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Secondary education

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Original poster

St Margaret's Bushey or Royal Masonic School Rickmansworth

22 replies

knimsy · 14/02/2022 18:31

Hi,

Our DD has been accepted to St Margaret's in Bushey and RMS school. Both seem like nurturing schools with good facilities. RMS seems to be a much larger school with 1100 pupils whereas St Margaret's is less than half the size.

Would really appreciate advice & feedback from anyone with good/personal insight into each of these schools. Feel free to reply here or send me DM.

Many thanks in advance,

Nima

OP posts:
Zodlebud · 14/02/2022 23:36

A key question is do you want single sex or coed?

Milly717 · 02/03/2022 12:23

Wonder which one you've decided on?

AvonCallingBarksdale · 02/03/2022 12:25

A friend’s DD is at RMS and I’m pretty sure nurturing isn’t a descriptive word she’d use Sad

Chickenkatsu · 02/03/2022 12:38

If you ask them what percentage of the pupils have eating disorders, would they tell you? I'd want to know before parting with that much money.

Milly717 · 02/03/2022 20:21

Could someone please explain the above mentioned problems at RMS... We are going to the open day next week and considering the school as an option for my dd so reading these got me worried. Thanks

AvonCallingBarksdale · 02/03/2022 21:02

My friend’s experience of RMS has been that it looks great, fab facilities etc. Teaching isn’t great but their main issue has been the nastiness encountered by her DD throughout her time there. And they feel that the school has dealt with it really poorly.

AvonCallingBarksdale · 02/03/2022 21:04

That’s their experience, though, @Milly717, I expect some people have a great time there. Can’t comment on eating disorders as above.

JessyCarr · 02/03/2022 21:39

Our experience of St Margaret’s is that is genuinely a kind, nurturing and happy school. I don’t know anything about RMS.

Original poster
knimsy · 03/03/2022 14:45

Hi all, thanks for all your comments and questions. They are both very good schools with good pastoral care. We spoke to as many parents as we could find from both and did 2-3 tours of the schools. I can imagine by being a larger school RMS will have brought about more good and bad experiences for different pupils and parents.

We decided to go with RMS over St Margaret's for the below main reasons, in order of priority:

  1. RMS highlighted that co-ed often favours boys over girls as girls can have a calming influence on boys. Also in some subjects where boys are traditionally more confident (not necessarily better) it can hold some girls back. This is a contentious point but our DD can be timid and lack confidence so it made sense for us.

  2. Although equi distant, RMS is reachable from our house via public transport. For St Margaret's we would need to driver her. We thought its important for her to become more independent as she gets older. The school buses provided are not convenient to get to & from our house.

  3. Gut feel and general feel at RMS was very positive. Whether it was by talking to the head, various teachers or seeing the interaction of the kids within classrooms and corridors. Perhaps the staff are very trained at giving a very positive vibe to the visiting parents but we got a very warm feel for how they care about the students.

  4. After some deliberation and charm offensive from the school, DD favoured RMS. We thought its important that she should have a say and be buying in to the school rather than us just choosing for her. A trip to the Isle of Weight for a few days at the beginning of term to allow the girls to get to know each other better really pleased her. She is the only student from her primary school so making friends is her biggest priority. RMS will also come and talk to the primary school teachers to find out as much as possible about each child and use that to decide how to group students across forms. They also invite the girls to the school in June to start getting to know each other. Overall we liked the transition plans that they laid out.

  5. Facilities at both schools looked excellent. RMS seemed to have slightly better facilities. For example they have a telescope for astronomy.

  6. Our younger child is 2 years younger and we thought she would thrive at RMS too.

There are probably more minor points that came up too but the above are the key ones. I hope this brain dump will be of use to you. I too worry about some of the -ve potential points that were raised in this thread and will have to see how things progress for our DD. We made the best decision we could based on the facts and our gut instinct and found both schools to be very good.

Regards,

Nima

OP posts:
Milly717 · 03/03/2022 15:52

Thank you. Hope your daughter enjoys her new school! I might revisit this post to ask you how she's getting on early next year when it's our turn to decide!

thing47 · 03/03/2022 17:33

Two of my best friends have several DDs at RMS, some of whom are more sciencey, some more artsy, and some pretty confident and some pretty reserved and shy. All equally happy with it, haven't encountered any major issues. Schools was very supportive when one friend's DH was seriously ill a few years ago. The ones who have left have gone to their first-choice universities. Hope your DD enjoys it, Nima.

Dee1111 · 24/09/2023 13:19

Hi Nima, just wondered how you've been getting on with RMS as we are considering it for my daughter in September next year.

Thanks

Original poster
knimsy · 27/09/2023 14:07

Hi Dee1111, so far so good. My daughter can be a bit shy and not overly academic so the school have lunch time supplemental lessons for her and some others. There is a good selection of lunch time and after school clubs some of which you have to pay extra for (£40/£50 per term). Also forms were mixed up at the end of year 7 to ensure that there is better mixture amongst the 100 or so girls across the year. Whilst not a bad idea in theory this meant that my DD was separated from her friends which is causing her a bit of angst.

We attended the open day the weekend just gone for our youngest who will start secondary next year too. So all in all we are happy with the school and will defo consider it for our youngest.

Hope that helps.

Nima

OP posts:
Dee1111 · 27/09/2023 14:51

Hi Nima, thank you so much for the update and glad your daughter is going well. We went to the in action morning on Monday which was our fourth visit! How have you found the teachers? Inspiring, engaging, supportive? What about the culture amongst the girls? Are girls generally friendly even with girls not in their friendship groups?

Thank you again for the info!

Original poster
knimsy · 27/09/2023 16:04

Teachers have been supportive although I have noticed this year that there 3-4 new teachers. One of them I know retired but not sure about why the rest have left.

As you may know already the year 7 girls go on an active 4 day break which helps them get to know each other better outside of the school environment. Overall the girls are as friendly as any other girls school. My DD had a few issues with strong minded girls and the school was attentive to her needs and tried to nip it in the bud.

OP posts:
MellowFruit · 25/02/2024 22:06

Hi OP just coming back to this - glad your daughter is getting on well at RMS. Can I please ask about the supplemental academic lessons - do at lot of kids end up doing this, and how do they feel about it / are they effective?
Has your daughter got on ok throughout this academic year, has she stayed friends with the same girls?
And do you feel the school are getting the best out of each girl?
thanks so much! As you can imagine we are at the crux of considering the school for our daughter.

Breadstick25 · 09/03/2024 09:04

@knimsy Hi Nima. Very helpful to see your post. We’re also thinking of RMS - daughter is academic and confident, and has a scholarship offer. She also has an offer from Habs.

We really like RMS and she could walk to school, but just wondering how well it supports more academic girls. Habs has a more academic intake and it seems she did well to get a place (some of her friends did not), but we’re a bit worried about the pressure there.

Any advice very much appreciated. It’s so hard to decide!

Original poster
knimsy · 13/03/2024 09:18

@MellowFruit I am not sure about numbers but my daughter has some learning difficulties and attends the supplemental classes. There are lunchtime extra sessions as well as the option of giving up a foreign language so that extra ALP (Assisted Learning Programme) lessons can be given. She does not seem to think that they help massively and we have re-instate her foreign language classes back in.

In terms of friends she is going through a bad patch at the moment. To be fair the school has been very responsive to our concerns. Hope that helps.

OP posts:
Original poster
knimsy · 13/03/2024 09:22

@Breadstick25 Our DD is not overly academic so I do not have first hand experience. Talking to other parents with academic children I get the impression that they are happy that their children are pushed.

Our younger DD is quite academic and has also obtained a scholarship at RMS and due to start in September so will see how much she is pushed. She got into more academic schools but we think she will be happier at RMS and that was the priority for us.

Hope that helps.

OP posts:
milkshake2019 · 13/03/2024 20:28

just some information on rms and academics. my daughter loves it here and is very academic. The school is great at nurturing each girl- it isn’t just about academics. The more academic schools can be a hot house and not suited to more sensitive girls so it really does depend on the type of girl your daughter is.

Breadstick25 · 13/03/2024 20:38

@knimsy @milkshake2019 thank you for sharing your experience of the school, it’s very reassuring.

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