CLSG or St clement Danes

[Confusedmum11plus21]

Hi,
Hope you are all well and enjoying long weekend.
My DD had attended primary state school which was required improvement but without tution help, she cleared CLSG and was in waiting list of St Clement Danes( our first caf choice) academic seat.
While she was in waiting list of SCD, we accepted CLSG and was looking forward to it.
But today, we received letter that she is offered place in SCD. Now, I am confused which school should we go for..
As per her teacher, she would do well whereever she goes as she is self motivated. My DD also participates in lot of extracurricular activities outside the school which she plan to continue.
So, just for experience is it worth investing in CLSG or should we go for SCD and save money for her future?
Warmest Wishes and Thanks

These decisions are so much based on family finances. It sounds like your dd will do well where ever she goes and so you need to look at the pot of cash you can accumulate if she doesn't go private and what difference that could make to her later life.
You can also move her to a private 6th form and use the money then.
(Do bear in mind you have committed to the autumn term fees at CLSG whatever your decision.)

Either way you are going to make another family very happy by giving up 1 of your places.

Thank you for your advice. Really appreciate it. Finances are not an issue as we saved while she was in primary state school. Yes, I know we are committed to autumn fees too. I was thinking more about money value as if I could save, we could partially sponsor a child' s education in developing country and could partially save for her future. She is happy and loves going to school but sometimes gets disturb by roughness in her current school. So, just confused which might be best choice for her as she is too gentle and on caring side but dont get that in return from her friends at current school. Would private school provide her more gentle and friendly environment?

If finance isn't an issue go for CLSG, she will have a fantastic education with excellent teaching etc.

My kids go to a private school but SCD is our local school and I know lots of people with kids there. Many of whom were at our prep school. I've heard lots of positive remarks about SCD, it's very well regarded although Watford Grammar is also very popular. The only negative seems to be the number of sports fixtures compared to their private school peers.

CLGS also has an excellent reputation. I guess I'd be swayed somewhat by location - not sure where you live, or whether you're planning to move, but the schools are some distance apart. So the journey to school would have some bearing for me (the road traffic round here is awful at school run time!).

Sorry, should add that I've not heard any comments on "roughness" at SCD; to be honest, that's not a big issue in either the state or private schools in our local area.

Thank you..Journey is equidistant as we live in Harrow. She need to travel by tube. Metline..towards london for CLSG and in opposite direction for SCD.

Ah that works then! She could jump on the Chiltern Line to cut down the journey time a bit. It is a bit of a walk the other end although lots of the kids in Chorleywood walk to school so there's plenty of people to walk with.

Without wishing to come across as hypocritical as our kids don't go there but one of the principal reasons people live in CW is for SCD. It's a very popular school (and sufficiently oversubscribed that they've opened an offshoot in Croxley Green called Croxley Danes).

CLSG is outstanding, I don’t know the other school. Great pastoral care at City, too. I respect your plans to use any saved money to sponsor another child’s education. Could you do both? Go to CLSG and sponsor a child (education cheaper in developing country)?

Thank you all for the nice advices. As both schools are great, it became a difficult choice for us. It seems CLSG is more popular, so I may ask her to attend the induction day and decide for herself.
Sponsoring education and CLSG both might be difficult as we still had to pay for extracurricular outside the school. She is learning Ballet, Tap, LAMDA, Piano at Grade 3 and Violin at Grade 4 and is in advanced karate and club level swimming. She believes that she had worked hard in all these and should not leave it even though I feel it is too much for her..
Many thanks for all your inputs. I really appreciate them.

@Confusedmum11plus21 you have an amazing girl. I would sway towards city since all these talents can be supported at, and by, the school. Usually at a state school, it’s more down to the parents to organise and nurture these things after school (or it was when I was a child! Need to hear from parents from the other school since talking in the abstract).

Perhaps when she is an adult, she can use her talents to then sponsor more children, educationally, even if her education means you can’t.

Ultimately, however, she does sound like the sort of child who will thrive wherever she goes. In terms of doing too much, if she enjoys it, and is sleeping well, not showing signs of distress etc etc, it’s all good.

City has a wider catchment and there will likely be more posters here who know the school. St Clement Danes is a great school and her friends will be more local if she goes there, as the intake is closer to the school than the wide area from which City draws. If it were me I'd go for SCD in a heartbeat.

@Zinnia

City has a wider catchment and there will likely be more posters here who know the school. St Clement Danes is a great school and her friends will be more local if she goes there, as the intake is closer to the school than the wide area from which City draws. If it were me I'd go for SCD in a heartbeat.

Thanks.. I agree SCD is a great school when we visited it before pandemic. But both SCD and CLSG are almost same in travel times and are not local . She got the place in SCD through academic selection and not because of catchmemt.

Of course, I guessed that was the case as SCD catchment doesn't extend to Harrow. My point was more that there's a difference between going to Chorleywood or Rickmansworth or Watford to meet up with friends than potentially trekking out to Essex, which is far from unlikely at City. Speaking as someone with a DC at a school with children spread over a very wide area, I'd think very carefully about that. How easy will it be for your DD to meet up with friends at weekends and holidays? Will you be comfortable with her travelling to teenage parties in central London or beyond?

I agree with the catchment comment. My sons go to a private school 3 or 4 miles away from CW and their friends are spread over a very wide area. From Beaconsfield and St Albans to Chelsea and Camden, as people come in on buses and by tube.

Going into central London isn't a huge deal but my older son has to go in and back out of London to go to his friend's house in Ealing unless we drive him. That said, my youngest son's friends live within a couple of miles from us so it's the luck of the draw.

I would second the distance of friends point. I would also try to get a feel for how each school has performed during the pandemic because I don’t think this is going anywhere soon. Not just online learning but pastorally and socially and also in terms of support for the exam years. Our local outstanding school has really struggled with the online environment and it’s approach to assessment has been very rigid, of the local independents the experience is varied some have done fine academically but there has been very little of the soft skills with others the reverse is true. It has been a bit of a window into the strengths and creativity of the management team