Townley (Bexley) v Dartford Grammar for Girls (Kent) v St Michael's Catholic Grammar (Barnet)

[mcinesi]

Hi there
My daughter has recently passed her 11+ for Bexley, Kent and St Michael's in Barnet and we are now in the enviable position of having to rank them for our CAF .
We visited all 3 schools, my daughter liked them all very much and they are all roughly at the same distance (1 hr) from where we live,.
I was hoping for some help to try and understand their main strenghts and (if any) weaknesses, and more broadly their key differences (i.e. clearly size is one of them...).
Looking at recent years GCSE results, the top performing school would be (I believe) St Michael's, followed by Dartford and finally Townley, but obviously there is so much more than exam results to consider.
Thank you in advance for your help.
M

Hi OP, ah, my DD is only in Y4, so won’t be going any time soon. I’m doing my research early, for various reasons.
Out of interest, why didn’t you like Blackheath High? I went to the Open Day last week and quite liked it, and the academic scores seemed high.
Tbh, I don’t think your DD will get into Townley, based on the distance. I’m sure the catchment is about a mile.

At our primary we have had extremely bright girls with high pass marks who didn't get in to townley based on distance (living in Welling).

We're close to Greenwich and although DD1 had a guaranteed place at a Bexley grammar, she chose to go to a more local comprehensive instead. Her reason was that if she went to a school closer to home, she'd have more time to do what she wanted to. It's been a good choice as she's got older, there's an increased workload and a wider range of opportunities outside of school for her to get involved in and I'm glad she still has time to do that. Being local also means her friends all live fairly near to us which is another advantage.

There are children from here that travel out to the grammars of Bexley or Dartford but they are vulnerable to every incidence of track repair, leaves on the line etc. Shortly after DD1 started Y7 the trains were out of action for months and there were lots of parents driving their children to the grammars so their children weren't late. It made for a stressful first term.

Apart from echoing some of the excellent points made before, I would add that if you work make sure you can get to the school quickly enough in the event of sickness. You have to collect them from school if they are unwell and they can't travel home alone. If you send a child to Dartford but work in west London for example the journey time is more than from home. We are in Greenwich and our children are in the excellent local state schools, there are some!

@Tigerbear @Blue5238 - May I ask which school your DD goes to? I’m in Greenwich and trying to weigh up options for DD.

Leigh Academy Blackheath

@mcinesi is today deadline day for applications? What have you decided?

I would not recommend Dartford grammar school for girls at all. Very unprofessional and unfriendly environment. Seriously; please do not send your daughter in this school. I have had my daughter in there as well as in Newstead wood grammar school and you cannot compare them two. I am lucky that I have experienced then both and Dartford grammar school for girls sucks. Very unprofessional place. Newstead is amazing, please try everything to get your daughter anywhere else than in this place. They destroy your daughter inside out while Newstead will bring the best out of your daughter. I have experienced them both, please think carefully before considering this school. Full stop.