St Mary’s Gerrards Cross vs Royal Masonic – parents’ experiences please

[Rickmansworth123]

Thank you for your time — I’d really appreciate some parent views please.

We have two daughters. Our eldest is currently settled at St Mary’s, Gerrards Cross and is generally happy there.

Our younger daughter is due to move up and should have an offer from St Mary’s, and already has an offer from Royal Masonic. She’s also been offered a scholarship at Royal Masonic, which we’re obviously taking seriously.

I’d really value recent experiences (last few years ideally) from parents with daughters at either school — particularly around:

• academic stretch and support
• pastoral care
• general school culture and happiness
• how children have settled long-term

We’re not chasing league tables — just trying to work out where each child would thrive best, and whether splitting schools is worth the logistical and administrative stress from our side as parents.

We also realise we only really see St Mary’s through our own daughter’s eyes, so would welcome broader perspectives.

Any honest experiences — positive or negative — especially from current or recent parents would be hugely appreciated. Thank you 🙂

Do you know how much the scholarship is worth? DD was at RMS 6 years ago and at that time it was worth 5%.

DD left at the end of year 7 to go to a local grammar so my academic/pastoral experience won’t be of interest to you. We live much closer to GX and in hindsight I think SMS being local would have been a better choice. We were swayed by the sports facilities and grandeur at RMS however the very early bus from GX to RMS was just too exhausting for DD. RMS catchment is wider and visiting DD’s friend’s houses was a pain, especially with an older DS at a different school. When DD joined DS at our local school and they could get the bus from the end of our road everyone’s life improved.

Thanks for your reply and insight. Yes RMS does have some grand and impressive looking facilities. SMS has a cosy family like feel. And as you indicate the convenience factor is important too - as stress in the morning commute doesn’t set any of us up for a good start to the day!

Bumping for you as keen to hear responses about this too!

Two of my best friends have DDs who are at RMS, and older DDs who left 3-4 years ago. Both seem pretty happy with the school. I don't think it's super-academic but that said their older DDs are all well-rounded characters with a variety of interests who all went on to good tertiary education at the likes of Bristol, Birmingham and Manchester.

@Rickmansworth123 judging by your username I assume you're not that far from RMS so maybe it's not much extra hassle having your DDs at different schools?