London grammar and private senior school entry 2025 part 2

[CruCru]

Here is the new thread for when part 1 is full.

No.

@shehasglasses48 thank you so much for sharing, sending you a big big hug

Just coming back to you on your questions. I personally think as I said that a bright child (which your daughter clearly is) will do well academically at any of the schools mentioned. PHS and similar nearby schools like WHS have excellent results especially when you consider that around 40% of their y7 intake joined at 4+ and go straight through and that they tend to lose as many as 10-15% of their brightest girls each year to other sixth forms (often girls who joined at 4yrs feel they’d like a change at 16yrs). The value add in terms of teaching must be extremely good vs schools which can pick the very top children at 11+. She may also benefit from the self-esteem boost (& other opportunities) of being an academic scholar.

With this in mind, factors like fees, logistics, location and most importantly the “feel” of the school with your daughter in mind are more important - in my opinion. PHS and G&L feel very different to me - go back and look around now you have the offers and see how you and your DD feel. PHS has a much more local student body than G&L which draws from wider London and where all girls join at 11. For us, we preferred a school where all 120 girls were starting together from a broad range of preps & primaries and just loved the atmosphere at G&L even though other schools including PHS may have been slightly easier geographically.

Our prep head said they were promised 2-3 places each year. And every year 2-3 kids would be awarded academic/ sports/ drama scholarships without fail

SPGS has had the so-called '50-minute rule' for a while. However, I know a few girls who were offered and ultimately attended the school, across multiple year groups, with a commute time that far exceeds 50 minutes. This indicates the SLT attitude towards this policy; they seem to prioritize having 'suitable' students and parents over concerns about commute time. I've heard that this year, they want to be more cautious about this policy in admissions because many parents, obsessed with getting their children into the school, have previously ignored the rule.

I hope they are genuinely serious about enforcing this now, even though it might risk their 'top' league table position in the long term.

It is a catch-22 situation. The school, high in academic league tables with excellent Oxbridge results, attracts involved parents who believe this is the golden path. The parents are eager to push their children into the school and begin preparation from an early stage. This creates a self-perpetuating cycle, attracting even more parents with the same mindset year after year.

On one hand, being high in the league table enables the school to charge higher tuition fees, possibly allowing them to spend more money on better facilities (you hope) . It also alleviates some pressure on school teaching
end about quality assurance for the academic progress of the students . If a student struggles or falls behind (or require additional push) , in addition to school, the highly involved, the implicit selection of the 'tiger' parents cohort are likely to step in and provide whatever support is needed.

On the other hand, despite competitive admissions, the school might try to create a less competitive environment to mitigate these effects. This could lead to disparities in the pressure experienced by different students. Naturally self-driven girls with supportive parents might thrive, while some may struggle.

With both the High Mistress and deputy Head departing soon for different reasons, it will be interesting to see how the school navigates this situation.

To be honest, even 50 minutes is pushing it for a commute to school. If a journey makes my heart sink (at 46) then I can’t sensibly expect it of my eleven year old.

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I agree, unfortunately all of our realistic indies schools were 40-55 mins. It’s going to be a shock for dd not being able to walk to school in 10 min!

Totally agree @CruCru . Those of us who have commuted for work know how exhausting it is even for adults let alone kids. Its effect is cumulative. You can do it for a few years but it wears you down after a while. 50 mins each way might seem doable at first, but after a while it’s torture. Factor in that teenagers’ biological clock changes and they become night owls and the choice to send them to a “better” school 50 mins away starts to feel like an awful mistake. For me 40 mins max (regularly, not on a good day) would be the rule.

Thank you. That is very useful. I hope that the open holder tours will help to get a feel. I must say that open days confused me more than anything. A school is a school. Maybe being able to see who has an offer will be telling.

Is anyone thinking of accepting a concrete offer for a school lower down your preferred list or will you be holding out for any WL ones? I know lots of WLs didn’t move all that much in the last couple of years.

Are there many with Queen’s College WL out there?

@shehasglasses48

well for me this thread has been a totally different experience !

I have followed this thread and the previous one since the beginning even tho it's completely irrelevant to me as I do not have a child that age and don't live in London, tho I have lived in / around London and many of the schools names are familiar to me as a result.

It is such a lovely supportive thread.
(very similar to a Universities thread I happened upon last year)

Congratulations to everyone whose child has got an offer to a school of choice.

NC. Lots of parents of (especially older) DCs at LUS share similar feelings. Based on our observations, I am not confident that all subject reforms implemented by LUS teachers will be successful in the near future. DC1 is currently preparing for GCSEs at LUS, while DC2 recently took entrance exams for other co-ed schools, including Westminster, Emmanuel, and Harrodian.

Did anyone get offer from JAGS or PHS?

@Berrywithheart - I have a DC sitting GCSEs at LU and most of the parents I know think it's quite a good idea particularly parents from countries who don't have exams at 16. They're still going to have to sit A levels so they know what they have to learn and be taught. So much of GCSEs is answering the question in the right way in accordance with the mark scheme rather than what you actually know it sucks all the joy out of some of the subjects.
I have another DC going through A levels and it is very different so I don't think not sitting a GCSE is going to have a negative affect. They are still going to be learning the content and being tested on it.

Are you on WL for queens college? We have an offer from them we are going to decline. I’ll write the email this evening so maybe ring the registrar tomorrow or after ht.

Thanks @Rocktheboatbaby

Have you picked your school or is QC just the bottom of a list for you?

I'm much more agonised by the choice than I was prepared for.

Been lurking here, not posted since the start... it's been a super helpful thread.

We are agonising over what to choose. We are considering offers at higher girls & lower coed ranked schools.

Wondering if the everyone's invited issue is still prevalent in co-ed, is there still too much focus on the boys... on the other hand I hear the girls schools put a lot of pressure on, cliques, mean girls...

FWIW DCs might actually be happier at lower ranked schools. The difference is not much academically looking at results tables,

Emanuel is so sought after we'd feel foolish to turn it down.

I don't know what I'm asking for... Views please from current parents - pastorally - the good, the bad & the downright toxic if it exists at Emanuel or at PHS or at WHS.

We would want to release asap to allow WL to move for others.

We will be releasing FHRP, Channing and most likely Habs this evening. Going to offers holders days at QCL , SH and City.

We got phs too and debating it against g&l.

On everyone’s invited – my view is that these are issues that girls are going to experience in the real world and it’s best for them to get used to working alongside boys and having friendships with boys, rather than romantic or sexual relationships, as at early an age as possible. This is especially important in the age of Andrew Tate, I don’t think sheltering the girls from the kind of misogyny that’s circling around the Internet until 18 and then expecting them to suddenly deal with it is actually going to be helpful. Others will feel differently.

I can’t speak for other schools, but I said at LUS my experience has been looked the school dealt with the allegations very proactively and certainly now anything inappropriate is stamped on from a very great height (though in my experience it already was before the allegations were published).

My hubby prefers PHS while DD likes JAGS. Wanna have more insights of both schools.

I would just add that going to an all girls’ school also doesn’t preclude girls from these issues unfolding. All boys’ schools (eg.Dulwich College & KCS) were heavily criticised in the wake of everyone’s invited, with the Wimbledon High and Jags girls (amongst others) the victims sadly. Speaking personally I went to an all girls’ school and definitely experience awful situations from male ‘friends’ outside of school at weekends etc.

That’s very true @TidyLion!