St Paul for Girls vs Westminster

[Tom0111]

Hello,
Our daughter received offers from both St Paul for Girls and Westminster (which will become co-ed from Sep 2026). Obviously, they are both very good schools and we are studying the profiles of both; but I’d love to hear any opinion (particularly from those with first hand experience) on whether one could be preferred to the other.
Thank you very much in advance.
Regards,
Tom

I have a son at WUS, though my daughter sadly didn’t clear their 11+ this year, and I just wanted to share our experience.

For us, Westminster didn’t come across as especially personal during admissions. We received a lovely handwritten card from King’s with the offer, similar to what SPGS sends, so I completely understand how powerful that can feel. Westminster is aware of the card approach but doesn’t do that. I don’t think it’s arrogance, more that they don’t want to influence families and would rather people decide for themselves. They’re also dealing with huge numbers across multiple entry points, so I imagine that plays a part. It just isn’t their style.

Once you’re actually in, though, it feels very different. It’s genuinely warm and individual. In the first few weeks, the Master invited each new parent for a 1:1 catch up and each new pupil for a small group breakfast with her. A few weeks in, all the teachers we met at events already knew our son’s name. It’s also a smaller school than many, which helps. Over the past year, we’ve received many handwritten notes from the Master and teachers on different occasions, which we didn’t experience elsewhere. The examples go on. None of that was really visible during admissions, but it’s very much there once you’re part of the school.

Congratulations to your daughter. I genuinely think she can’t go wrong with either school. They are both wonderful!

Ha, I know! The card threw me off a bit (not my daughter though), and then remembered NLCS sent a “You got this!” handwritten card before exam day.
It’s a thing they do, and do very well.
SPGS are excellent at marketing themselves. Almost as excellent as they are at educating girls!

Westminster has some catching up to do in that sense. It seemed slightly aloof at times but I believe that it’s deliberate.
From where I was standing, SPGS was selling the experience whereas with Westminster it was more like the experience sells itself - and it’s called Westminster.

I’ve got no skin in this game, but found this hilarious.

Westminster has been educating girls in the sixth form for decades and doing it really well. So well that every year girls from SPGS try to move there. So if one is so keen to question something, it’s “whether they can bring that same success down to the younger years” not “can Westminster educate girls at all?” That ship has sailed.

Honestly, SPGS parents should just be proud of their daughters and enjoy it instead of posting misleading stuff about Westminster at 1am. I don’t see Westminster parents out there taking digs at SPGS. It mostly seems to be the other way around. They’re both fantastic schools. It really doesn’t need to be this competitive!

Thank you very much for this information. It is great to hear that WUS is also warm and personal. And I agree that both schools are absolutely fantastic. I'm certain that children who study at either will have a wonderful education, both academically and pastorally.

Because it's not enough to succeed! Others must fail. That's the spirit!

Thanks for the many inputs, ideas, arguments that have been shared in this thread. I found them all very useful! We haven’t made a decision yet - and there are only few hours left.

The key factors (each with a different weight) that we are considering are the following:

1. Co-ed vs all girls - not much relevant now maybe, but probably important and positive from year 9-10 onwards.
2. Interaction across year groups - the junior WS interacts very little with the senior counterpart; at SPGS it is easier for a year 7-8 to interact (and possibly be inspired) by older year groups.
3. Commuting - we are rather close to SPGS; WS requires a 20min journey on the tube + walking.

On all other dimensions, the two schools seem rather comparable to me (obviously, they have distinctive features).

Re the incognita presented to the first cohort of 11+ girls at WS: my sense - based on the offer holder event, the small group tour, a brief conversation with the head master - is that the school has very carefully planned its new co-ed phase and is ready to take any measure to make it an enjoyable experience for the girls - also in dialogue with the families joining in September.

@RareWinter - sorry for such a slow reply. My daughter was rather enthusiastic about the WS offer event - she had the opportunity to speak with the headmaster (who also interviewed her) and enjoyed it very much overall. Many of the girls’ parents I spoke with seemed very excited about the prospect of joining the school. My daughter was slightly less impressed by the SPGS event, but simply because she knows it already very well (she swims there and attended language classes at the school).

The tour of the new WS building was lovely, although my daughter wasn’t too keen on how the school’s facilities are spread out across different areas.

Hello @Tom0111 what did you decide in the end?

@mominator7plus - my daughter chose WS, 10min prior to the deadline for SPGS; then changed her mind for the rest of the day; now she is very enthusiastic about the idea of joining WS. Which school did you choose? It would be nice to connect with other girls and boys in the first ci-ed cohort of WS.

@Tom0111 congratulations! We 'd like to have the same dilemma in two years time for our daughter. Any tip or advice you could give us? I haven't never heard of anyone of being accepted at both schools. Thank you

For those whose daughters received offers from SPGS and/or Westminster, please may I ask which prep school they went to?

My daughter went to a small prep in Twickenham- only she and one of her friend got in to Spgs but I see that a lot of the children from Bute, Kensington prep and Falkner prep have joined Spgs in the last few years. Hope this helps.

Ken Prep and Bute girls mostly have extra tutoring on top of prep school, don’t know about Faulkner. Tutoring can be paid or parents or grandparents spending time and doing extra on top of school work.

Hi to any who know much more about SPGS, we are thinking very last minute to try the exam this year. Up till now we have been slowly prepping for the consortium and NLCS. St Paul's wasn't on my radar at all so its a massive long shot but I was wondering if anyone had any tips in terms of prep. Im aware it's world's away from ATOM! I looked at the maths examples today and they looked hard! Are we mad? Do you have to be a genius?

How is the prep going for the consortium and NLCS? If you feel like its going well and she will most likely get in then try for St Paul's as well, but its the most difficult girls school to get into. People spend a lot of time doing targeted prep for it.

@SamPoodle123 thats the problem - its hard to say how well she is doing - she seems happy/not stressed. Makes some silly mistakes but we go through it all after. Sample tests are do-able. St Pauls though seems on another level.

You will have an idea via her Atom scores. For example if she is getting 130-142 you know she is a strong candidate. If she is getting 118+ she is still in the game but has some work to do. St Paul's is quite difficult and she needs a strong base to have a chance. Then she will need to work on the exam type similar to St Paul's. I am not sure if it makes sense to just have a go this late in the game for it unless you think she might have a chance. The reason is, I think better to focus on the ones you have been focusing on to ensure better chances there. I have had 2 kids go through the 11+ so I have seen a lot from others and my own experience.

I know one girl who received an offer from Westminster but ended up choosing another school. She went to St Paul’s Cathedral School.

That's a very interesting choice! SPCS only goes to 13 and not academic at all. Even for music, Westminster is probably better.

Sorry, I meant that she’d gone to SPCS for prep school and, when it was time to go to senior school, she got an offer from Westminster. She chose a different senior school though.

I will say that SPCS was a terrific prep school. I’m not really sure why you would say that it isn’t academic. My son went to Westminster, having gone to SPCS up to year 8.

Ah sorry I misread your post in haste.

For boys it may be slightly different, especially if they are choristers at SPCS, more options later. Leavers destinations for girls were meh when we applied, admittedly a few years back when Westminster was co-ed in 6th form only.

My DD had an offer from SPCS, we turned it down for a school that is much lower in the league tables than Westminster. It was still much better than SPCS academically. SPCS was actually my back up option, with target schools NLCS, SHHS, JAGS, Alleyn's.

So did you find your DS transition from SPCS to Westminster easy or did you tutor? Just out of interest, as we'll probably look at Westminster for 6th form and if it was easy to get a place going from SPCS then Westminster might not be as insanely academic as it often sounds on MN.

My son was not a chorister. Re tutoring - I know that there are children who are not tutored but it is rare to meet one, regardless of which prep school they go to. We did one hour of tutoring a week during the Spring and Summer terms of year 5. I have no idea what it is like to get a place at Westminster for sixth form.

Your target girls’ schools were all quite far away from each other. Did you move once she’d got a place? If you could comfortably get to SPCS then NLCS (say) is quite a distance. My daughter (who also went to SPCS for prep school) now goes to SHHS.

DD also sat for WHS and STAHS 😂

I was prepared to move for the right school but we didn't have to in the end as DD got her first choice.

I suggest for SPGS she should forget about Atom and practice challenging papers - the EPP type for SPGS specifically (they only have a few) plus the standard independent round two tests they do. A score over 80% at this point and of at least 85 - 90% just before the second round should give you confidence.
Good luck for NLCS, what a wonderful school!
I have heard many refer to it as if it is a tier below SPGS, I don’t think it has been the case for the past few years.

My girls went to SPGS and loved the school. You cannot find sisters more different from each other yet they thrived there. The extra curriculum clubs and access to diverse learning opportunities was the best I have seen. Some of their friends went to Westminster for 6th form but we thought that introducing the variable of boys into the teenager equation was just a distraction. According to their friends that moved to Westminster, the school (as in Westminster) didn’t really get what the girls needed at that time of their lives and there was a lot of “banter” from the boys…too much for many.