Tiffins Girls or Nonsuch High School ?

[modernista]

Suzanne,
Yhanks for the details. We were planning to do the journey in half term but then we realised the girls will not be there and as the half terms are noticeably quieter, it would not be a fair assessment. So now we are planning to go this Friday but I don't know whether to do it with DD (she will be late for school). But I think it is so important for her to be there.
I do know of another girl doing the same journey and will ask her for details. No doubt the journey can be done but the question is whether it is worth it and how much it will take away from her quality of life and how much it will add to her academic achievement.
I will have to decide in 10 days!

[modernista]

laretta,
My DD is doing music lessons during school hours and a year ago we found that she was missing a lot of Maths lessons. Because it was year 5 and she is normally works independently in Maths, I would not have been too fussed, but when we started preparation for Wallington, I started finding gaps. We asked the Music teacher to do more lessons in the afternoons and she accomodated us bearing in mind that she had other kids on her timetable as well and goes to several schools.
I had not imagined this other angle of the subject teacher in school being so upset. This does not sound positive and if she was concerned she should have raised it with you to work out a solution in a way that everything could have been accomodated. We found that DDs timetable had Maths mostly in the morning and requsted the music teacher that from next term she tried to keep this in mind. Thanks for your warning, I will look out for narrow minded maths teachers though. In the worst case scenario, we will resort to doing lessons outside school hours. I am sorry that you had to stop all lessons but am glad your DD is doing better.

[modernista]

Yoyo,
I was interesting you mentioned Nonsuch offering Geman, I had not picked it up. My DD is doing German at year 6 and she mentioned that she likes it more and finds it easier than French which she has been doing for years and still is not confident of speaking. I dont know if she simply has a more mathematical mind ( German is supposed to be very scientific and computerisable) or it is only the novelty factor. Either ways, not to be ignored.

[modernista]

Mynameisbond and catcool, thanks a lot for your post. Your views are invaluable.

[la boume]

Yes, no German in tiffin Girls. Just french and spanish from MFL. Latin starts in year 8, at Nonsuch it starts in year 7, but if I understood right, it is not compulsary, and the girls can choose 2 languages from the available options.
There is no link between Tiffin Girls and Thames Youth Orchestra, they just use the school as a venue for the rehersals. Everyone with the grade 6 and above on orchestral instuments can audition, and there are kids from local comps too.

[modernista]

Thanks Laboume, every little helps!

[catcool]

As per you comments regarding German I cannot be sure but think in the first year you cannot chose the language your Dd will study it gets allocated to you . As i said it is a long time since my Dd was in year 7 so may have changed .


just found this ,. so you can state a preference
http://www.nonsuch.co.uk/departments/la ... /index.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[YoYo]

I do know that Thames Youth Orchestra only use Tiffin Girls as venue and other local schools students with good music ability can join. However if your DD is good in music, it is a great to progress to higher level in your own school. I know Tiffin teachers involve a lot in it. I am sorry if I give an impression there is direct link to it. Thames Youth Orchestra used to be Tiffin Youth Orchestra but they changed to Thames to open for more schools. My DS's last music report have been told to aim for TYO. Unfortunately, DD is not good in music but she is interested in other subjects. She likes science and DT subjects in Wallington Girls and Nonsuch.

Regarding the German, I was surprised that Tiffin Girls doesn't offer in GCSE level. I thought it should have more options if the school is language specialist. DS's school, he can choose other languages as GCSE subjects. If you do French in year7 and you can switch to do Spanish in Year 10. I do like Tiffin Girl but I am not sure I like the journey. Think about the one way traffic around Kingston in morning and there will be another new school next to it!

[modernista]

Catcool,
Thanks for the link. Nonsuch does seem to be giving more options as far as languages are concerned although being a larger school they may not be able to give everyone their preference. As DD is doing Latin already, I think it would be good for her to have an option of doing it in Year 7 rather than after a years break. I also like the idea of Mandarin (although I have heard it is extremely difficult) and the fast track German.

[modernista]

Yes the traffic does worry us. And if she does get involved in the TYO apart from what the school offers her, we can always make that once a week trip. I ssume both schools have a school orchestra or is the TYO the Tiffins orchestra?