Gdst or specialist maths 6th form - which to choose?

[CatsLikeBoxes]

My dd has offers for 2 6th forms.
A free place at a gdst school (bursary and scholarship) conditional on achieving certain grades, and a place at a specialist maths school.
There are pros and cons to each. Gdst school has nicer facilities, she has a choice of A Level subjects, it's much closer, probably about 30 mins (walk + short bus ride), small classes, maybe a more school like/ nurturing experience?
Specialist school - no choice over A Level subjects, but she would choose the subjects available anyway though ideally would like a contrasting subject too. Long journey (60-70 mins) bus / train, more expensive travel costs, no real extra facilities. But presumably amazing teaching. She went to a taster morning and really liked it, but it's hard to compare.
She currently goes to a state school and I'm on a low income. She might feel out of place at a private school? I went to a gdst school too and really enjoyed my time there.

What would you do? She isn't sure.

Its tricky... I am in the similar situation for the primary and secondary school for my DDs. How long you have to decide?

@ HighRopes HoneyMobster

I am actually surprised that is the case in both of your experiences as one of the GDST's(and most all girls school) selling point is that they send more Girls per place to STEM degrees than Coed schools. This they say is because unlike co-eds where girls and boys are pigeon holed into girls and boys subjects respectively, none of that concept exists in their schools so I would have thought they'd all have many strong,serious and capable mathematicians if they send that many to STEM degrees every year.

@ AndNowNo

Absolutely they are people just naturally better at maths than others. Heck even amongst real Maths Geniuses there are differences in abilities not to talk of us mere mortals. I am happy your research has shown you many do come into their own later.

CatsLikeBoxes

I am guessing your daughter will be doing two if not all three of Maths,Further Maths and Physics. Check the number of students that take them at the particular GDST you are looking at plus the number that gets Top results too. Not to compare them but to make sure there are enough High ability students taking them in case your daughter needs to be stretched.

I'd disagree @Elij00 - at DD's GDST school the numbers taking Further Maths were too low in my option to make for a good experience, less than five. At her co-ed school the number is about 70.

The GDST do market themselves on STEM excellence but we moved DD to DS1's school because we saw the STEM offer there was superior.

HoneyMobster

Don't get wrong I am not arguing for or against anything as I don't know that many at GDST schools. I am simply going by what is being said by the Schools themselves and also posters on Mumsnet. They say they get better results and send more on average to STEM degrees than Coeds so surely their sciences and maths must be superior if this is indeed true?

With regards to the numbers taking further maths, could this be as a result of one of two things or even both? The first being that the GDST is simply smaller than the Coed and secondly the Coed being more academically selective at A Levels?

@Elij00 , GDST is U.K. wide so for example in Shrewsbury or Bath this may be the case but if you are talking about Wimbledon or Putney High V kings college Wimbledon it may be different.

hockeygrass

You make a great point there hence why I asked Size and Academic selectivity of said schools be taken into consideration. For example Brighton college would have more pupils doing further maths than say Brighton and Hove High due to the fact it's bigger and more selective.

OP is talking about SW London GDST schools. Both PHS and WHS do have a problem in that many girls move for Sixth Firm to go co-ed. if DD had been humanities focussed we might well have let her stay at her GDST school but for a STEM orientated girl the offer at the Co-ed was much better. The co-ed is bigger but not that much bigger.

Cats The commute for my DD would be around 1.5 to 2 hours each way to Kings so we think although its the school we like best and were most impressed with she will likely go elsewhere. She went to one of the all girls grammars before in London and hated it being girls only, most of her friends are boys and the maths competitions are very male dominated. When she was at the all girls grammar she would come top of the year in maths, they were very strong in sciences but not especially strong in maths. She has been far more encouraged in maths by her mixed comp who also offer more maths qualifications though will vary by school. I would test the journey out though.

It’s not just maths grade. It’s prep for university level maths, a huge jump. I’ll PM you, OP.

A few years ago, on one of the long-running SW London girls 11+ threads, someone did an analysis of STEM A level results from the girls schools. It’s CanadaUK on this thread at 2 March 2019 at 14.03, www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/a3507503-As-the-Tiffin-results-day-looms-a-second-2019-SW-London-grammars-and-indies-thread#prettyPhoto

If someone wanted to update it to show boys schools as well, I think it would be interesting. Total numbers doing Further Maths would also be useful - a tiny class isn’t necessarily great.

HoneyMobster

I did not expect it to be that big reason why I asked. I know some girls move from all girls school to All boys school that take girls at Sixth-form. I am just surprised the difference was that large since STEM and maths provision for Girls being much better is one of their main selling points.

@Elij00 yes, she wants to take maths, further maths and physics - the gdst school sixth form is about half the size of the maths school, so quite small numbers taking those subjects, especially further maths, but results are good.
@FiddlefigOnTheRoof what about preparation for uni maths?

My daughter was at a GDST school and I had to get a private tutor for her. I finally moved her to another school.