Jags - offer but worried

[Skintcapitalist]

DD has an offer for Jags. Currently at local school in year 6. She is bright but lazy - or possibly ND. I worry how she will cope with the academic and homework expectations and all-girl friendships. She is bright but can be slap dash and inconsistent. She liked the feel of Jags (swish facilities, lovely tour guides, liked the assessment) after not wanting to even visit. If anyone has recent experience - both pros and cons - please feel free to share!

JAGS is a very relaxed and down to earth school. You don’t need to worry at all. There is very little homework and the school caters for a variety of styles so expectations are minimal at least for large chunk of the years. Girls friendships could be tricky but my friends who have DDs in coeds are saying their girls only hang out with girls anyway so you have the benefit of having a larger pool to connect with. If you and your daughter liked the school go for it.

I have a friend whose has ADHD, and so has her daughter. they were finding a little too relaxed and not prescriptive enough. they didn't feel it was structured enough and that they were getting enough clear communication especially in regard to homework. It is correct that they had less homework than at our school, and less testing.
Jags seem to rely on bright motivated self-starter kind of girls, kind of thingy.
I am not parent there so I can't comment.
I have a teenage girl in another private school, but coed and she and her friends hang out a lot with girls, but also with boys. a few girls even play in the boys teams or they run mixed teams, the girls go and watch the boys play sports and the likes. Drama and music get them together too.

@SouthLondonM JAGS is hardly a "relaxed" school!

OP, I'd suggest searching for older threads about the school too.

I have a dd that is bright, but on the lazy side for studies as well. This is probably due to being able to coast during primary and be top of class anyway. She moved on to G&L and is enjoying school very much. It is a big jump with the amount of homework compared to secondary (but I think most schools pile it on when you move to secondary) and I think being in a more academic school has motivated her. I think if we sent her to a school where she can coast, she will continue to do so...

I must be honest, for my DD Jags has also been fairly relaxed. She isn’t hugely motivated, but she is very capable. She doesn’t spend a lot of time on homework (she gets a lot done in school), and is fairly relaxed. She does want to do well, but there is not really any pressure from school, as far as I am aware. They are fairly relaxed about uniform (which my DD LOVES). They have shifted their approach and have made lessons longer to allow deeper learning in class, and are shifting to less homework than they used to have. I have a friend with girls there and one is like mine, but the other does a lot of homework because her group of friends are much more conscientious and anxious. Her girls are also hugely involved in music and drama at school. My DD is not interested in any of that! One of the things I like is that there seems to be space for the girls to be who they want to be. My DD commented that it wasn’t a ‘cool’ school, but from a parental perspective, that is a good thing. I don’t know if that is in-part the girls school thing, but it is a vast improvement on her previous school (mixed), which was much more cliquey.

Thanks for all your replies. Yes I never thought of Jags as relaxed - although I think the newish head has tried hard to change the image. Sometimes though I think girls are super competitive and I’m not sure if my DD will thrive or crumble. When we apply pressure at home, she rebels. She seems to put on a different front at school though and is very engaged in the classroom, not so much in homework though or prepping for exams. The offer we have is full fees. We also have a decent scholarship offer from St Dunstan’s. Any views on which to take gratefully received!

Our experience is JAGS is very gentle and a relaxed school, JAGS being a hot house is I think a dated image and not reflective of our experience. But also true that people might have different experiences in the same school.

They are very different schools!! You are going to need to consider which environment/ ethos your DD will enjoy. St D takes a much broader range of ability and so your DD is likely to be at the top (perhaps with little effort). Commute is always an important consideration too.

I have posted similar on another thread recently - JAGS really isn’t a hot house and I suspect it is a reputation that lingers from three head teachers ago. However, they do get excellent results and I don’t think tutoring is a thing - certainly we don’t tutor.

I attended the GCSE options evening a couple of years ago and remember being vividly struck by how none of the girls wore make up, had no obvious jewellery, nails were not done, hair was loose or scrap back but no fancy styles/colours accessories. Just normal girls who didn’t seem to be under social pressures. North Face jackets do seem very very popular though!

Thanks @phyllidafosset . St Dunstan’s is a closer commute. She would enjoy the environment there (we know a few people who attend already). BUT is that initial enjoyment, easy commute and scholarship/discount enough to make up for the stellar results that Jags gets? I like the idea of the girls not wearing tons of make up etc. My DD is trying to be ‘cool’ and annoyingly already manages to pull it off. I wonder if a more spartan environment like Jags would calm her down a bit? I mean I have no doubt she would have fun at St Dunstan’s, but I’m not sure she would get the same results. It’s so tricky!

It’s not a Spartan environment! 😂
Of course there are rules about dress code but I think the girls just seemed comfortable in themselves.

Sorry @hadtonamechangeobviously - completely wrong adjective! I meant it is a bit less rowdy/‘fun’ than St Dunstan’s. DD likes having boys around too… I’m not sure this is always a great idea. Plus she has a brother so she will always have him and his pals around. I’m just trying to work out if a more earnest environment would help or bore her!

I should say there are girls who wear makeup and who like to go out (talking about 14/15+) at Jags, but my feeling is they are not as image obsessed as they could be (even if they are still comfortable with the North Face coats). And it isn’t all the girls, and that doesn’t make them the ‘cool’ girls. It is just them doing teenage in their own way, if you know what I mean.

Does your DD have a preference? That is also important.

Full disclosure, I am biased because we chose Jags over a big StD scholarship 😁

Sorry, didn’t mean to imply the none of them wore make up. I am sure some do, it’s natural to do so and natural not to. I travel past some schools and the girls are much more heavily made up and seem more conscious of their appearance or image.

i thought that might have been what you were thinking, and I do agree 😊

What were your reasons for choosing Jags @phyllidafosset? As has been said on this thread, they are very different schools! My DH is convinced St D is on the up and will be the place everyone wants soon… I took my daughter expecting not to like Jags but we both ending up liking it far more than expected. It is more of a journey from our house and we are looking at nearly 30k a year - yikes. The open days and assessments seem ages ago though and while she liked it at the time, she is now erring towards St Dunstans as more of her friends will be there and there are boys… I am not sure the friends thing is something to base such a decision on given that they fall in and out with each other all the time. On the other hand, this drama will be doubled if she is surrounded by girls. I am afraid she will be one of the image conscious girls. I do not know where this comes from unless it is to rebel against her scruffy mother.

Sounds like you already know what is right for your DD. I’d say follow your instinct and the fact that she already have friends, coupled with an easy commute makes it a good choice. It is not JAGS who gets those results it is the kids who go there. If your DD is bright enough to get in she will likely get the same results wherever she goes. My experience is JAGS don’t pressure the kids to push the grades up. So just focus on where you think she will be happier.

@Skintcapitalist I should say, DD didn’t join at 11, she joined later, so we were thinking about this at a different point. She is very bright, and in previous experience in an all ability environment she got bored. She isn’t deeply motivated, and wouldn’t seek out extra work. She doesn’t want to stand out. StD is all ability, which will suit some better than others. People often say that bright kids will do well wherever. I think that is true of motivated bright kids. They absolutely will. But less motivated ones? There I am not so sure. It is very easy to coast. And it is also easy to mask (and underperform) if there is a really significant difference between you and your friends. It isn’t to say that all the girls at jags are super bright. They aren’t. But there are a good number of very bright girls, and there is broadly a culture that includes study and revision (even if it is more intense in some friends groups than others). It works for my DD, but the difficulty is that no school will suit all kids. You kind of have to go with your best attempt and hope. I think that it is also okay to change your mind if it doesn’t work. As long as any commute isn’t too long. Too long a commute will be horrible for any kid.

(I’m intrigued by those who post that their child is ‘very bright’ - how times have changed.)

I learn from friends with ch at JAGS that it is relaxed, possibly too much if your child requires a push. Having said that, ch need to
develop their own motivation at some stage anyway and a few terms of poor results might be great in the long run.