JAGs

[Chocolatecakeandcoffee]

My daughter is joining Jags this September. Having a bit of a wobble about her going to an all girls, academic school. Is it a bit cliquey? How’s the pastoral care? We turned down a place at Alleyn’s and am hoping it was the right decision…

Didn't want to leave this unanswered. FWIW we made the other choice. BUT dd has lots of friends at JAGs and they are all happy with their choice.

I do know a couple of really exam obsessed girls - but on the whole they seem pretty relaxed. I think you get a similar mix at most of the south London selective independents?

The new head seems very dynamic - am sure if you contacted them with specific questions they would be able to arrange Zoom with key staff?

As someone who is now several years into this journey - my main conclusion after all the 11+ drama is that actually there were no bad choices. And that your child's experience will largely be derived from their cohort rather than the culture of the school. Am sure you and your dd made the right decision for her - and wish her every success.

My daughter is at JAGS and was always quiet. The last one to put their hand up in lessons even though they know the answer. This would come up in parents evenings through primary school. She’s totally come out of her shell whilst there. I don’t think she’ll ever be the wild party animal (famous last words!!) Could be that she’s in a good cohort but she hasn’t had any issues and has had the space to grow. I think if it was really cliquish it would have come up through parents of her friends chats and I’ve not had anything. Another friend’s daughter has just started and they’ve been happy too.
I do like the new head - difficult start in a pandemic but I feel like communication has been fine.

Our daughter is starting in September too. FWIW we had exactly the same fears, having both gone to co-ed schools right the way through. In the end though I felt it was a better overall fit for her personality than elsewhere. And I felt the overall approach was really grounded and sensible -- as far as we could tell from the outside. But time will tell I guess! Good luck.

DD's friends are academic, feminist bluestockings! Fiercely loyal and supportive of each other. The highlight of my lockdowns was (subtly) listening in to their Teams study support groups / Film watchalongs / Quiz nights.

If anything, the Everyone's Allowed stuff has bonded the girls even more tightly - obviously there are friendship/interest groups, but excluding individuals is considered deeply unsisterly.