Local GDST school or Grammar schools accessible from SW18

[needwine1]

Hi,

Anyone have experience (positive/negative) or travelling to Sutton/Kingston grammar schools from SW18? I was surprised to see we are in one of the ‘priority’ postcodes for Tiffin, as I always thought we’d be too far out…

Also potentially interested in Wallington/Nonsuch.

Local GDST options are Streatham and Clapham, Wimbledon and Putney high, all similar distance. DD bright (top 6-8 in Reading /Maths) and top 3 in writing in current school out of 50 DCs but not SPGS/JAGS level, I wouldn’t have thought and don’t know if they’d suit her as she’s quite hard on herself.

Thanks!

"DD bright (top 6-8 in Reading /Maths) and top 3 in writing in current school out of 50 DCs but not SPGS/JAGS level"

Don't know your current school and how this ranks, but based on the rank top 10% she can be a good candidate for all these schools - TGS / SPGS /JAGS etc . Whether the commute is suitable or personality fits is another matter.

Here are some of the TGS intake post code you can see how many girls are travelling from SW18 to make some judgement.
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/postcode_just_first_part_of_the#incoming-2177662

That’s so helpful: thanks!

You need to think about how much travel you are happy with your daughter doing on a rainy January evening, before coming home to complete 90 minutes of homework.

Getting to Kingston/Richmond is easy from SW18 but then she'd have to walk 20 mins or get a bus to Tiffin Girls. Probably similar with Nonsuch.

My 3 all had an hour commute (door to door, 15 min to station, 25 min on train, 15 min walk to school) to their bromley grammars.

Not great, but I am a hard hearted evil mum, who commuted an hour to her international school in the 80s and 90s. It would have taken DS 45 min to walk to the nearest boys school. The main difference is fact that friends are scattered all over the place.

GDST schools all have the same curriculum and so not much different except distance, uniform colour, as told by a head in prep school that places girls into these schools. The cultural fit of each GDST will differ slightly.
The good thing about London secondary schools is making friends from different postcodes.

Tiffin is harder to get in due to demand vs JAGS. So why not go to the Open days and decide? Good luck!

I would look at Citymapper for the journeys, and then work out if there is an alternative route. It makes a big difference if dd can swop to train if the tube isn’t working, or vice versa, rather than being completely stuck.

I would also go and look at all the schools you named (and any others you have on your long list) by public transport, to get a feel for the atmosphere and also for the commute. I agree that you shouldn’t discount SPGS and JAGS, just on reputation of being hard to get in to.

Without tutoring would be difficult to get to Tiffin/Nonsuch

GDST schools all have the same curriculum and so not much different except distance

This is not the case, I work in one.

yeah, as a PP said I think they're more academically selective than jags, albeit in a slightly different way. roughly 5th best out of 50 kids doesn't to me sound like obviously superselective GS territory.

my personal preference is to prefer short commutes to school if possible but thousands of London parents every year disagree with this, it's by no means objectively correct.

If a child is academic would not go for the closest school if it is below UK avg or only tiny bit above. I would chose longer commute. And I am not considering like 1 hour commute. 30-40 min, one bus at maximum

All the schools OP listed is way above UK avg because all required selective exams to get in at 11+.

@PreplexJ sure thing, I was referring to the puffy's comment about distance

Ar OK, thanks for clarify.

I think in general parents wants above academic avg schools (or academic selective schools) for academic kids because they try to minimise the potential disruptive factor and hoping that the enough teaching activities and resource are on proper academic teaching with the same peer level rather than class management.

I'm not sure how these are managed at a normal non-selective comprehensive schools (slightly above or below national average). From some statistics I read before it seems to me that if the prior selective intake effect being taken away, there is not much difference between the schools within the state sector. There are some advantage on the public sectors.

Sorry I meant "There are some advantage on the private sectors."

From some statistics I read before it seems to me that if the prior selective intake effect being taken away, there is not much difference

Could you elaborate on that further, please? Not sure if I understood what you mean😊

https://www.schoolsmith.co.uk/selective-school/

Some summary on the two research done in recent years.

Very interesting article and quite correct.
But there is one part which the author has not addressed.

Having said that I would say that many people send kids to grammars and selective schools for a right type of peers.
It is the peers that have a huge influence on who we become.
I decided that I will send my son to catholic school. The grammars and private in the reasonable distance are single gender only and that is not something I would agree on, neither it would suit my son.

"Having said that I would say that many people send kids to grammars and selective schools for a right type of peers"

I think this is true, on the other hand, many people want to send kids to schools with more diverse social/economic/academic profile as an education environment (as oppose to bubbles) to prepare for their kids social life in the morden world. There are different opinions here.

True. Selective private schools or for that matter any private is a rich people bubble far from reality.

Jags is easy to get in ! We got an offer but did not go. My girl said the test is super easy compared with Grammer's school test... SPGS is much harder and top private!

Not sure about JAGS exam difficulty, but less than 500 candidates for 120 SPGS places and possible around 150 offers (est). From this ratio prospective probably not as competitive as some SS grammars. I think the hard part is parents being the lucky 7% of the country to be able to afford private in the first place.

It seems grammar is more competitive. More than 15-20% of people should be able to afford it, but not everyone will choose private over grammar. Like us, I prefer to arrange national-level clubs/activities and let her study in diversified and competitive grammar. This is also my kid's own choice.

You could also look at Graveney - 70 open places in their extension stream. Need to sit the Wandsworth test (apply by end of august - everyone needs to apply even if at a Wandsworth school). You can decide in before application if they worth applying for an open place. A neighbours daughter is at Nonsuch - enjoying it but travel is hard from Sw12.

I'm not sure about the diversified part for competitive grammar schools, all competitive grammar schools in London are the least diverse in terms of social/economic diversity, e.g lowest FSM% intake across the sectors and full of middle class.