Whitgift Vs RGS vs Emanuel vs Reeds

[Aror]

Hi,

DS has received offers from Whitgift, Emanuel, RGS ( Guildford) and Reeds. We did a bit of spray and pray as we panicked after he didn’t make the 1st round of Grammer schools. DS is a polite, silent, kind and sensitive boy. He is not extremely active or sporty (doesn’t enjoy rugby) but plays some Cricket, TT and Chess. Academically he is bright but not extremely motivated or hardworking. He is quite laid back and likes to do things at his own pace. A bit of a dreamer. We did tutor him but it was mainly 4 months - Aug, Sept, Oct & Nov. We are certain that he needs a caring and nuturing school (not a hot house) but that also pushes him to bit to mature & grow up. We live in Wimbledon / Raynes Park area.

Whitgift: +ves - well established school with good results. Nice social & demographic mix. Concerns - too sporty & academically hot house , travel time (60-75 mins by public transport or 45 - 50 mins on school coach), big school & pastoral care
RGS Guildford: +ves - well established with good academic results. Concern - lack of social & demographic mix, Sporty & academically hot house and travel time (60-mins by public transport or we will look to move)
Emanuel: +ves - very close (20-30 mins on public transport), came across as caring & nurturing, DS likes it . Concern - Co-Ed, lack of academic ambition
Reeds: +ves - close-ish ( 20 mins drive, 30 - 40 mins public transport), great infrastructure and facilities, came across as caring & nurturing, definitely not a hot house. Concerns - lack of social & demographic mix, lack of academic ambition, expensive

Does anyone have any views / insights /guidance?

Do go to the holder days to see and ask questions. Current snapshot of a school is more important than from someone’s experience from years ago. You can find out about sports throughout the year which is more extensive than primary schools. Clubs, such as chess if they do have a lot of tournaments. The range of clubs, music, drama and school trips.
Academic ambitions, you could ask about current A levels offers, GCSE etc. International universities applications etc.

I would choose Emanuel. It will be far easier to have local friends when he is a teenager. With the others you will spend your weekends being a taxi driver around surrey.

I'd definitely take Whitgift out of the mix. Journey too long and doesn't sound an ideal fit.
Would you/DS prefer co-Ed or all boys?
If you really can't choose go for the easier journey by public transport.

And yes, if you choose RGS or Reeds his friends could live miles and miles away. Also, as parents there are quite a lot of events you may need to go to so an easy journey for parents is also quite important.

Emanuel is the only one you said your DS likes.

So that would be it sold for me. Especially as it's closer too.

We play these schools at sport so I can't give much of an insight. But I have a friend whose son is at Whitgift (as a weekly boarder) and they've never described it as an academic hothouse. Her son is sporty and loves it there (although not the journey as we live in outer NW London).

I currently have boys at Whitgift - ime it's not been a hot house, it's inclusive of SEN, not all sport, plenty of music and loads of drama.
Major downside is the commute.

I don't rate or like Emanuel but I know plenty of people who are delighted with it . Going local can be hugely beneficial for the kids.

Fees are bound to rise with inflation so if Reeds seems expensive now it will only get worse.

@HawaiiWake @3WildOnes @Digimoor @SadCatNight @dew141 - thank you very much for the inputs. Much to think about. I think given the offers we have Reeds and others (Claremont fan) will probably be eliminated.

It will boil down to Emanuel , Whitgift and RGS. We may consider moving closer to Whitgift or RGS.

Only thing I like about Emanuel is the commute, Otherwise not a big fan of Co-Ed. Think some boys can get into a shell around girls. DS likes it because he found them nice because they gave good cookies and where kind during the open day so that’s his evaluation criteria :)

We really like Whitgift as it’s a big school and found kids from variety of social and demographic backgrounds (really important for DS to have this exposure). One current student aptly summed it on the interview day - because it is such a large school I found enough boys similar to me who were in the middle (not sporty or too academic). Heartening to hear it is not a hot house. Only concern is the commute. How is pastoral care and any concerns about Croydon and surrounding areas?

RGS is very tempting - any views regarding it vis-à-vis Whitgift ? How is the social and Demographic mix there ? Also do any of the schools weed out students in the run up to GCSE ? Question prompted because I know 1st hand of a reputable school in Wimbledon that does so and is a deal breaker from an ethos perspective.

You really need to visit the RGS open day because of course the diversity is different to Whitgift. You can live in the depths of the Surrey/Sussex boarder countryside and get to RGS Guildford quite easily.
I don't think either of these schools would manage dc out at gcse, they are second tier to KCS etc.

@Aror
congratulations - a great position to be in
do you already know when the offer holder day for RGS is?
we like Reeds - friendly school, certainly not a hot house and getting the best out of the boys

I believe RGS is way ahead of the others in academics, and I suppose you know it. Otherwise why bother to apply when you are so far away. It is in a very different league, if that matters to you. It is comparable to the like of Hampton, LU etc, and only one notch down from the top London schools like Westminster, St Paul and KCS.

If by now academics is no longer the main criteria, then you surely shouldn't consider it any more.

Have to say though, Reeds parents were by far the rudest I've encountered at sports matches (although one dad at UCS comes a close second).

Their behaviour was so appalling that one match had to be stopped. On our pitch, a couple of dads spent the whole match abusing our referee (while walking ON the pitch). My husband suggested at the end that they weren't perhaps setting the best example to the boys and one dad invited him to go over to a quiet corner and have a fight (erm, that's a no, thanks).

In fairness, they were fine in my older son's year so perhaps it was just one year group. It's still talked about amongst our parents a good three months later.

@2012mom - thank you very much for the inputs. TBH we applied to RGS as a stretch target since DS was sitting for ISEB pre test exam anyways for other school applications (Reeds). We will look to move if we do end up selecting RGS. Guess we will need to adjust lifestyle wise after having lived in Wimbledon for almost 13 years. Just wasn’t sure of social and demographic mix. It’s now down to Whitgift and RGS
@LittleOwl22 @sailingsunshine - unfortunately no comms yet from any school on offer holders day or open day. At present we just need to sign on the dotted line and give a deposit. many thanks for the suggestion. We are planning to speak to a few parents from both school and then take a call.

@dew141 i’m interested in what year group you encountered these Reeds parents? Last summer we played a club cricket game against the now year 10s, and the majority of the team comprised of Reeds players. We have never encountered such rude and obnoxious behaviour from a group of 14 year old boys. Although they weren’t playing for the school - many had their kit on - it certainly tarnished the schools reputation amongst our parents that were watching!

Whitgift is very sporty. In the interview session, my guess is the school even get the very non-sporty look kind of boy to accompany us to try to play down this image. And the unexpected downside is the boy talking to my son said he had wanted to go to Trinity (he got offer) but his parents wanted Whitgift, and he said there was too much sports!

But then I am sure the sporty boys would love Whitgift. The campus is very nice and all the sports are at a very high level. I assume RGS is no match.

So academics or sports? Both schools have both of course, but the balance is not the same. So depends on the character of your son? or your focus?

@2012mom - thank you again. As mentioned DS is jack of all trades, master of none. Not very sporty , not very academic but more academic than sporty. Boys change rapidly though at this age. How far behind RGS is whitgift academically ? I guess we now have a framework to evaluate and select the offers. Thanks all for your invaluable inputs.

i’m interested in what year group you encountered these Reeds parents?

U16. I'm not usually that bothered about the outcome of matches but we enjoyed that win. My kids play a lot of sport and I'm used to over-exuberant parental support but this was horrendous.

@Aror I think in terms of averages, the difference is quite substantial, but then the range in Whitgift is much wider, and so there will still be some going to oxbridge, imperial, lse etc every year.

I guess Whitgift really wants to play down this image, as it seems there is a trend for the more academic boys choosing Trinity and the more sporty boys choosing Whitgift (many apply to both), resulting in Trinity much more difficult to get into now, and its academic ranking rising quite quicky in the last few years, while Whitgift is losing its appeal to the academic but not uber sporty boys.

@Aror , if there isn't a RGS open day I would go and spend a day this week in Guildford, I live in Esher and there is a difference between Esher and Wimbledon and certainly Wimbledon and Guildford. Perhaps spend some
time driving out to Godalming etc, if you choose RGS you could spend plenty of time in the car on the A3.

RGS is regarded as more academic than Whitgift and its fine to be non sporty, the school sports are rugby and hockey, football has been added on later. My ds is at Hampton but some of his friends went to RGS.

If it helps, RGS is number 30 in Sunday times independent secondary league tables and Whitgift is number 46.

Do you really want to move house and area etc? Seems quite drastic.
I wouldn't worry about league tables etc. They're all good schools. I'm not sure about Whitgift for quiet sensitive boys though. It's massive and they seem very strict from the beginning. Friend's sons found it quite a shock.
If you don't want CoEd I can see why you'd rule out Emanuel but if seriously consider it if it's easy to get to and it's your DS's favourite. It has a smaller catchment area than the others as well so his friends wouldn't be so spread out.
I know a fair few local boys at Whitgift who would have loved to have gone to Emanuel but didn't get in!

Sending our son to RGS was the best decision we ever made. It's incredibly diverse and he has made a good group of friends from all walks of life. My son really disliked all the loud mouths and big egos at his last school and says RGS is "like heaven" in comparison – in his experience, all the boys he has met there have been "really nice people". He was never really sporty at primary school, but through his own choice, has taken up a lot of different sports and joined various clubs at RGS (probably because of the kind, supportive environment there) - he's fitter than he's ever been before and we've seen a huge improvement in his mental health (used to be a very shy and anxious boy).

We also like how the boys are treated like adults - my son has gone from being hopelessly dependent on mummy and daddy for everything to now organising his own schedule, getting his homework done, packing his own bags the night before, getting himself to school, music and sports fixtures, checking his school emails, reading the daily school notices and just generally being very on the ball.

If your son has been offered a place, it's because the RGS think he's the right sort of boy that will excel in that environment. You'd definitely benefit from moving closer to Guildford though.

My son only applied to Whitgift out of your selection (close to our home). He was fortunate enough to get a place, but I am worried about how sporty it is and the fact it's such a big school. DS is quite a shy and quiet boy. It's a good school but it's definitely very, very sporty.

A friend's nephew goes to RGS and he is thriving there if that helps. He was so shy when he went in, but two years later I see a dramatic change in his self confidence. And he's doing very well in academics and cocurricular. If moving is something you would consider, it's a lovely part of the world to live in.

For me personally, I'm not big on commuting so I've only applied for nearby schools.

Can't comment on the others, but I love in Guildford and if you go for RGS, lots of kids come up from e.g. Haslemere, so if you stay in Raynes Park you'll be spending a LOT of time driving DS to friends' houses.

RGS is very academic. However, your OP puts "academic hothouse" as a "concern" and "lack of academic ambition" as another concern. There isn't a sweet spot between these within the schools you've picked.

If you are genuinely committed to your son attending a school with a mixture of demographic/ social backgrounds then perhaps you should consider a state school? Both Rutlish and Coombe Boys would provide everything you say is important to you and they have the advantage of being very local.