Hi All,

Just wondering if anybody had children going to Sale / Stretford / Urmston Grammar and what your thoughts were. My daughter is currently in William Hulme and thinking would it be wise to move her if she passed the exam. Are they a completely different standard of teaching?

Thanks.

We have a child at Stretford (year 8 ). It's a lovely school - both academically good but also very nurturing with a nice community feel. Our child passed for all the grammars but we ended up going with Stretford as it is our closest (5-10.mins in car or 15 min cycle). Glad we made that decision as it makes travel, socialising outside of school etc much easier.

That’s so nice to hear. Were you offered a place at AGSG at all? Just wondering due to the distance.

Hi

DS is in Sale grammar in year 11 now.extremely happy child.I have seen him grow from an extremely coy/somewhat unsociable/nerd-ish boy to a confident/well-spoken and well rounded individual.i thik Sale has cultivated him immensely and explored his acamedic potential to the best standards.

We put Stretford as first choice, urmston second and Sale third and were offered our first choice. We didn't put Altrincham on our list as we had already decided against it due to distance. Based on the data I have seen for the year we applied for schools we would only have been offered Stretford or Urmston. I have to say I am really glad we went for our closest school - it makes things so much easier on terms of travel - especially in the winter months.

That sounds great. I had a look at the GCSE pass rate for AGSG and it was up there with The top two private schools MHSG and WHSG. Sale / Stretford and Urmston were around 30% lower so my thoughts were is the distance worth it for a school who’s level GSCE pass rates were so high 89% at grade 7 or above compared to 60% at the other grammar schools.

AGGS take the highest scoring girls from the CEM test (the standardised score is always the least out of all the others), so perhaps their GCSE results reflect that? Doesn't mean to say that those girls won't do just as well anywhere else? I don't know, just musing.

Exam results are obviously very important (and AGGS probably does come out on top) however it wasn't the only factor that helped us make our decision around which school to choose. The social aspect of things was also something we considered. It's far easier for our daughter to meet up with friends outside of school when they all live fairly close by in Chorlton, Stretford etc. Also she can ride her bike, walk or easily get public transport to and from school which does make a difference especially in the winter. We also felt that a smaller school would suit our daughter more. I think you have to weigh up the pros and cons and think what would best suit your child.

We went for Stretford too for those reasons that poppety mentioned. My DS started y7 there recently and he's made some local friends....nice to be able to walk home with them rather than having to get on public transport. He can cycle there in 10 mins too, so lots of options.

Glad your DS has settled in OK Choceyes. We are particularly thankful for a short journey to school (and not having to take public transport) at the moment.