Altrincham girls?

[WahWahWahs]

Can anyone give me any feedback on Altrincham Girls’ school? We are moving to the area and DD will be secondary-aged in a few years.
Is the culture nice? Am completely in the dark about the whole area!
thanks in advance 😃

Hi I have a fair bit of experience of the grammars especially the girls

Ranked in order of difficulty to get into

Aggs
Sale grammar
Loreto
Also Stretford and urmston but I don't know anything about them

None of them are easy.

First dd sat for all of them and passed for all of them. She went to loreto and I can't sing its praises enough. It is religious though and I wouldn't recommend it if you're not on board with that. The girls spend a fair bit of time in chapel and do regular retreats.

Second dd was able but not as much as dd1 she sat for loreto and passed. Didn't bother with the consortium as I wouldn't have sent her to any of them even if by some miracle she passed. She in Y8 and absolutely loving it.

Obviously everyone looks for different things in a school but my own personal view on the school is I would never send my daughters there,
I have around 10 friends with daughters there and none of them have had a positive experience. One left as her mental health was in tatters a lot of girls do have eating disorders and there are quite a few cases of self harm.
Unfortunately you could argue that this could just be the case for teenagers at any school but the academic pressure definitely doesn't help.

I went to the open day for dd1 (granted was a few years ago) the girls were lovely and obviously very able but the head teacher put me off the school as soon as she started to speak.
I found her incredibly arrogant. She basically said our school is the best if your daughter likes homework and is clever enough great, if not there are plenty of other good schools.

I see her a lot now through something outside of schools and my opinion hasn't changed.

If you are determined for your daughter to go there I would suggest trying to get her into either Bowdon or Hale Prep as they seem to prepare them best for the exams. State primaries do nothing (or at least ours didn't).

While I really like living in Altrincham another thing to think about is so do a lot other people with kids. Trying to get them into any extra curriculum things can be a nightmare as everyone has massive waiting lists. This is also the case with tutors so book early if you are thinking of going down this route.

This is all very useful, thanks so much! It’s particularly interesting to hear about the area in general as I am wondering how we will ‘fit in’

@WahWahWahs please dont be discouraged by this - yes there are some affluent people living locally, but equally quite alot of nornal people. Yes to over-invested / competitive / helicopter parenting in lots of cases, but you're going to get that in alot of other places. The area has masses going on, Altrincham Market has rejuvinated it and it really is a thriving place to live. The vast majority of girls do exceptionally well, there is perhaps a "type" and a particular culture, but if that fits for your daughter, then its a great school. The pastoral care is much better, you just have to go and see for yourself and more importantly, try to get to know the area and speak to parents. Good luck.

@WahWahWahs Altrincham is an affluent area and a nice place to live. It often appears in 'nicest places to live' lists. There are some multi million pound houses but also much cheaper ones. There are plenty of 'normal' people.

My dd went to Alty girls along with a large cohort from her local state primary school. She and her peers all did well academically and she has definitely made friends for life there. (She’s now in her 20’s)

As for Altrincham being an affluent area, we lived in a terrace house on one of the “tree roads”, paid £82k 27 years ago and those houses now go for between £600-800k. That’s the Grammar school effect. We were comfortable but definitely not wealthy.

I live locally and have heard the same from local health workers. It’s a great school but not for everyone. TBH there aren’t really any bad schools in Sale or Altrincham, the bar is set very high by the grammars but the comps are really decent I believe.

I would say if your daughter is in the top few kids in her class at primary when they do tests etc then she would fit right in at AGGS. At Key Stage tests the score would usually be 115 to 120 to be expected to get into grammar school. If not the above then it could be a struggle.

Primary schools can be quite evasive when asked directly about 11 plus, ours never mentioned it unless asked, had no 11 plus clubs etc and to be honest even the brightest kid in that situation would need a tutor for a few months just to get exposure to the tests/questions. It may be different at other Primaries. I hear Park Road Primary in Timperley is a bit more 11plus focused but tiny catchment. Of course prep schools have 11 plus club every day.

I would NOT recommend AGGS as the pupils make it, not the school. They actually teach themselves!!
The standard of teaching when I was was there was horrible.
If your child has half a brain they would be as much good at a secondary modern in Trafford.

What is this about preparing for the exams??
The whole point is that you take the grammar school entrance exams with NO preparation and that is exactly why the state schools provide none.

That was in the good old days! These days most families get a private tutor or send their kids to prep school...or both. My daughters went to AGGS from a local state primary which did some preparation in the form of an after-school club.

Our primary offered nothing in terms of 11plus prep. In particular the non verbal reasoning papers would be almost impossible if you had barely worked on these types of questions before getting them in an exam paper. Non verbal reasoning is about a third of the mark I think

My daughter went there, the girls, sorry, ”students”, are indoctrinated with lgbtq++++++ and feminism trends at a very extent level. All the other subjects are done at a mediocre level.

I lived in altrincham for 20 years. I hated it with a passion and never want to see it again in my life. It’s smug and superficial and has a lot of over entitled idiots in range rovers. It does have a good cinema though!

Preps prep them. That’s what people are paying for.. the rest tutor heavily for at least a year. It’s a huge industry in Trafford