St Albans High School for Girls and Headington School Oxford

[tinywhisters]

Hello! My daughter will be in Year 10 in upcoming Sep. Does anyone can give me some comments about St Albans High School for Girls and Headinton School? any parents from either of them can share with me your experience? Thanks.

Hi, I’m in year 13 at St Albans High School at the moment so I’m happy to answer any questions you have if it would be useful to get a student perspective! Personally I have absolutely loved my time at STAHS and I will be really sad to be leaving at the end of this year for university. The academics are great - both in terms of achievement at GCSE/A Level and the level of support offered by staff. I have also been lucky enough to make some amazing friends and to have found some incredible teachers who are really passionate about their subject but also very understanding and willing to help you in any way possible. In terms of extra curricular, although STAHS isn’t known for being the sportiest or most musical school, there is something for everybody and both mine and my friends experiences have been that the sport/music/drama on offer at school is great! Hope that helps and let me know if you have any questions as that was just a general summary!

These two schools are very far apart- are you considering moving to either Oxford or at Albans?

I know both schools and both are excellent.

@painterp yes, we will be moving. It depends on which school that we will pick.Appreciate if anyone has some advice for us. Thanks.

I would go on where you want to live, Oxford has terrible traffic and high house prices. Also living in a university town is different to living in a commuter town. It's probably more important to find a community you feel part of rather than the difference between the 2 schools which is minimal (unless your dd is enthusiastic about learning to row). It's worth remembering that the education process in the U.K. is very tight for GCSE/A level ie your dd will learn almost the same at both schools and achieve the same grades

@tinywhisters , also ask both schools how many other dd are joining in Year 10 in Sept and how many join the 6th form. It's always quite hard to make friends at any school at that age because the dd move classes for each subject etc, plus some will be planning to leave and looking at 6th forms during year 10 so don't have much interest in making new friends.

@redrobin75 thanks for your advice. It makes lots of sense to me.