Wiltshire grammar school. Honest views.

[Beehiveme]

Hi, we went to visit a all girls grammar in the next county last week. We are in a non grammar county. Our daughter is very bright and it's been mentioned to us as a possibility for her.
Honestly on distance it's a bit of a long shot anyway but I was expecting to be wowed.
The reality is I'm not.
It's a long way really, the walk from the train station in the town to school is pretty grotty really and about 20 min from station to school.
Obviously it's selective so great results, but I don't actually think the results differ from the top sets from our local comp.
It was quite run down, facilities actually less impressive than other schools we have looked at.

I don't know if it's actually worth it.
DH and I also had a massive row on way home as I had been pushing for this school and he was really rather unimpressed by school and thought the commute was not appropriate for DD.

The school is in Salisbury. We live just north of Winchester. Our DS is top sets in a Winchester comp but due to age gap DD will not get sibling link and we are not officially catchment. This is why we are looking at all options.

I really want to know others views on this. Local people will know the school without me naming it.
Should we plough ahead with 11+ and small chance. Or will a very able child do just as well in a Hampshire comp???
I want to know if others have felt the same really.

I want to give DD the best possible chances in life and had thought a girls selective would be best?

We have looked at all comps in and around Winchester and all had been impressive with articulate kids showing us around.
Our own son is thriving and claims he has never had any disruption in his classes. He is happy.
We have seen st Swithurns which if we were rich would 100% go for. Sadly we are not!!

So honestly those who have also seen this school. What do you really do think of it?? Is it some amazing educational facility or is it just doing well because it's full of clever girls.

I'm in Romsey and a (very very) few children do go to the Salisbury grammars from here. tbh I have never quite understood why when we have two perfectly good comps in the town which are capable of turning out strings of grade 8/9s; people will have their reasons no doubt, and obviously single sex may be a factor for some.

@Blewitt

has a bad reputation locally for the poor mental health of the girls and academia being the priority.

But that is the case with almost all grammar schools. Pastoral care is often a bare minimum and they push for academic results. I always say that grammar schools are for very academic and at the same time psychologically very resilient kids.

I would say the opposite, grammar school kids are often a lot more spoon fed at home and at school, and a lot less resilient than comprehensive school kids. If you child is resilient, grammar school won't make them less so

I don't know if this is helpful as I'm not from your area but we were advised to opt for grammars for my kids. Like your dd, they would have both had extensive travel. They ended up going to comps that had good progress 8 (although not great OFSTEDs overall) and I can't imagine either of them would have done better in the grammars. Like your son, they were both in top sets. They are both older teens now and have done very well academically.

They moved into senior school with friends and were able to do a lot more extra curriculum because there was less travel. It was a real bonus for them to have friends from our area as well.

Our neighbours sent their eldest to a grammar and I used to see him coming back home at gone 5.30 / 6pm. They sent their second to the local comp. They said if they'd have known then what they know now, they would have sent both of them to the comp.

Please note that I didn't say that in grammar schools ARE resilient kids. I said that grammar schools are FOR academically great and psychologically resilient kids.
This is because the grammar schools receive less money per kid from gov than comprehensive schools. This affects pastoral care. There is an expectation that the grammar kids are more independent. In fact they are facing a lot of academic push and minimal mental health support.

If you put in School Parot names of few grammars you will see the main complain is about pastoral care and mental health.

Beaufort or Perrins then Symonds are a better bet than South Wilts.
Kings and Westgate reflect their catchments after all