Henrietta Barnett School (HBS) vs Chelmsford County High School for Girls (CCHS)

[GentleCyanCritic]

Hi,
Our daughter has cleared HBS round 1, we sat round 2 this year. Given her results so far, we are hopeful that she clears CCHS cut-offs as well.

We are a bit confused if we should be going for HBS or CCHS as first choice 1. Reading some of the forums, the perception seems to be that HBS has an overly stressed environment compared to CCHS. Wanted to ensure that daughter has an overall good education and not over burden her.

HBS being the top ranked school will understably focus on acads, but want to hear from other parents of existing HBS students on how the pressure is in HBS vs CCHS.

Thanks for your feedback

There is a significant distance between those two school. Do you live in Chelmsford or surrounding?

CCHS has a catchment area, we are planning to move to CCHS catchment area to improve odds
HBS does not have catchment area.

We are renting so we are ok to move closer to school by next year school start if we get HBS

ah ok, so you will get the score for the catchment area but possibly not outside of catchment for CCHS.

i guess I was just thinking that any school would be more stressful with a huge amount of travel , but if you’re planning on moving anyway then I guess that takes travel out of the equation.

it depends on your child, CCHS is very academic , not really very sporty, it feels quite ‘formal’ you’ll do well there if you excel at an instrument, not ( in my opinion) if you’re very social or outgoing.

If you get HBS, take it.

Any environment that is pushing your child towards highest levels of success will create stress; it’s part of the process. A competitive academic dd will often place themselves under a lot of stress anyway and measure/compare against peer; that pressure will be ramped up until ideally they just eat and breathe it as part of normal life. From outside it might look like too much pressure, but when you’re inside it’s should feel exciting and challenging.

Of course it would be nice to sail through and get twelve 9s at gcse with minimal pressure but it’s unlikely. And if you aren’t aiming for the very best results why apply for these schools? You’re breeding a racehorse of a child, not a local derby kind of kid, you really want your kid to believe that an 8 isn’t good enough. To strive and succeed. 🙂

If you are a typical HBS parent, then one can well believe what is frequently said about the school, that its not the school that drives the girls, its the girls themselves. Presumably terrified of failing their parents by letting a subject slip from a 9 to an 8. God help them.

It's a huge source of motivation that nearly all of their peers are also striving for 9s. Some children with the ability won't make as much effort in academics in a school where 7s are regarded as very good and 8s are regarded as excellent. At the end of the day, what you get out of something reflects what you put in. If you don't think that academic results are the be all and end all, you're free to choose a different school.