinnia. It just doesn't feel like a proper secondary school experience in my opinion. When you're there you almost think, is this it? Like a Victorian primary school with a nice basement. The staff are so nice though and they made me want to make it work, but there just wasn't any point, DD would've been miserable there. Bigger schools are able to cater to a wider range of kids and I think StM is second to none if your kid is dance/drama/art crazy. Although even those resources are cramped. The theatre is impressive but small, and the art rooms are so tiny they can't have sewing machines out permanently as no room. I don't think it's any better than your local comp for everything else. What ultimately helped us was taking DD with us on a private tour with the senco whilst the girls where all in school. Seeing her there whilst they were walking around sealed it for us. I couldn't see her there. It is so cramped the toilets are segregated based on age or tutor groups I can't remember which. There was a girl desperate for the toilet but she had to use one up stairs because it wasnt her assigned one. It would be a much better school IMO if it was about 80 PAN. It is easy to have a school full of girls with extremely high aspirations when they're pretty much all well off. Idk horses for courses, I wouldnt raise my eyebrows if you sent your DD there, it's not exactly a crap school but I would definitely look into what support she'd get for maths.

Thank you for your tip re contacting the senco re maths, I will do that. She definitely does struggle with that but fine with other subjects. Drama would send her running for the hills but loves actual art. Her favourite kind of day would include reading (she liked the library), art and perhaps a bit of athletics thrown in! Hmmmm, we can try for a church space at Grey Coat I wonder if they are better set up. Certainly the indoor space feels larger there.

Grey coat is definitely more humanities orientated and their library is beautiful. Focus on performing arts is no where near as big as in StM. It is much less liberal and in our experience offers more support but was too far.

Thanks malmontar, you’ve been very helpful