Blackheath High Vs Colfe's

[GreenwichMNer]

My daughter has been offered Y7 places at both schools, and we're struggling to decide. She is a bright child but can be shy. We live equidistant from both schools and she will be moving from a co-Ed state school. Sometimes I think a smaller school would be more nurturing but then I remember her friendship group is a really good mix of both boys and girls at the moment.

Struggling to decide which school to choose - does anyone have any advice?

There is no right or wrong choice here OP, you need to decide between coed or single sex school? Then you have the answer! My daughter moved to BH Senior from Colfes Juniors. She was also happy in Colfes Juniors but we just preferred single sex school for her for Seniors. She is not sporty so she didn’t really care about the Saturday sport etc.. When my DD was in Colfes Saturday sport was only for senior students only between 8am - 10 am. And Colfes Juniors ISI report was Good maybe recent report is Excellent now, dont know! We preferred coed primary because I was thinking to have another baby:) but never happened:):) so its depends on family which one is the better option

@JessandKate thanks, and is your daughter happy with BH? Mine isn't sporty really so not too worried about that!

@SE3parent yes she is so happy. BH is great place to be for girl's.. so nurturing and confidence building. Teachers and teaching also excellent. BH results are also amazing! We need to consider that BH’s first entry point is +3 which is Nursery and junior students moves to senior school without taking 11+ exam. We all know it is not very possible to assess 3 years olds. However Colfes junior students needs to pass 11+ to be able to move to senior side. Eltham College starts at 7+ so its much easier for them to pick more doable kids - Because of all these reasons their GCSE grades of-course needs to be higher!! But this doesn’t proof us that those schools are better schools than BH.
Meanwhile I am not saying Colfes or Eltham are bad school. For me they are all similar when you consider their strategies thannnn their results!

Thank you, @JessandKate and others. Good to hear. Now that I've totally hijacked this thread (apologies OP but hope is helpful!) can anyone offer any insight into the heads at both schools? I believe the acting headship at BH has now been formalised and not heard any news yet of changes to Colfe's leadership?

@SE3parent

My daughter is in Blackheath High. She is bright, academic focused girl which had an offer from Jags and Alleyn’s but as a family we prefer single sex school for the secondary. We live near Maze Hill - so close to the Blackheath. My daughter wanted to stay local, it was her choice to go for Blackheath. She also has older brother who goes to Dulwich College. So first I felt so happy when she had offer from JAGS. At least they will be in the same area. But my daughter knows from her older brother that she needs to travel about one hour to get in to the Dulwich in the morning with school bus and she told me that she doesn’t want to do that for next 7 years. We are a protective family and to be honest because of the distance we didn’t let our son to do play dates or meet with school mates during the weekend - this is because we are working even on Saturdays and I don’t let them travel on their own with public bus. So unfortunately all my sons friends lives so far away from us and they only meet maybe once in 3 months when I was free to drive him on Sundays… none of them can meet whenever they want anyway.
And personally its not something I really like to do on Sundays because we work so hard during the weekend and we prefer to have relax Sunday and avoid driving.. My daughter is super happy at the moment as almost her all friends are local and they meet weekends or after school they stay in the school until 6pm in study club. She only have few friends from E14 postcode and rest are local. I also met with her friends and their familys which really makes me feel more comfortable. GDST schools are slightly cheaper than other indies and also my daughter received scholarship from Blackheath as well so it was
much cheaper than JAGS for us + 0 travel fee. As a parent it was fine for us to pay for more for JAGS but now she prefers to spend that money for school trips and we save for her the rest. Academically she doing amazing and I believe her that she will get top grades in the end. Meanwhile my son is not so sportive - he just like art. And in the end the facilities are important if your child would like to use it and get benefit of them. My daughter also not sportive but she wanted to join swimming team with friends and her teacher said she’ll try for a year and they will see how she does - which made her so happy.
Facilities, sport, art or drama is important but mental health also has vital role in being successful. My son is in one of the best (academic) schools in SE but I would say my daughter is more independent, confident and motivated to go to school as it is local, also has strong friendships. So best academics doesn’t always means best choice- btw we are happy with Dulwich School because we didn’t have any single sex choice closer anyway but what I try to mean consider school distance and commute. Bright, confident and motivated kids do well in all of these schools.

Colfes is a nurturing school, judged excellent by ISI at the last inspection. I really disagree with@Joannanne comment on girly girls getting more attention from boys. One of the benefits of co-ed is that the pupils are learning together all the time, just as men and women work together, and in my experience pupils make friends based on shared interests and personality. Remember, some pupils will have been in school with each other since they were aged 3 or 7. I would also look at the school leaders. Richard Russell has been at Colfes a considerable time and knows what works for the pupils. Finally, a great strength of Colfes is the wide pupil cohort supported by generous bursaries funded by The Leathersellers Company.

@LadyLapsang I am also sure that, Colfes junior is judged Good by ISI at the last inspection.

Well the senior school ( 11-18)report I looked at appears to be excellent in all categories and I thought OP was looking for a place for Yr. 7.

Thank you everyone for all your advice. DD did the open afternoons again and felt most comfortable at Blackheath High, so we have accepted that offer.

@GreenwichMNer My sisters daughter goes to Blackheath High. She loves her school, she has lovely group of friends.. I met some of them they are all kind and confident girls.