West London Free School or Twyford for Year 7 2027 entry?

[LovingMumofTwo]

Hi all. I am in a dilemma. My youngest son has full church points and is a good candidate to get into Twyford CE Secondary school in Ealing. His older brother goes there and that was our original intention. However he recently sat the West London Free school music aptitude test and with very little preparation did very well - much better than we expected. He is “near the top of the waiting list” according to the email from WLFS and could very possibly get an offer - if not on the National Offer day, then shortly thereafter. I know the school is deemed to be a very good school and the Times has rated it highly as the best comprehensive school in their school awards and ranks it highly in their league table. But I really know little about the school whereas I am familiar with Twyford because my other son goes there. My gut is that we should stick with Twyford but WLFS has an outstanding reputation. Would be grateful for any insight from any parents out there who have been in a similar situation with both schools or who can give any advice about WLFS? Many thanks in advance.

Hi, OP. We can see you didn't get any replies when you posted in Chat this morning, so we've moved your thread to our Secondary Education board now in case anyone has anything to offer there. Good luck with your decision.

Twyford's also a great school though, including for music. What specifically do you think would be better at WLFS?

Thank you! New on here so grateful for your help!

Hi LeopardOnEverything - thank you for responding. Yes you are right - Twyford is a great school. It’s just that he unexpectedly did well in the music scholarship at WLFS and I thought I should explore it as an option. I was just wondering if anyone had any experience of WLFS as I have not heard much about it (we don’t live in the borough).

If your son is musical he will get loads of music at Twyford, it's an extremely musical school. I don't think I'd choose WLFS over Twyford for music alone. My impression is that both are extremely good schools, possibly both a bit too pushy (but you know that from Twyford already) and that WLFS exists to plug a gap for parents who would have gone somewhere like Twyford if they had the church points.

Has anyone ever seen Dame Alice and Toby Young in the same room.... 🤔

Thank you MagicTape. You make very good points. Yes, as I wrote earlier, my gut says that I should continue to list Twyford as a first choice, for a number of reasons including that he has a sibling there already. Always helpful to get another perspective though - thanks again!

I would prioritise Twyford if only because having both children at the same school is a major benefit to sanity/general family logistics. I don't know anyone at WLFS but I know several very musical children who are thriving and happy at Twyford. Is your older one musical?

Yes, I am leaning very much to the original plan of having them both at the same school. And yes, my eldest is musical and plays in one of the ensembles. Grateful for your input - really helpful!