Thinking of Queenswood in Herts for DD9

[TheLastNapkin]

Does anyone have any thoughts on it? She's a quiet girl, likes reading, maths and netball.
She bright, bit overly so, but is doing well. Will she do well there?
Looking at day places really. We're in South Herts so it makes sense.

Yeah as long as she doesn’t have any pastoral problems. Their pastoral care is appalling. Ask them to do an ADHD assessment for my daughter they refuse to do it make constant excuses, ridiculous as you pay an expensive fee. My daughter knew a girl who was bullied badly as well, but if your daughter is confident, independent then I’m sure she’ll be fine

When my daughter went she said the kids were not terribly naughty, but when they were not much was done. Again, nothing serious just a bit of disruptiveness here and there the teachers just leave them to it to be fair.

why would you expect a school do an ADHD assessment though? wouldn't that go through your GP or similar?

Doesn’t the poster mean she wanted them to complete the school view assessment screening form for the clinician assessing @TheLastNapkin ?

Most schools would surely agree to do that.

No CAMHS sent a form for the teachers to fill out about her behaviour in class

Where did your daughter move to? We are seriously considering this school for DD9. We are not pushy parents and want her to have a pleasant secondary school experience without academic pressure although she is a bright child. She is not at all sporty though and concern here is this might be an issue? We will visit all the schools on our shortlist to get a feel.

@DiamondRBD The Head, 20 years ago, encouraged academic girls to apply. My DD was there when you were and also got a place at Oxford. Many girls were going to universities like Bristol, Manchester, Exeter, Kings, Nottingham, Edinburgh etc. Not now. Their results were the same as my local grammar - but not now. There was a noticeable change in around 2005 in terms of type of girl recruited. Certainly rich but many were not very pleasant and of course many were day girls and knew each other. Some overseas DD integrate and some won’t.

It’s not just tennis dc who stick together, it’s nearly all sporty dc. However, get into drama and you get immediate friends, and the drama is good. The academics have slipped so much it’s rather sad. My DD1 found amazing girls there who are still her close friends, DD2 found cliques and some pretty spiteful DDs with a very different set of parents. She has virtually no friends from there. In her year, only 33 stayed into the 6 th form. Half left, including my DD. I think the school now polarizes opinions. If your DD is favoured, you’ll love it. If your DD is marginalized , you won’t.

@Ireolu There are a lot of “thoughts” on here that are simply not reflective of the school - I have two daughters there.

Neither of them are sporty but both have enjoyed the inclusive attitude to sport. I was amazed when my youngest went to netball club and made a team and for the first time in her life actually enjoyed it!!!!!! Yes, the tennis scholars have their own little bubble (and a formidable reputation on the courts) but there’s less than five in each year group (just two in my younger daughters year) so hardly an issue.

My girls are both creative and academic and the school meets their needs exceptionally well. The eldest is applying to Oxbridge. The youngest finds everything easy but thrives being towards the top of the year. Her confidence has improved significantly as a result and a super academic school probably would have crushed her.

Queenswood is not an academic hot house. They are not selecting just the very brightest girls. They take a wide range of abilities including minor SEN (dyslexia, dyscalculia etc). Their results reflect this. If league tables impress you and is your only measure of judging a school then Q is probably not for you.

What it does do well is find out what your daughter is good at and encourage her and builds on that. Drama, dance, art and music are brilliant as well as sport. There’s no pressure to go just to Russell group universities or study traditionally academic subjects.

I would encourage you to visit and make your own mind up.

They would have a very empty school if they just accepted the brightest! They simply don’t apply now. The decline in results is very obvious. When my DDs were there, virtually no SEN. It’s a school that has had to become less academic because most academic dc aren’t applying. It’s how the school has marketed itself and the smaller catchment area due to far more day girls has meant the academic schools for more academic dc are within easy reach.

Theres a need for some bright dc to work with other bright dc. There’s plenty of schools that do not push or hothouse but get better results. I’m in a grammar county so 30% ish go to the grammars. Our local girls private school is getting much better results than Q with mostly grammar dc missing! A critical mass of higher achieving dc matters to some. However Q does media studies so that’s all good!

This is all interesting.

Surely we shouldn't be focusing on the actual results,but the "progess8" equivalent? Like how much better are they doing than their baseline would indicate?

Surely if you get 100kids predicted 8/9 and they're getting 8/9, that's fine a d would happen. But if you had 100 kids predicted 5/6, and they were getting 7/8... That's great news.

You can't look at just results. It's easy to get 100% 7-9 if you're only taking kids predicted 8-9 in the first place? Doesn't mean it's a good school,just means it's full of clever kids? 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

Id be more impressed in a school that can add 1-2 grades to a 5 student than a school that breezes through with the cleverest kids.

Plus school is more than exam results?

@TheLastNapkin Well that’s one way of looking at an expensive education but many private schools don’t have progress 8 measures. Prep schools don’t do sats. Of course schools do their own checks but you haven’t got a national system for private schools. We chose Q partly for academics but partly for breadth of activities and experiences DDs would enjoy. They were not a particularly ambitious school academically but many parents expected DDs to go to universities like Exeter and Bath, and they did. It’s never been a school sending loads to Oxbridge, LSE or Imperial. It’s clearly not a Wycombe Abbey. You just have to decide if it fits your DD. Some DDs fit right in and have cheerleader parents (I was one originally!) others find it’s not for them and various aspects of school life make them unhappy. In Bucks some of the best progress 8 scores are in the grammars! So teaching means everything even for bright dc. There’s always progress to be made.

@MeetMeOnTheCorner I really don’t know what your point is. You are criticising a school for not being “academic”, having a higher number of girls with SEN than the 10-15 years ago when you knew the school and offering media studies? These are all reasons why parents ARE choosing Queenswood, not reasons to give it a wide berth.

Queenswood doesn’t sell itself as academic. It’s a school that fits a wide range of children’s needs and over the years has responded to changes and needs of both parents and children. Their value add is superb. They are changing those 5s into 6s but also ensuring the very brightest get those top grades. This is all backed up by huge amounts of data. Girls do exceed their potential there. For some girls that may well not be all grade 9s but pulling a 7 out of the hat. I think that’s blooming brilliant. It really doesn’t matter what it was like in the past. It’s a school with healthy numbers on roll and doing really well - they are obviously offering something parents want and are prepared to pay for.

I mean, it used to be a full boarding school - is the change to mix of day and boarding also to be criticised?

Thank you so much for this, your experience of the school is very reassuring. Its top of our list as we really do not want an academic hothouse. We will be looking at Habs and Stahs too but are aware these are more academic schools. We are booked for a visit soon. I hope she is inspired.

As an OQ from the late 80s, I’ve read this thread with interest. It used to be fairly academic, and if it no longer is, then that’s only a problem if people are expecting it to be.

Arguably more pertinent is @RatherBeOnVacation‘s last point about the change from full boarding. Over that last 35 years, I keep hearing about the huge change in demographic make up of the pupils: fewer boarders vs non boarders, having to increase the international intake to fill spaces. No one seems to have the stats, but if I were considering Q for my daughter, this would affect my decision making because it does impact how one feels whilst at the school.

In both my daughter’s years international boarders make up 15-20%. The great majority of girls there are British. Admittedly very few are full boarders but they have a very healthy contingent of weekly boarders.

Interesting that there are few full boarders. Not for relevance to this thread, but just for old times’ sake.

@AnOOQ There are stats for boarders. Very few start in y7. DD1 had around 20 and DD2 much less. Even then (2003 for DD1) hardly any stayed in at weekends and most girls were day “boarders”. DD was often one of 4 in the Trew weekend gang. When DD2 was there, day girl parents complained about the length of the school day and it was reduced. Boarding numbers greatly increase in the 6th form when lots more international DDs join. It gets up to 50%. It’s not a boarding school really. It’s weekly with some weekend activities that are optional.

The history of independent schools matters. How they position themselves in the market place matters. Q cannot compete with several localish academic day schools now so has repositioned itself.

I see the University list looks pretty good now but seemed to not cover the whole 6th form. It was rather short.

We chose the school for breadth and academics. I’ve also just read a review on another platform that chimes with me. It’s about who gets recognition and who’s not noticed. I completely saw that. Money talks very loudly as does drama ability and sport. There’s nearly always copious news on sport. Money gets you something else that’s harder define (or parents have very prestigious jobs!) but anyone not in a premier elite category will notice. Most cheerleader parents are in the elite categories for obvious reasons.

For most girls it’s not going to be all grade 8s or 9s! A handful get this. Of course it’s a school with a breadth of academics and isn’t very selective. It’s true that parents wanting a larger cohort of academic dc are going elsewhere and most uk based dc are weekly boarding.