mts vs wbgs

[coolmum123]

It is a shame to hear about this feedback at Watford boys but is the need for tutors because he has not been taught properly in the classroom or because he has not been keeping up with the work? As dd1 said to me only yesterday, for students who have been keeping up with the work GCSEs should be a case of revisiting areas that you already know because the topic has been taught to you in the classroom.

I don't see anyone on here complaining that any part of the IGCSE syllabus has not been taught at QE. DG

According to his mum it was because it wasn't taught properly in the first place, also another mum said the same thing a couple of years ago as she was asking me if I knew a tutor for the Sciences.

I've never thought QE don't teach properly but what I hear about most is the constant pressure it piles on the boys and the endless testing.

[AML]

I know of a boy who recently had a nervous breakdown at QE, under a psychologist. The pressure at QE was a definite attributable cause.

[scary mum]

I know of a boy who recently had a nervous breakdown at QE, under a psychologist. The pressure at QE was a definite attributable cause.

I imagine the same could be said of every school in the country. I was told how many children were on antidepressants at DD's school & it was shocking.

[AML]

Yes and I know first hand of cases of girls with anorexia at St. Helens - but am sure this is an issue in other girls school

[nyr]

I know of a boy who recently had a nervous breakdown at QE, under a psychologist. The pressure at QE was a definite attributable cause.

I imagine the same could be said of every school in the country. I was told how many children were on antidepressants at DD's school & it was shocking.

I couldn't agree more.

A friend told me he would never send his boy to Tiffin as, in the last few years, at least 2 boys took their own lives because of the pressure. One boys was still at the school and the other had left a few years earlier.

My niece is at a highly selective indie and tells me that, every day, in the run up Oxbridge application deadlines, at least one sixth-form girl will be in tears.

As parents, we need to be watchful of our highly driven children's emotions and help them work through their ups and downs.

nyr

[scary mum]

Yes and I know first hand of cases of girls with anorexia at St. Helens - but am sure this is an issue in other girls school

Absolutely, and in mixed schools.

[Amber]

My niece is at a highly selective indie and tells me that, every day, in the run up Oxbridge application deadlines, at least one sixth-form girl will be in tears.

Only one? My experience of pretty much any school is that large numbers of girls will be in tears, or on the verge of them, at any one point.

Seriously, you can't make any useful judgment about the pressure in a school by one story. Very sadly, the mental health of teenagers is a huge issue in our society. Anecdotally, all girls' schools tend to have more eating disorders, but having worked in the hospital education sector for a while, it's by no means exclusive. And children in all sectors have mental health issues due to stress.

Everyone has their own stories and their own opinion and I still think that many children who succumb to pressure do so because of unrealistic parental expectations/vicarious parental ambition somewhere along the line. And many others pay the price for the vile behaviour of others who haven't been shown the right boundaries. It isn't all about schools at all - parents are the main influence, and also parents are often the driving force behind pressures in schools - supply and demand.

Back to OP - I think that parents who have shelled out six figures of school fees are less likely to express dissatisfaction in an open forum than those who have had education without paying. It would be hard to say 'we feel we wasted all this money as our child hasn't done very well and is an unpleasant brat'. You're just not going to see that, are you? Equally, it is easier for a mother to say that a child has been badly taught than that said child was a lazy little monkey who couldn't be bothered to do any work and spent every night playing shoot 'em dead games on the games console.

Don't know any of the schools on this thread so no axes to grind - just saying that every story has lines to be read through, that's all.

[zhp]

my original query says WBGS i dont think we can compare WBGS to the likes of QEB or HBS as those are totally selective grammar schools and the league tables demonstrate the attainment of the children attending those schools- and WBGS is NOT a grammar school but a very good selective comprehensive school.

as i had said my worry is if WBGS although selective will be "good enough" to provide a similar level of education compared to MTS or does MTS provide superior access to education putting aside the sports facilities etc

there are mixed reviews and comments to the post and it is very hard to ascertain

more confused!

[salsa]

Hi zhp,
Did you mean to post on this thread? I noticed you were posting on another thread.

I've attempted to split these posts and merge them in the correct thread. Moderator

[Yamin151]

Surely that just proves the point that this should be an individual family decision based almost entirely on your "feel" for the school. Neither school will be a bad choice, so from that point of view you are lucky, no regrets.

If you throw a question out comparing one thing with another to a large group of people self selected for their interest in their children's' education you are always guaranteed to get a lot of different opinions! Trust your own.