Wimbledon High School or Kingston Grammar - which school academic but not a pressure cooker?

[sunnylondon]

Hello fellow Mumsnet. First thank you for reading my post. I'm currently exploring schooling options for my daughter(Y6 now and got offers from both) and am torn between Wimbledon High School and Kingston Grammar. (I don't mind girsl or co-ed) We're seeking a school that's academically stimulating yet not overwhelming, offering a well-rounded experience with space for personal growth. My daughter has a keen interest in Art and Math, enjoys sports, but isn't sporty. For those with daughters at either of these schools, could you share insights on the daily study hours and how the school supports a balance between academics and personal interests? How was it making new friends? I believe my DD will be the only one going to either schools. Any feedback on the environment, especially regarding studying pressure(from both peers and school) would be incredibly helpful. Thank you

I have a non sporty one at WHS. She also got an offer from KGS and would have been very happy to send her there as well.
DD is fairly laid back and has not felt remotely pressurised. She's probably fairly average academically in her year group and still came out with great GCSE results. Some of her friends get more stressed about exams etc but that probably down to personality rather than the school. Lots of time for fun stuff, extra curricular and so on.
Bigger pool of girls to be friends with at WHS than KGS.
If you really can't decide I'd go ease of journey. Wimbledon very well connected in terms of public transport.

And she was the only one from her Primary school to go there. Wasn't a problem. There is obviously a large number from their Prep and always a group from the Study Prep but they are all mixed up in classes and wasn't an issue at all.

First of all congratulations to your DD - a wonderful choice to have!

We had exactly that choice last year, for a DD that seems very similar to yours. We really liked both schools (they are were our top choice) and, like you, there was no strong preference for co-ed or single sex. We opted for WHS on account of a number of factors, including logistics, smaller cohort size, curriculum (quite liked the GCSE options, including 9 GCSEs plus sPPE, and degrees of freedom on choices), the facilities and proximity of the sport fields. Academically they are both strong but WHS probably has the edge.

DD is now Y7 and we have found the school really good in terms of balance between school and other activities - homework is not much and the DDs really learn early on (with guidance from the school) to organise themselves. Most clubs are at lunchtime apart from some music and sports and the school is very aware that the girls pursue a range of extra-curricular activities outside school hours so no homework is due form one day to another and when there are 'only' 2-3 days, it is quite minimal. There are also indications of how much should be spend on pieces of homework - that I think helps address the perfectionist streak of some girls. There is no homework during half terms or holidays. Our DD has been very able to combine the school and homework with all her other activities (singing and 2 instruments, as well as out of school sports) and has not pressure, and she has plenty of friends with significant out-of-school commitments (including sports at county level) that, like her, feel very able to combine school and the rest. The teaching is very interactive and quite a lot of the homework is focused in ensuring that the knowledge is anchored through discursive learning / presentations.

The school is strong on the pastoral element - even before they started and in the first week there were lots of activities for girls to meet each other (both within and outside their form) and get to know each other, including a lovely weekend residential. The houses structure also helps to make friends both within and beyond the year, as do the clubs and, at the beginning of the year, each girl is assigned a Y8 buddy. It seems that it has been quite easy to make friends and the school has made sure that DDs are really mixed (i.e. not having girls that 'came together' grouped in the same form) - and in addition to taking some lessons with their form, they are in different groups for languages and maths.

Overall, we have had a really positive experience so far.

By all means, feel free to PM me if you want to ask any specific questions.

Which one does your daughter prefer? Go to taster day and decide.

Thank you for your reply! And well done & congrats to your DD on her GCSEs.

Thank you for your reply and sharing your experience! Super helpful and reassuring. And well done & congrats to your DD on her GCSE!!

Oh my it's as if you've read my mind and answered so many questions I had in my head. Thank you so much for the detailed explanation and offering to answer further questions. I hope next year I can help future mums with kind heart as you have done here for me.

Great question. She liked both as both schools are great schools liked by many. Hence trying to understand both schools as much as possible to help DD have preference. Taster day will surely help! Thanks

@sunnylondon you are too kind. Honestly, feel free for pm me if you want more detail on any of the above or have any other questions.

Don't have DC at either school yet but lots of friends who do. I think @QuiteAJourney mentions a key point - the teaching at WHS is very modern and interactive, lots of group work and open ended tasks. KGS has a more traditional curriculum. Think about what you and especially your daughter prefer. In geography, do you want her to learn facts and figures or make posters about climate change and create travel itineraries? Does she like working in a group? I prefer traditional education so strongly prefer KGS but it's a personal choice and some children benefit from interactive group work and others learn better in a more structured and traditional way.

Having talked to heads of departments at the open days, I was more impressed by the maths and science program at KGS, they were very serious about it and had a lot to say about how they encourage girls to study maths and physics, for example. WHS say all the right things and have a shiny STEAM tower but looking at the numbers very, very few actually study further maths and so on. Of course that's not everyone's priority either.

@sanam2019 Agree that teaching is probably more interactive / student led and it was indeed a factor in our decision. But, taking your Geography example, the homework is actually a mix of both - my daughter has had some that is the traditional learning (with some tests to ensure that students are understanding / following the pace) and some more 'creative' (indeed, the posters that you are referring to). Same for languages - quite a lot of structured learning (after all you need your vocabulary and grammar) but also some fun activities.

Similarly, the maths and science are definitely strong at KGS (and the school right prides itself on that focus and it is a selling point) - I cannot say how they compare with WHS as I have not seen any disaggregated GCSE or A level results for KGS (I remember looking for them at the time as my DD is quite keen on maths - not sure if they publish them now). WHS results are rather strong, I would say - the most popular GCSEs (beyond the compulsory Maths and English) are the science ones and more than half of the marks are a 9. Maths is the most popular A level and more than 80% got A or A and 100% A-A for Further Maths. Maybe the poster can look into them in more detail.

Overall, I think that what makes the decision quite difficult is that both schools are really good options and actually, once you set aside the co-ed / single sex question (that did not matter that much to us), not that different, including with a rather down-to-earth cohort of families (which makes both of them quite attractive). We have quite a few friends with very happy DCs at KGS and know a few families with DCs in both of them (and happy with both of them).

Not sure how they would work for the opening poster location-wise. For us, WHS was very convenient and KGS less so (but very do-able) and we/our DD slightly preferred the Wimbledon setting to the Kingston one (but again, that is personal preferences / circumstances).

Out of interest I just looked at the A level results for both schools for 2022 (can't find detailed results for KGS for 2023). More take further maths and physics at KGS but those taking Maths, Chemistry and Biology is very similar. I suspect that more boys take physics.
There's really not much between them and I'd just go for gut feel and logistics! (even if your DD isn't sporty she will still have to do sport so think about the playing fields as well).

You can get 2023 subject choices for GCSE and A-levels on the department of education website (compare-school-performance.service). At KGS (and many co-eds), the top two sets do GCSE additional/further maths whereas at WHS it is not even everyone in the top set, I don't know why (perhaps they do the content but then don't take the exam, some schools do it like that). Further Maths numbers seem to have improved at WHS, it was just 2 girls in 2022 (or 2021 - don't remember which of these two) but 8 in 2023 so some improvement. I remember when visiting Emanuel this year that there were more girls in the physics a-level class than boys, it was potentially an anomaly but it is not necessarily the case that it is mostly boys taking physics at co-ed schools.

For sports both are great but I assume WHS will have more variety due to higher number of girls. Both great for rowing, hockey potentially stronger at KGS, swimming, gymnastics, athletics, netball etc strong at WHS, so it will depend on sports your child is interested in. WHS might be stronger in music (at least I don't know anything about KGS music).

Hopefully, the offer holder days provide more clarity to the undecided.

@sanam2019 thanks for the link to that website - I was not familiar with it. it does make interesting reading, along the lines suggested by @witscreek (similarly, it might be useful to look at destinations).

You are spot on re: sport. WHS has quite a wide offer (including gymnastics, dance, yoga, fencing, tennis) and very inclusive (teams for all the girls that want to be in a team... but also fine if the girls don't want to be in a team).

Art and design seem to be of similar (high) standard. I would say the same about drama. Music stronger at WHS.

@sanam2019 @witscreek I think I can shed some light on this: I have a DD in Y11 in WHS, and more than 3/4 of their Maths top set + top part of 2nd set will move to coed King's next year for sixth form. (incl DD who would like to study FM & Physics) ... Frankly I cannot fault WHS's STEM teaching, which has been amazing.

Indeed- lots moved from DDs year as well ( a few wished they hadn't). She thought about it but didn't in the end- totally the right decision for her.
But there's such movement at sixth form at all the schools that the OP should probably just think about up to GCSEs at the moment.

@Lilleaudesniges really interesting, thanks for sharing (even if not making a decision anymore, good to have confirmation of the excellence of the teaching and the options it brings). I remember being told at the time that the GCSE results are probably more important when looking at schools (but specially all-though single sex schools) precisely because of the movement for 6th form, and your message really brings it home.