STAHS vs KGS

[ajmom123]

We are moving to London in April from a different country in Asia and would like to seek your comments on two independent schools. My daughter got offers from St Albans High School for Girls and Kingston Grammar School. How would you compare them, other than one is girls vs co-ed? She is rather quiet and shy but she is very bright at school and very self disciplined, very keen to get good grades, not very sporty type (she plays basketball but seems not a common sports in UK schools), also enjoys reading/ writing/ art/ drawing and plays piano. She is more keen on STAHS at the moment based on her interaction with the school so far.

Which school do you think it's a better fit for my DD? the challenge for us is we never got the chance to visit the neighborhood and the schools in person due to covid since last year.

To make the things a bit more complicated is that I have a younger son who is going to be Y5 in Sep. I am not sure if he is the material for a selective school tho.

Our dilemma is not sure, which area - Kingston vs St Albans would be of higher chance to get into a good/ outstanding state secondary school for my DS. We haven't secured a place to live yet. We'll choose either one place based on whichever school we choose at the end for my daughter.

Appreciate any thoughts/ insights/ sharing. Thank you very much.

The good news is that Surrey is full of good primary and state secondary schools. You could move to Thames Ditton, Claygate, Hinchley Wood, Surbiton and still be on the door step of KGS in Kingston and their sports grounds in Thames Ditton.
You must have an idea of your housing budget and type of life style, near family etc that you want.
How did you choose these schools to start with and what others were on your list? (It would help gauge what you are looking for).

Also will you be driving in the U.K.? If not maybe look at places on a train line to Kingston like St Margaret's near Twickenham so your dd can get to school and you are more urban and plenty of state school choices for your ds. There is movement in year 5 in state sector as people move into the private system or move house etc so spaces are not impossible to come across in well regarded state schools.

Where do you need to work - presumably in London given you’re looking at Kingston and St Albans. Even within London one will be an easier commute depending where you need to get to.

What kind of place do you want to live? Kingston is larger and actually part of London so a bit more urban. Richmond Park is great as is the Thames. This should be about more than just the schools as there will be good primary schools in both.

I only know st Albans but there are a few outstanding state schools (Beaumont, parmiters ) etc that are non selective. There is also a great girls basketball club (oaklands wolves) that your daughter could join.

Thanks everyone.

Yes we do plan to drive when we get there. We do intend to work potentially in London after we settle down.

We shortlisted these 2 places, together with a few others initially based on their proximity for commuting to/from London. Initially we were targeting state schools for both children. Then I realised we have missed the application window for Y7 and therefore switched to independent for my DD. Honestly I am not familiar with the UK schools. I can shortlist the schools based on those ranking tables and apply 1-2 in each of those shortlisted towns.

Based on our research so far, the houses in both Kingston and St Albans are generally within our affordable range. Like what @LittleBearPad has mentioned, Kingston is more urban which DH and I are more drawn to and it is relatively more similar to the city that we are now in. But DD is more drawn to STAHS for its single sex environment and both kids prefer St Albans more due to the fact that we have a friend with 2 DC of same age moving to St Albans as well.

Any thoughts on STAHS? it seems to me it may be a better fit to DD's personality. But I'm also not really sure. Are the girls generally friendly there? would they tend to hang out with their old friends with prep school?

@Hersetta427, thanks for letting me know about the basketball club. Are these clubs really competitive? My DD is not very good at it, more like a leisure player.

Not hugely competative at the younger levels. They certainly don't turn anyone down at U12 level. You trail every year for your place in the squad at U14 and U16, although they ran a B team at U14 team last year as they had so many girls. The A team play every week whereas the B team may play once every 2 weeks. They do expect a level of commitment though - U12's train twice a week and once at U14 it moves to 3 times a week.

If you are looking at commuting to London I would look to buy around Surbiton or Richmond rather than Kingston, both very easily accessible for KGS but so much quicker into town on the train as they both have fast trains, whereas all the trains from Kingston crawl around the loop slowly.

If you are moving in April you could pay the deposits for both and then decide when you get here, you need to read the small print but you should get until first day of summer term (ie late part of 2nd week of April) to decline and not have to pay Autumn term fees.

Guess you are from Hong Kong. If you work in London, more likely STAHS will be far from where you work. Alternatively, you can get a job first and decide which school to go for, given you are arriving in Apr.