Streatham & Clapham High School vs Sydenham High vs Old Palace

[Oxbowlake]

Weighing up these schools, our daughter has been offered a Y7 place at all three. We like that they are GDST/Whitgift Foundation but not at the super selective end of the spectrum. Results look broadly similar, both Streatham & Sydenham have new/incoming heads. Journey to all three manageable (Sydenham & Streatham slightly easier). Would love to hear insights from any existing parents. Thank you

I'd choose Old Palace out the 3.

As you say not a huge difference in academics of the 3 schools, but I do know girls at Old Palace share some sport and gym facilities with Whitgift and Trinity schools, also do productions together and other activities. Having 'brother' schools which have amazing facilities and reputation would be a big influence on my decision.

Also Whitgift Foundation ( that own Old Palace, Whitgift and Trinity)
give generous scholarships and bursaries, useful to know if your family has sudden change in circumstances, god forbid.

GDST schools have a super solid rep, and both schools edge out Old Palace academically. Friends tell me since Palace took over a non-selective girls school in South Croydon, Croham Hurst indepedent girls school, it lowered the academic standing of the school somewhat.
I personally think given its excellent sport
and links to elite boys schools Whitgift and Trinity, it still edges Old Palace ahead, but academically I think Sydenham edges ahead.

I think you shouldn't even see these schools as much different from Jags and the 'super selectives' - the percentages of girls getting A* to B in most London girls Indie schools are very high. We often check girl schools on our radar for 11+ choice, looking at GCSE and A level results and the differences between even say St Pauls and Streatham aren't huge at all. Looking at A level results for 2022,

St Pauls Girls A* -B : 98.8 %

Streatham A* - B : 83.6 %

That's hardly a mountain, and excellent for Streatham when one considers St Pauls is a gold standard.

Thanks so much for your reply. I completely agree that the results of all three are such that a bright girl should do well at any of them, and crucially in a hopefully less pressured environment. The Whitgift foundation support is definitely worth factoring in.
Would love to hear if anyone has a view on differences between Streatham & Clapham and Sydenham, we’re struggling to work out in our minds any differentiating factors.
thanks again

The incoming Head at Streatham is excellent - I would trust her with my daughters.

Thank you, do you have experience of her from her current school? She was briefly introduced at last night’s offer holder event and came across very well I thought.

Can’t speak to the other two but DD joined Streatham last September in U3 (year 7) and we could not be happier. She was on a waitlist for a different GDST school (which never went to its waitlist) so SCHS was actually originally our second choice school - now feeling very happy things worked out as they did!

DD is academic (she has an academic scholarship), but not particularly robust and can be knocked back easily. So a very competitive school (say like JAGS) would not have been right for her. In Sept, SCHS focussed on fun and friendships - they did a 5 day resi trip, a disco and did not set any homework. We loved this. DD has settled well, made lots of friends and is thriving academically. There is some homework now though 😀

The new head is from St Mary’s Ascot, which I imagine to be quite a different demographic to SCHS (?!) but she seems very impressive from what I’ve seen, and I think will do great things at the school.

good luck with making the choice!

Thank you so much for this reply, that’s super helpful. Our daughter sounds very like yours, hence our thought processes around where to send her have been similar.
We have a few more offer holder events next week then final decision time!

Yes, she was really excellent. You're very lucky.

Had DD at both OP and SCHS. OP was very trad but new head is shaking things up. Music at OP was exceptional but then the Director of Music left and the new one is not that good and it has nosedived. OP is very very much the poor relation of the boys schools at Whitgift FOundation - its facilities are not great partly due to the nature of the site - there is no shared sport - the girls are bussed out to near the prep school so no use of the fab fafilities at the boys' schools. Drama is also virtually not shared - Whitgift may put on a play that requires a girl or two and then audition from both OP and Croydon High so it might be the case that there are no OP girls in it at all (and if there are its probably the same 2 all the time.....). I was told by a reliabe source that the allocation of funds accross the foundation is something like 60% WHitgift, 30% Trinity and 10% OP. Not sure if that is accurate between the boys' schools but 10% for OP would seem about right.

SCHS a much more relaxed school but not that aspirational in terms of extra curriculars (other than gymnastics - and as a result the gymnasts seemed to rule the school). Hopefully the new head will turn things around.

If there are any SEN issues then avoid OP like the plague as there is no understanding of anything other than dyslexia and that at not a high standard and the SENCO is useless. SCHS on the other hand is pretty good at SEN adjustments and at picking up SEN in lower years from girls who had never previously been diagnosed.

Hi, I'm interested in this topic. I wondered what anyone could say about SCHS for a girl fitting the following profile, and maybe what the alternatives might be:

(1) At least modestly bright - average CAT test score from years 3 through 5 is a shade over 130. Literacy is a bit weaker than that. Not much of a reader. A daydreamer both in and out of class. Does quite well in tests (see above) because the pressure when on but at other times can be difficult to motivate.
(2) Very quiet & shy. Possible mild, undiagnosed ADHD. Has managed to get a decent friendship group at the primary school where she's been since reception but it took her a couple of years. Hates all sport.
(3) Parents (i.e. me and OH) could afford private but don't have any experience of it. Our older kids are in the state sector, where we both went too. We'd be considering private for the girl because of the smaller class sizes and the bit of extra attention. SCHS specifically appeals because it's much closer than the alternative.

@londonmummy1966 you had DD at Palace, so know better than I, I only have friends who have DD at the school.

Friends has told me their DD have used Whitgift’s gym and some facilities at Trinity. I'm assuming this must be done informally then rather than weekly trips?? Also they've told me about joint events, (I know 3 current parents at the school) so I'll show them your post, interesting that there's no contact bar 1 or 2 girls and its offered to the local GDST school too!!

Whitgift is double the size of Old Palace and has boarding, so allocation of budget, Trinity too has 100's more students than Palace, so I understand its smaller, but 10% seems small, will ask about that too. Whitgift only took the school over 'recently' in the school's history, late 90's, after running Whitgift and Trinity boys since forever, so makes sense its hardly their main focus, and 'early days' historically speaking.

I do know Palace scholarships and bursaries are generous, and the fees are relatively low compared to other similar schools, so someone's picking up that tab. No SEN issues with DD, but sad to read Palace seems to be unfriendly to girls with SEN.

It's on our radar along with a clutch of other schools for our DD for 11+, along with the other 2 schools, so following this thread with interest.

@Oxbowlake Really interested in your views about the incoming head of SCHS as I was at the offer holders meeting too and wasn’t really that enamoured with her. A bit too much polish for me and didn’t really feel her authenticity. You can’t tell much from a one off event like that however and first impressions an be entirely wrong but I’d be interested to see how things pan out. I love the school though and we had a tough choice between this and one other GDST.