Godolphin & Latymer

[esea]

Our daughter received an offer for G&L 2025 entry. We’re looking for some insights to the school as we don’t know anyone from there. We are a working and a very low-key family, trying to give kids best education eg. we would spend money carefully, never go on exotic holidays, etc (not because we don’t want it but financially 😅).

DD is academically bright, quite musical but not a music scholar, not sporty but still would take part. The feedback we received from her current school says she’d be better off in an academic school as it’s not easy to keep her engaged otherwise and likes to be stretched. They also said if not challenged she has a tendency to coast along, which I’d agree.
We haven’t applied to SPGS or any grammar schools as we thought they wouldn’t be the right fit for her.

So my question is, given all of the above, wondering if the school is good academically because of their education or girls highly tutored for GCSE and A levels? Are there working families or is it more like Central London affluent families?

I’m sorry I didn’t mean to high jack the original thread OP.
Honestly I’m just worried about what these kids have to go through (including my DDs) - if anyone want to rant.. my DMs are open 😊

A few G&L (or other girls school like WHS) girls moved to Kings or Westminster to be in a coed environment, they are 16 years old... not because of better outcomes. Kings and Westminster Oxbridge offers and A level are bumped up by those girls...

Whilst I agree that most moves at 16 are driven by the girls themselves I know from personal experience that a number of girls are persuaded to move because their parents are targeting Oxbridge. You only need to listen to the conversations going on at Open Evenings to know it goes on!

Will be interesting what effect Westminster going co-ed has on intakes and outcomes. Further diluting the talent pool for London day school girls schools.

Completely agree, we know families looking at 7+ and 11+ in near future for their daughters. Some to join their brothers and also they prefer the way coed and boys school are teaching their kids with clear feedback. It seems some are concerned by the ‘all is fine’ report and at 11+ their daughters have gaps so they moving their younger kids.

Exactly this! My Y5 DD goes to a girls' prep school. It's fascinating how many parents of super-achieving girls are now hoping for Westminster over SPGS or G&L. These parents, who once only wanted girls only, have now decided that there's a co-ed option that's good enough (and better) for them! Anyway, I'm hoping the boys at Westminster are ready for these young women. They are not only highly intelligent but also likely way more mature than their male peers.

There's a perception that Westminster and KCS have stronger STEM offerings at Sixth Form than all-girls schools, with the possible exception of SPGS. I've been told by several girls schools that a large percentage of the their GCSE candidates that would have been expected to take Further Maths or Physics leave at Sixth Form.

Hello parents, posting here as well as another G&L thread.. just checking in- any final thoughts On G&L after the offer holders days ? We are torn between Godolphin and Channing and any thoughts shared woudl be really helpful. :)

Bump. Us too. Struggling between Godolphin (nearby) and South Hampstead (bigger journey). SEN element in the mix too. Would really appreciate views. Worried Godolphin may be too prescriptive/not flex for individual profiles but wd be happy to be proved wrong!

oh, wow! We are also SEN, and very interestingly , that was the reason we didn’t consider applying to SHHS… although we live 15 min away from the school- it never felt like a nurturing place for my DD.

1. have you met the SENco in G&L and SHHS? if so, did they advise you about the support they will offer?
2. we really like the feel of G&L , so I was wondering, as it is your local school, what puts you off sending your DD there?

It’s all so impressionistic isn’t it? Concern re lack of SEN understanding/support is the key differentiator for me and I have found SHHS’s academic team more engaged and personal in approach. But v hard to tell from the outside…

Very true. It really depends on who you speak to, I guess.. On our first visit to G&L we found it quite distant ( location-wise and psychologically) but the whole process of the 11plus, plus the offer holders day made us change our mind..:) while when considering SHHs we went there on many occasions ,as we are local, so we did several open mornings - and always felt like no matter how they tried to emphasise parstoral support, they still made it about academics somehow.. I wish you and your DD the best of luck choosing the right school for her:) hope we can make a right decision 🤞🤞🤞

Hi, we are also considering G&L V PHS. Can I just check whether anyone knows if G&L have weekend sports? I can't see any hockey matches at the weekend only during the week?

We are in the same position. Need to make a decision asap.

Yes we do! What are your thoughts?

No weekend sport at G&L

Ok that's decided it then!! Thanks for the information. I much prefer the girls do school sport on a Saturday than during the week :) Glad the decision has been made!

That easily? 😃I cannot think of a single question that would help me choose in between the two.

I quite like the no sport on Sat at G&L. DD is in year 8 there. I was suprised when looking at schools now for DS that they do sports sat morning.

I have older dc’s and it keeps them from going too crazy on Friday nights out! Also, I like going to watch and meet other parents. I work during the week so weekday sports don’t work for me. Also, the best sporting schools tend to be boarding and they play at weekends.

We have now decided to go ahead with Guildford High and will be dropping G&L, Wycombe Abbey and JAGS. Mainly because DD preferred Guildford High over G&L. G&L was our preference mainly because of IB but she has a strong opinion so we are following her lead. She got to spend a full day at GHS during the assessment day and had a fabulous time so that has strongly swayed her decision. I am not going to complain as we were in a very fortunate situation but that wasn’t an easy decision at all. All fabulous schools. Good luck everyone!

We’ve decided to go ahead with G&L, received positive feedback from the parents and also pleased with the environment in offer holders morning.
DD not very sporty, and even if she was, I much rather family weekends as we barely get to spend time together during weekdays - so Saturday schools or sports are a downside for our family.
Hope she can manage the commute, and we can keep up with the finances and it’s the right decision for all of us!

So glad everyone is coming to a decision! It is such a relief to finally be focussing on the future! GHS is a great school and if we lived closer we would have applied!