St Marylebone vs Stokey vs Clapton Girls

[purpleturtle1]

Hi all,
Newbie here who’s finally got around to posting. My eldest DD is in year 5 so thinking more about secondary schools. We live in Stoke Newington so Stokey is an obvious choice - I think we’d be in catchment - and it’s likely to be DD’s first choice, as it’s where most of her primary school friends will probably be going; it’s a 10-minute walk away; and she’s always said she would prefer a mixed school (I went to a girls’ secondary school myself so well aware of the pros and cons of each). Clapton Girls is another possibility - we might be on the edge of catchment. And because we’re church goers (or performing arts scholarship for drama or singing?) Marylebone is also a possibility. We know of several local families whose daughters attend or have attended there.
Any thoughts on any of the above? It feels as if Marylebone is the outstanding “state school that’s a bit like a private school and parents would saw their right arms off for their daughters to attend”. A couple of people I know have said we’d be crazy not to go for that if we could get in - but DD would have quite a long commute and maybe few local friends... Clapton Girls also seems to get only glowing reports. I hear more mixed things about Stokey, but am tempted by the idea of a local school... and I have to say I also know of several families who are very happy with Stokey (as opposed to those who are just passing on rumours iykwim).
I know we’ll be doing visits in the autumn (hopefully in person!!) and DD may then have her own strong opinions about where she’d like to go, but feel like I want to do a bit more research at this stage (I have already looked up previous Mumsnet threads on these schools but just wondered if people have current opinions!) DD very academic and also very sociable. We did consider Latymer but decided not to tutor (ie she won’t be sitting the exam) for probably predictable reasons. I know Mossbourne is another consideration but DD (and me) very put off by what we hear!
Also, for any Mumsnetters (not just those who know the above schools) - how do you weigh up “amazing school with long commute” vs. “Just-good school that’s a 10 minute walk away”? I’m struggling with this at the moment I think. Also, who has the ultimate say - I know ideally it’s a choice that you and DC make together, but how much weight do you give to parents’ and DC’s relative preferences?
Any answers most welcome. Thank you!

@MumsRule20, yes, I think DD is likely to be Band A because she’s bright and high- achieving. Though I agree it’s not an advantage when applying to the most sought-after schools...

I'm really not sure you can read too much into the data being this different for one year. I'm not sure what effect Covid could have had, since band A is so much shorter. I think it may be just a single anomaly, next year will tell. But I do think there could be some relation to the exact opposite happening at CSG, where the band A offers are much further than previous years. The numbers aren't that big in each band so small differences can matter. I note also that in the open places for StM, band A is further than usual (from memory) and further than bands B, C and D. So maybe this year a few more of the band A girls who live close to the school are church attenders (compared to other years) applying under that category rather than open?
It would have also been interesting to see the Greycoats church distances, but they only ever publish their open distances. Could be there is some relationship between their distances and StM as well, as quite a few girls apply for church places at both schools.

I’m not being serious. Well not entirely.

I’m interested in knowing why the change in banding distance between This year and last and between CSG and St M. Was it last year that was the anomaly?

Does anyone know how church attendance was counted during all the lockdowns? Did church schools just right off a year, or did they expect and accept an online attendance?

@Camdenish

Does anyone know how church attendance was counted during all the lockdowns? Did church schools just right off a year, or did they expect and accept an online attendance?

At some churches they had an online attendance, for example a video uploaded on google classroom, and clicking "hand in" after watching counted as attendance. Others I think were completely closed. I guess it would depend how active the church is with children/family/Sunday schools etc.

I think most schools allowed for some variance from the normal minimum attendance if the child could not attend their place of worship during lockdown periods and online attendance was not provided by their church. But there should be some kind of statement in the admissions policy about this.

Thanks Banana.

Would that explain the smaller banding then? I can’t see any amendments to the school admissions code to do with Covid-19. Would children who were relying on the 2020/21 year to make up the 5 years miss out on church attendance criteria if they couldn’t actually attend church? Or am I confusing things?

I think the necessity of online church attendance for 20-21 lockdown periods would have been down to each individual church / Family Minister relaying to the parents on the registers for Young Church / Sunday school etc. how attendance would monitored and considered towards admissions for the CofE schools with which children would generally be applying to. I know ours made parents aware via church newsletter and correspondence that if they were not doing the virtual online church google classroom hand in or activities which and ‘attending’ as they would usually have done in person, then this could affect their attendance record for school admissions.

For those churches who did not do this - maybe it would have impacted what the ministers could declare on the clergy form used for admission purposes and thus impacted attendance required for a higher criteria church place. Hope that makes sense...would need more posters to clarify what their respective churches relayed to them or not and if a conversation was had with their ministers pre-application.

Thank you MumsRule, yes that does make sense. Thanks for unpacking my fuzzy thinking. I’d love to know what other church leaders actually did. I wonder if there will be more appeals for school places?

Hi @purpleturtle1 I'm in Stokey and going through the exact same decision process for my DD! I was wondering if you'd made any decisions yet?

Hi Londoncitygirl, this thread’s a bit old so my DD is now in year 8 at Stokey! It is such a stressful time isn’t it.
DD had the option of going to St Marylebone but ultimately she was adamant she wanted to go to Stokey with all her friends so we actually turned down a place at St M. She is happy at Stokey and doing well (Tbf she’s an academic child who I think would be doing well anywhere).
I like some aspects of Stokey, have reservations about others. It has good pastoral care and a caring, compassionate ethos. Lovely being at a community school a 10-minute walk away with lots of local friends.
Drawbacks (IMO) are a lack of an academic ethos or indeed any kind of competitive ethos. Lack of academic setting in any subjects (which I think is also true at St M - why oh why the current trend for mixed ability teaching?!) I think sometimes Stokey could be stricter with discipline and crack down harder on disruptive behaviour. But I think it’s the lack of an emphasis on academics that probably bothers me most. Very little feedback on how children are doing. I worry that DD, who is very bright, isn’t being challenged enough. I can understand now why Stokey doesn’t get the academic results it should (given its relatively MC intake).

I also worry sometimes that being at a mixed school can be distracting for DD (boy- girl drama) but on the other hand, she has lots of good friendships with boys, which is so nice - I went to a girls’ school and didn’t have any friends who were boys as a teenager, which looking back I think was a big disadvantage for many reasons. Pros and cons…

Good luck with the decision making and feel free to PM me if it would be helpful!

Ah funnily enough my DS is Y8 at Stokey! I agree with all the above. The disruption particularly bothers DS but he is broadly very happy there. I also think disruption calms down a lot from Y9. They did ask parents at the recent Y8 forum to email the teachers if we feel our child isn't being challenged enough so might be worth getting in touch. On streaming, I've been reliably informed that being in a mixed ability group for maths is actually better for both the most academically able (explaining formulas to peers reinforces their knowledge) and the more academically challenged ( hearing explanations from peers lands better than from teachers). However I do wish they'd set for English!