Burntwood Selective vs Surbiton High

[sleepihead]

Hi all, hoping for some advice and insights here. DD offered a "selective" place at Burntwood school. It was a wild card option for us and 6th choice. We live in neighbouring borough.
Alternative Surbiton High.
Travel will be easier into Burntwood by public transport but SHS has transport. No bursary or scholarship. Could be afforded at a stretch with older sibling going into Uni next year.
If you have a DD at either school any insight and shared experience will be much appreciated.

Re Surbiton - check with admissions that they are still accepting deposits.

Re sport at Surbiton - if your dd is sporty the netball/ hockey clubs are in Hinchley wood and finish at 6pm - there is a bus back to the train station. The matches are on Saturday. The rowing from year 8 is in teddington with lots of early starts. It is a very sporty school but there are lots of non sporty dd there too.
If sport and logistics isn't a big decision maker and you are going on academics it may be a harder decision. You can always consider private for 6th form instead.
What would your dd want?

Thank you, that's very helpful. She is quite sporty but also good academically. I think she would enjoy sports. It looks like the logistics with SHS will be complicated- coach is once a day and with the early starts for sports we are looking at 5AM starts and 8PM finishes on some days from year 8...

The early starts are only for rowing as far as I know and she could join a rowing club near home instead if you couldn't make it work.
Is your other dc in private or state? With an older dc you know the importance of decent teaching of the gcse syllabus etc which you will probably get at the state school too.
Does your dd understand about going to HW after school for sports clubs and getting herself home from surbiton train station? The gymnastics clubs are at the school site after school. The music is lunchtime based.
You should ask yourself what you are paying for if you don't make use of all the sports etc.

Just to add at Surbiton the dd eat packed lunches in the classrooms from year 10 so don't think facilities wise you are getting a different set up to state.

OP, I just glanced at the ofsted for Burntwood. At Surbiton you will get the thoroughness of teaching, I'm a long time parent there and I would never fault the academics.

I have a DD at Burntwood and it's a very good state school. My DD is very happy there and has made a number of good friends that all live locally. My DD is not very sporty but I know it has a great range of sports there, and a bonus is that it is one of the few qualifying schools for Wimbledon ball girls which I hear from parents is an amazing experience for those who get through the trials.

Wherever your DD goes I hope she thrives and enjoys her time.

I just wanted to say re Burntwood (as you said you had a selective place) there is no benefit attached to it. The girls all join mixed ability classes. In fact when I spoke to the Deputy Head at open day he seemed quite scathing of the Wandsworth Test and said that there was too much tutoring for it, therefore they pretty much ignore it as an indicator of ability.

Thank you both! I feel very encouraged by your responses. To earlier points, she is likes art and sport. Academically I think she could do better, because she tends to go with her own interests and ignore other subjects she is not too keen on. After reading your comments, I feel reassued she would di well in both schools, as a parent I would prefer one that can be strict when needed to keep her from neglecting academics. 😊

Just to follow up on @BettySundaes from memory they start streaming in Y9 (might be earlier) and classes are streamed for most GCSE subjects. Burntwood is strong on art. They have many state school kids who come to Burntwood for A-levels to do arts subjects. Someone told me they have around 20 students doing A-level Fine Art and a similar number for Photography.

I vaguely know Burntwood/ one of the SLT there, my impression is that it's a perfectly good London comp, but nothing 'fancy' [unlike e.g. Graveney], I shouldn't think that many kids travel very long distances to go there.

The A-Level results of both schools are quite different. I'd suggest looking at that aspect of both schools.

Long-time parent of DD at SHS. It's a very good school academically and pastorally. I'd very much recommend it.

I can't comment on Burntwood other than having surveyed the grades at A level it would not be my first choice, compared to Surbiton.

However, journey times do matter. I'd not be keen on those start and finish times you mention.

Sport it what you want to make of it at Surbiton. There's loads of it on offer if you want it and none if you don't.