Would love to hear any advice about which school has the most supporting opportunities out of Wallington, SG and Wilson’s.

Thank you

Hard to know which school has most unless you happen to know someone with a son in each school.

My DS is at SGS and is not at all sporty. They have one afternoon of games each week at the lovely playing fields in Northey and one period of PE each week. The games include football, cross country, cricket and athletics. Not much rugby. PE includes swimming (there is a pool), table tennis and other sports hall based things. I know that there are many sports clubs but my DS doesn't get involved in them.

If you are particularly keen on rugby then I think Wallington Boys is the school with the biggest focus on rugby.

Thank you x

Hi,

I have two sporty sons, one in SGS (yr10) and one in WCGS (yr8), so can give a few thoughts, in no particular order:

- SGS play football as their main winter sport and do not play rugby
- WCGS play rugby as their main winter sport and do not play competitive football
- Wilsons play football as main winter sport and pride themselves on putting out a lot of teams for weekend fixtures.
- SGS have a swimming pool on-site, WCGS do no swimming at all.
- All 3 schools have excellent on-site modern gymnasium facilities
- WCGS have some on-site playing fields (cricket, rugby, athletics) SGS have none at all on-site, all games are played at their sports fields in Northey Avenue (Cheam)
- WCGS also have large off-site sports facilities at Old Walcountians (banstead/Woodmansterne)
- Wilsons have the best on-site sports facilities, all pitches are on their grounds.
- All 3 schools play cricket, in my experience which is 'best' varies from year to year and team to team.
- As the biggest school Wilsons tend to have a number of strong sides across the sports but by no means have a monopoly on success over the other schools.
- WCGS expect their boys to attend weekend sports fixtures in full school uniform, SGS only expect blazer to be worn.
- Both SGS and WCGS offer a number of additional sports options (basketball, table tennis, badminton, tennis, athletics etc.). I would expect it to be the same at Wilsons.
- Both schools have a very competitive 'house sports' competition.
- SGS do a great sports day, really good fun, really relaxed, parents welcome to come and watch (a number of good youtube videos).
- WCGS do a big yr7 cross-country competition and an annual obstacle course.
- SGS do house cross-country, includes the infamous 'water jump' (there are a couple of good videos on youtube to get a flavor)
- SGS headmaster often there on a Saturday reffing matches.
- WCGS fixtures are always scheduled well in advance, SGS tends to be a little more 'relaxed' and are notified via their sports website.
- In my opinion WCGS tend to take their rugby a bit more seriously than Sutton take their football. SGS head of sport has been with the school for a long time and hence has a well established way of doing things, tends to be a little less formal and a bit more relaxed than WCGS.
- WCGS tend to be more structured re out of school training sessions for their competitive teams (A/B teams).

I would happily recommend either WCGS or SGS for both their competitive sports and their extra-curricular sporting options (and my sense is that Wilsons are the same, if anything slightly better as benefit from all facilities on-site). If your sons main sport is football then definitely SGS or Wilsons, if rugby then it has to be WCGS. I think that WCGS are more 'keen to win' and more structured around training and fixtures than SGS, however in sports that they both play like cricket, each beats the other from year to year and team to team. It is definitely not the case that one is "better" than the other.

I hope that helps.......if you have any other questions feel free to ask.

regards,

That seems like an excellent summary.

In case anyone is looking at this thread and, like me, doesn't have a sporty DS, I would say that the sporting culture at SGS is very inclusive and the Head of PE is enormously encouraging and approachable even for boys who find sport very challenging. Games are played at ability level so even if you're in the C Team for football (as my DS is) you may find you win the odd match against other C Teams. At the lower ends, there is a strong emphasis on attitude and progression rather than outright ability. I've been very pleased with how the sports side of things has worked out for my unsporty boy.

We're really pleased with the sport at SGS - DS is very keen but not top ability, and has found that the school has a team for anyone who wants to be involved, it's not just for the top performers. His only problem is finding time for all the clubs he'd like to do. The sports fields at Northey are fantastic - they're really lucky. And the swimming pool on the school site is surprisingly well heated for an outdoor pool!

Thank you so much very helpful x