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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Original poster

kings/alleyns/westminster/st paul

27 replies

Csummer · 18/02/2026 15:36

DS has been fortunate to receive offers from several excellent schools, and we’d be happy with any of them. He’s currently in a co-ed setting, so we’d hoped to continue that way, but he seems to prefer King’s or St Paul’s. We’re also unsure about Westminster given the smaller campus and the 13+ entry point vs others being 11+.
We live in Wandsworth/Clapham, so none is especially close, and we’d likely rely on school transport or possibly move in future.

Any perspectives from this forum on how to think through this decision would be much appreciated.

OP posts:
minipie · 02/03/2026 11:12

Actually we are leaning more to Kings now given the environment, recent performance and location. I’m unsure if we are insane.. after all Westminster and St. Paul are more known and constantly the top2.

I think your leaning is absolutely correct. If you prefer the environment and location of Kings then it would be daft to choose W or St P just because they are more known or slightly higher “ranked”.

The academics at all these schools are top notch and he is more likely to do well at school if he has a sensible journey and a nice group of friends (and local cohort helps a lot with this) rather than just because the school is a few places higher on somebody’s list.

Remember some schools massage their results by eg not allowing some kids to take GCSEs/A levels in slightly weaker subjects, or getting them to take the GCSEs privately not under the school’s name. Not accusing these schools specifically, just saying the exact league table positions need to be taken with a pinch of salt.

I said St P was mainly N London earlier, I should really have said W London but N of the river! So a total pain from Wandsworth area. Not so bad if you’re somewhere on the District line I guess.

clementmarot · 02/03/2026 15:35

NormanandNorma · 28/02/2026 21:49

It is fast paced but it is not a hothouse - at all! In fact it’s so casual and laid back, it’s virtually horizontal. It’s quite an odd experience as a parent coming from a quite regimented, state single sex grammar school it constantly surprises me - the results they get are almost as a by-product of the day-to-day education. I can’t quite explain it, but it is the very opposite of the teach-to-the-test which you hear about in so much of modern education. It really is a “liberal education”.

The student body is very diverse- both ethnically and in terms of neurodiversity. Uniform and other rules are very casual. Certainly the boys - and I know it will soon be co-ed - are allowed to be very independent and in charge of their own learning.

There are reports every 1/2 term and test scores are compared to the class average (so you will know that your child is scoring above/below average), but these are not published (I think Eton still publishes exam lists by name??)

There is very little streaming. At GCSE only in maths and French. And in maths you have to understand that even in the bottom set most will be expected to get 9.

Despite the fees, the parent body is not blingy at all. This is very much valuing education for education’s sake. It’s rather quaint really.

There is an air of scruffy/ disorganised/muddling-through about it all - albeit in an incredibly historic, academic, privileged environment.

There is also a strong theme of partnership and outreach about the school, which was originally founded to educate the poor. They have not cut back at all on their bursaries or partnerships or outreach with the VAT imposition. They share facilities and enrichment across the academic curriculum with a slew of state schools as well as continuing their sponsorship of Harris Westminster - and in 6th form Harris Westminster students study some A level subjects alongside Westminsters.

Show quote history

I had the same experience of finding the contrast between the Westminster approach and that of a top state grammar very marked -- almost opposites. Westminster's reputation used to be very much one of phenomenal teaching / unparalleled intellectual environment but v. much laissez-faire / not very engaged on the pastoral front. That may be very out of date, probably everywhere has to take pastoral stuff more seriously these days.

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