Surbiton High 2025 entry

[MoiraT]

Hello, we are holding an offer for Surbiton among others. It was a late application and I hadn’t given it much thought or research but am now realising it’s actually pretty high up the league tables and gets fantastic results. This had passed me by! I know it’s famously good for sport but the worry is that they focus heavily on the elite, county-level sportswomen and less so on decent but not outstanding girls. Is this a valid concern? My DD is on the A team at her prep school for all sports but we didn’t apply for sports scholarships as I don’t think she’s outstanding (hope she doesn’t read this 🙊) just very decent and enjoys it.

Also worried about the size. Does anyone with have a view based on direct experience? Is it easy to get lost in the mix there? I must say I have been noticing Surbiton girls in their uniform locally and they seem well-behaved, happy-looking girls. The few I’ve spotted anyway!

Thanks 😊

Yes as a SHS parent with a dd who has left
Yes it's very sporty, yes the top sports teams are made up of the sports scholars because the level is so high - spend some on the SHS sports Instagram page
Rowing is more inclusive and starts in year 8 and the boat house is in teddington
Yes it's large but gives a large friendship pool
Yes the teaching is good, I don't think my dd could have got better grades at any other school.

The music is quite weak which means there are few barriers to joining a choir,
Orchestra etc compared to more musically competitive schools.

A new head started this term so revisiting again is a must.

It's good to have an outside school interest to fill weekends like ballet/drama etc because the biggest gripe when they start is that friends at other schools are all playing Saturday matches and your dd isn't . Or make sure she plays for a local hockey / netball club on Sundays.

Thanks for your reply. That’s very helpful and echoes comments I’ve read on here already while searching old posts, especially the part about being at a loose end on weekends while everyone else is playing matches. That would be frustrating. I saw in the welcome pack that the girls are assessed in Games from the very first lesson and placed into one of three categories which seemed to translate as “good, we’ll use her”, “average, stick her in dance/gymnastics” and “hopeless but we’ll give her a skipping rope to keep her fit” 😆

@MoiraT , yes that was the case when my dd joined many years ago, because she already did ballet outside school she got put in a dance class for year 7 games for the first term and never played hockey / netball, it was quite a shock after all the prep school sport (not SHS prep). But the girls who are sporty get a chance to compete at the highest level and my dd did move on to rowing in year 8.

It would be interesting if the new head addresses this as he has come from NHEHS.

The good side is the music for an average dc, my ds is at a school with great music and has never spent 1 minute in the school theatre due to all the barriers to entry, ie choir auditions etc.
My dd at SHS was choirs, concerts, plays, musicals etc.