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Secondary education

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Secondary school decision - Hammersmith schools

101 replies

valvalm · 28/02/2024 10:21

Good morning all,
First time poster here so forgive me if I don't get all the acronyms right.
Our daughter has been lucky enough to get some offers for secondary school after 11+.
We went to the different offers holder event and we are trying to make the right choice for her.
We are left with SPGS, Godolphin and Latymer Upper. We rejected the other offers last week as less convenient in terms of commute.
I understand that they are all fantastic schools. Obviously Latymer is a co-ed school which is a big differentiating factor - and probably the reason why we won't go for it in the end. My husband is not a big advocate of that for the moment.
Do people have views though on ending GCSE? I understand SPGS will do that soon as well?

Can someone give me differentiators between SPGS and Godolphin please? What I get from talking to parents / friends around me is that SPGS is over academically, number 1 in all leagues for a number of year and it should be a no brainer.
Looking at GCSE results though it looks like we are only talking a few girls having 9 vs 8? Am I correct?
The things that worry me at SPGS at the moment is that it seems to lack diversity in terms of ethnicities. We are of mixed background and when we went for the offer holder there, the vast majority of the girls were of Asian ethnicity,

Please help me!

OP posts:
Sashya · 28/02/2025 14:44

Newuseridforthis · 28/02/2025 08:32

Most profound of this example I see over and over being grammar school parents' 'inspiration and encouragement' for STEM degree. Medical school is often seen as the holy grail, with other STEM disciplines and Economics alternatively regarded as solid pathways to lucrative careers, especially in finance.

Institutions like Oxbridge or Harvard, one would hope they know what they want .

I am not sure why this is strange to anyone. Of course, STEM degrees are more of a pathway to a well-paid career vs, say, a degree in Art.

I grew up in an educational system that is more classical - where we did not have school subjects as drama, etc. in school. Those existed as hobbies and activities one can do outside of schools. So - as a result of how I am - most of "inspirational and encouraging" things I did with my kids when they were young were things that interested me - and were STEM skewed.
Isn't it normal for parents to try to pass their own interests and values to their kids?

However, you can't make a square peg round. And no matter how much "encouragement" you can give your kids - they also need to be naturally good at those STEM subjects and show quite a lot of dedication to medicine to actually get to study those subjects in Uni.

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