Any recent opinions on St George's College, Weybridge?

[Lonestar123]

Trying to decide where to apply this year - would appreciate any up to date opinions on this school. My son manages fine from an academic perspective and enjoys a range of sports. I really want to like it as it's local but having visited a couple of times, for some reason, I have my reservations. Any current views would be gratefully received.

SGCW has truly world-class sports facilities like that electric glass floor in the large gym building. It's the best for sports, I would apply

My two boys went there, but not recently.

What are your reservations?

There is a lot to be said for going local. My boys took the bus or train and didn't really bother me.

@CraftyGin Thanks for responding. A few things, I guess…

The fact that it’s a Catholic school – and therefore the requirement to attend regular mass, combined with their strong emphasis on Josephite traditions. These are likely very positive things but not something I’m hugely familiar with and they were strongly, perhaps excessively, emphasised by our tour guide as being fundamental to the school.

The fact that most of children from the junior school seem to head into the college makes me a little apprehensive. How does this dynamic play out? Are there strongly formed cohorts already in place before anyone has even started? How easy is it for new students to fit in and navigate this?

On a recent open day, we were told that the students weren’t using Surfaces/Ipads in lessons which seems pretty standard in most schools these days. Everything was paper and pen. I’m guessing this must be changing/have changed but it made me wonder about how progressive the school was.

However, it is super local (can’t put a price on that) and I loved the Head Mistress and as @pkim123 has mentioned, the sports facilities seem great. I guess it might make sense to apply – we may not even get offered a place and so all this introspection might be a little premature anyway :)

Unless it's changed a lot recently (which I doubt), the Catholic stuff is not a big deal. Less than 10% of students are practising Catholic.

The school asks that you are sympathetic to Josephite traditions, which pretty much means that you are kind to children and animals.

We are practising Anglican and our boys never felt that mass was a problem (we are evangical). They went, got bored, and then onto lessons.

Our boys joined in Year 9 after Common Entrance and the school made an effort to balance the classes. I imagine they do the same for Y7 entrance, and that SGC is much bigger than SGJS.

Where we live, SGC was the only school that took boys that they could get to independently, so we didn't feel as if we had much choice. It worked out.

When I look at schools as an accountant I take a wander over to the charities commission site. The section on the employee benefits of key management personnel (the top echelons) is always the best part to look at. You need a comparison. St George’s key management seems to spend significantly more on themselves than Hampton School but Hampton is a far bigger school with more children. Although we live in weybridge my son travels to Hampton, it is also more academically selective too. The con is it is boys only.
Take a look at outstanding loans too, after my daughters prep school closed, I didnt want to move her to a school that overspends. The catholic stuff and any other ethos does not matter. Don’t listen to the headteachers spiel, they want to be paid as much as possible, look at what they do.