Highgate or UCS - girl joining sixth form

[DibbleDooDah]

Academic DD currently at an all girls school and wants to be with boys in the sixth form. Both schools work logistically.

She wants to do maths, further maths, physics and probably DT but might do computer science - still mulling over that 4th option.

At other (less academic) schools, the number of girls in the FM, physics, DT and CS classes have been tiny. Think one girl and ten boys. Whilst we kind of expect an uneven spread between the sexes, does anyone have any insight into current splits in these subjects? Open days aren’t until September.

Also, thinking it might be easier to make friends at UCS as all the girls are new at the same time? Anyone had a girl join Highgate at sixth form?

DD is quietly confident and generally good at making friends in new situations. She would find it hard trying to break into cliques though.

We have also looked at standalone sixth form colleges (both state and private) and hardly any offer DT / product design e.g. Woodhouse College. Any suggestions of other places we should consider?

@preppingforlife I never said it was essential or preferred. I said it was valued. At a recent event at one of the Cambridge Colleges (husband and I are alumni), over a third of the current first year engineering undergrads had DT as an A-level. They also all had maths, further maths and physics as you would expect. Just one college but actual first hand data.

Speaking to one of the professors they said they liked it because it mirrors the way engineers actually work in real life - an idea or brief, investigations, models, prototypes, testing, final product etc. The biggest issue is a large number of schools actually don’t offer it. The other most popular 4th A-level choices were computer science and chemistry. Both of which also complement but are not preferred or essential.

So your advice of being “cautious” about taking it is incorrect. It’s never going to replace the essential maths and physics A-levels but it is actually very useful. Far more useful than something like history.

My daughter started Highgate at 16 and is quite shy - but she found everybody really welcoming and was included in an established set of friends with absolutely no problems. There didn't appear to be any bitchiness that we'd seen at other schools (maybe they grow out of it), plus she loved that the other kids were really engaged and wanted to do academic clubs etc. She did Maths, Chemistry, Biology and economics- and good split of boys to girls in this. Her best female friend did Further Maths. I've heard from other mums that UCS can be quite tough for girls - boys marking the girls for looks etc - but this was about five years ago - although I think the longer you've had girls in the school the better they are integrated.

I would opt for Highgate, out of the two. Results are better, and it has a very, very strong maths department. I imagine easier for girls to join a school that has been co-ed all the way through, as a previous poster points out.