Tiffin Girls' School or Godolphin & Latymer

[Asiro]

My daughter was fortunate to receive offers from both Tiffin Girls’ School and Godolphin & Latymer.

Our key consideration is her future prospects for Oxbridge or medical school.

While G&L has higher GCSE and A-Level results, TGS has a significantly higher number of leavers progressing to Oxbridge and medical schools. However, I am unsure whether this is influenced by government policies or other external factors and whether it could change in the future.

My daughter is accustomed to a high-pressure, competitive environment. She has attended both independent and state schools, spending more time in the independent sector, but has adapted well to both settings.

G&L may offer more co-curricular activities, whereas TGS might allow her more time for academic study.

I would greatly appreciate any advice from parents whose daughters have attended these schools.

Thank you.

Really generous of you to share and save time for those interested. I am sure they will be grateful.

Add Cambridge have their data on website, break down by ucas centre, year by year
https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/apply/statistics

It would be interesting to see if anyone could find patterns or trends in the dataset to support on some bold claims on grammar versus private schools in this thread.

Tiffin boy indeed has been doing incredibly well, the Oxbridge offer number is astonishing. Must be combining of cohort ability and teaching. I am wonder what are the secrets.

Another boy school is also doing incredibly well is Wilson. Compare to other London grammar school such as Henrietta Barnet or Tiffin girls. Its often thought that girls are doing better academically and indeed gcse and A level results show. Then what are reasons they are not as successful as these boy school.

TBH all the state and private schools are doing really well on Oxbridge this year. Sir Richard Reynolds Catholic College in Twickenham which is a relatively small not particularly selective sixth form of a state Catholic school has 5 Oxbridge offers including medicine at C.
Esher College which is an enormous state sixth form with minimum entry requirements has 12 offers.
I don't think you can read too much into all the data.

I am a former Tiffin Girls mum and I would say go with G & L. The thing with Tiffin is it is highly selective and attracts very motivated girls with rather pushy parents. People assume that Tiffin is a great school because of the teaching or ethos. It’s not. It’s because nearly all the girls are very clever.

My DD 10 years on is a doctor. Many in her cohort would have preferred history or biology but were pushed into medicine by their parents. The pastoral care was awful though I understand it has improved since. The teaching in Sixth form was very patchy and for one subject we were forced to hire a tutor, as did everyone else in the class.

I have known quite a few girls from G & L and it appears to me that they have much more freedom and access to much better facilities. I know 2 girls very well who both opted to study in the US after secondary, so perhaps it is more that they didn’t apply rather than not be good enough to get in.

As mentioned earlier, tiffin boys sixth form is coed, with massive external intake esp for girls (some might from privare girls school) I guess this is one of the secret sauce

Some people seem to really hate their kids.

Using Oxbridge acceptance rate as a measure of success might be reasonable if everyone agrees that Oxbridge is the most desirable outcome. This is not true and it is especially not true at certain schools.

Henrietta Barnett School, for example, is an all-girls school with a high percentage of students of South Asian descent. It used to be, and I believe still is, that many of these girls' families were not comfortable sending them boarding and preferred, among other options, medical courses in London where they could live at home. These girls not going to Oxbridge, whether because they prefer to remain at home for university or because they prefer medical places over non-medical courses at Oxbridge, should not be an indicator that HBS girls are not as successful in university applications.

Godolphin and Latymer, for example, has a high percentage of international families who are more open to sending their children to other countries. 20% of this year's cohort are going to non-UK universities which I rate as at least as selective as Oxbridge. These girls not going to Oxbridge should not be an indicator that G&LS girls are not as successful in university applications.

Similarly, using medicine or dental course places as a measure of success might be reasonable if everyone agrees that they are the most desirable outcomes. This is definitely not true.

Among some families, medicine is not seen as a particularly desirable profession, certainly no more than finance, consulting, or corporate law. Indeed, most medics I know are so disgruntled with their working conditions, their compensation, and the NHS in general that they are actively steering their children away from medicine. These families are much more heavily represented at private schools than at state schools, even super-selective grammars. The fact that more private school students don't go into medicine should not be an indicator that they are not as successful in university applications.

Yes I understand selective girls entrance at 6th form helps for St Paul however Wilson is all boys and if the argument in here is correct that grammar school kids apply to medicine more then Tiffin boys and Wilson kids should do so too?

I am wondering that it could be that these schools are more selective in 11+. Kids were working much much harder and teaching must be amazing hence such the success. My question still is, top girls grammar schools have better gcse and A-level results, do they choose not to apply to Oxbridge? If so is there a stats for Oxbridge application success rate.

P/S: we didnt choose grammar school for our kids because we look beyond academic and would trade less academic success vs school life with so much else outside academic.

*It should have said Tiffin boy instead of St Paul in the first paragraph above

if the argument in here is correct that grammar school kids apply to medicine more then Tiffin boys and Wilson kids should do so too

Yes same applies to Wilson and Tiffin boys, just to some lesser extent to girls grammar. The demographic influence is very strong.

My question still is, top girls grammar schools have better gcse and A-level results, do they choose not to apply to Oxbridge? If so is there a stats for Oxbridge application success rate

There is, you can easily derived from the link info provided above. But I also agree with PP, the application success rate might not be a good indication of teaching or academic ability.

Absolutely this!! Her school days need to be happy and fulfilling....encourage her but don't worry about Oxford, Cambridge or becoming a doctor at this point!