SGGS v AGS v RHS

[nickmill]

We have a daughter currently in Year 10 at AGS and can honestly say we’ve never regretted our decision to send her here. We let her choose where she wanted to go and she quickly decided that SGGS was not for her as she didn’t want to attend an all girls school and she didn’t get a good vibe (her words) when she visited. AGS has such a large catchment area so new friends are easy to make and I know a few of my daughters friends travel in on the bus from quite far out every day. We are very impressed with the communication from the school and the work ethic they encourage. Not every school suits every child and I guess you just have to weigh up the pros and cons of each school to your child and make a decision which feels right for you all. Good luck.

[Ejf]

We have a daughter currently in Year 10 at AGS and can honestly say we’ve never regretted our decision to send her here. We let her choose where she wanted to go and she quickly decided that SGGS was not for her as she didn’t want to attend an all girls school and she didn’t get a good vibe (her words) when she visited. AGS has such a large catchment area so new friends are easy to make and I know a few of my daughters friends travel in on the bus from quite far out every day. We are very impressed with the communication from the school and the work ethic they encourage. Not every school suits every child and I guess you just have to weigh up the pros and cons of each school to your child and make a decision which feels right for you all. Good luck.

Thanks nickmill. My daughter felt the same and AGS just felt right. SGGS have such a good reputation academically though, so I just needed to be sure we weren't being crazy potentially passing up a place many would give their right arm for. I hope I don't have to choose between my daughter's academic achievements and her happiness, but I'd go for happiness every time. She feels she will be happier at AGS so that's good enough for me!

Good to hear that you have had a good experience at AGS. Thanks for taking the time to write. The distance isn't ideal but so many children even at pre school or primary school are there 8am- 6pm and survive. My daughter will be finished by 3.45 and will just need to sit back and relax on a nice warm coach listening to music for 40 min. I think she'll cope. At the end of the day we can only do what we think best with the info in front of us. I could send her to a school 10 min down the road and she be miserable for the next 7 years. I doubt I'd look back and think 'well at least it was convenient'

[Ejf]

That’s certainly not the impression we have had of SGGS. My DD has been there since September and absolutely loves it. No hint of any of the problems highlighted in these feedbacks. Yes they have a strict uniform policy but my DD prefers to wear the trouser option anyway. There is certainly no one standing at the gate with a tape measure. The work so far has been enjoyable, interesting and manageable. I’ve actually been surprised and impressed as to how enthusiastic she has been to complete any homework tasks well before the due date. Takes little more than an hour to complete at most. 1 hour when they get home from school. She has on occasion even done some in the library after school in the 30 minutes she has while waiting for the bus. I mean, what else are they doing in the evening? Watching TV/YouTube/TicToc? That's simply down to discipline from the parents. Homework first and then they are free to "play".

I guess each child is different. Some are more motivated than others and some need reminding by the parents, but absolutely the work is not overwhelming in terms of time. It’s a school with high standards and work ethic, but that’s exactly what we wanted.

Our DD has made many new friends already, they are forced into it because of the large catchment area and diversity of feeder schools. No more than 3 or 4 kids usually qualify from any given school, so pretty much everyone is new. No hint of bullying or rivalry over grades. I’m absolutely sure that there is more bullying and bitchiness going on in the local comprehensives.

In terms of answering the OPs question SGGS versus AGS versus RHS… We put all 3 schools down as a preference, in that order. Reason being because SGGS is not only the closest, but the more prestigious in our view. No disrespect to AGS or any of the Rugby schools (at the end of the day we would have been happy with any), but I think the majority in the Stratford catchment area put SGGS girls or KES boys as a first preference and AGS as a second. There’s no point in putting AGS as a first preference and SGGS or KES as a second because if they have qualified for SGGS/KES they will have almost certainly qualified for AGS as well with AGS having a lower AQS. We put RHS and Ashlawn down as 3rd and 4th preferences even though we are out of the catchment area. Also, last year we didn’t know the 11+ results before the school preferences needed to be submitted, so we just put all 4 grammar school options down as 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th preference. Luckily we got our first preference. If DD hadn’t qualified for any grammars, we would have gone down to our 5th, 6th or 7th preference which were the local comps. I think in this case we would have considered private, although it would have been a tight squeeze money wise.

We have a friend whose DD is at AGS and by the sound of it she is very happy there as well. Contradicting my own statement earlier, they put AGS as their first preference because they wanted their DD to go to a mixed school. Her only comment is in her class there are 20 boys and 10 girls and I think this is reflected in the school in general. There does tend to be almost twice as many boys than girls, probably because there are fewer places at KES and a different catchment area means more boys higher up the marks than girls. SGGS and AGS are fishing the same pond.

It’s impossible to know which school is best for your DC. There are so many factors to consider, the biggest one in my opinion is the friendships your DC will form which is totally out of your control regardless of school.

My advice it to weigh up the pros and cons of each school, but a big, BIG pro is proximity to the school. The nearest grammar would be the preferred option every time IMHO.

Thank you. Completely agree about friendships being totally out of my control and unpredictable. Does make me wonder if having more girls to ‘choose’ from means DD more likely to make friends easily than just another 9 in her class at AGS. She’s in a class now which has ranged from 7 to now only 4 girls and friendships have been extremely tricky. She’s always been the one left out when there has been an odd number.

[Ejf]

My daughter is now in Year 10 at SGGS and she loves it. We did look around AGS (husband went there) but DD was adamant that SGGS was where she wanted to go, we supported her and kept our fingers crossed. She'd had a tricky time at primary, but it was such a relief to see how much happier she was at secondary school. The school is fantastically supportive and very used to only getting one or two girls from each school. The vertical tutor system helps hugely with this, encouraging the girls from different years to get to know each other. My daughter has a fantastic group of really lovely friends, although there is a fair amount of driving when they all meet up given the wide catchment area! They're very supportive of each other and watching them work and collaborate together academically and through sport has been really lovely. Pastoral support at the school has always been very good, and continued to be throughout the pandemic and once they had returned to school. The staff speak of mental wealth, rather than mental health and are very positive in this regard. Homework is manageable and increases steadily as DD progresses up through the school, as expected.

There's a lot going on at SGGS after school too and DD has thrown herself in to this with huge enthusiasm too, you may need to factor this in for daily commutes. We're based in Worcestershire, pretty close to the edge of the catchment area when we applied. We've always managed to juggle the commute but you do need to be prepared for the train (in our case) or bus not turning up, or being late or detouring, traffic into Stratford can also be hellish, particularly once roadworks are thrown into the mix. Until you start doing it you've no idea how long it's going to take. I'm lucky in that work are fairly flexible, but I have sat in my car with a laptop on my knee and I also now have a car boot library, it's surprising how many books you can get through waiting for children to finish after school activities! If you have other children too they'll need to be part of the process, I have a DS in Year 9 and it was a huge relief when they were both going to schools in the same town again.

I appreciate that we were lucky being able to look around the schools before filling in the CAF form. Our daughter loves SGGS and it was absolutely the best fit for her, standards are high, they work hard but have a lot of fun doing so, you just want your children to be happy. Wishing you the very best of luck with your choice and decisions.

Thank you. Glad to hear your daughter has had such a positive experience. You make a good point about considering other children. If I’m doing a 40 min round trip in the mornings and afternoons to the bus stop, that’s time away from my other children.

[sportsforall]

So sorry to be late to answer, and I am sure you made the right decision for your daughter. A short journey to school / shorter day has many advantages!

[del]

The distance isn't ideal but so many children even at pre school or primary school are there 8am- 6pm and survive. My daughter will be finished by 3.45 and will just need to sit back and relax on a nice warm coach listening to music for 40 min. I think she'll cope. At the end of the day we can only do what we think best with the info in front of us. I could send her to a school 10 min down the road and she be miserable for the next 7 years. I doubt I'd look back and think 'well at least it was convenient'

I'm sure you will make the right decision and I wish you the best of luck. However, don't lose sight of the fact that you could also "send her to a school 1 hour and 20+ minutes away and she be miserable for the next 7 years". I appreciate you have been to AGS and had a good vibe, but it's not like buying a house. It's the people inside those buildings - teachers and pupils - that make the difference. My point is it's a complete unknown at this stage. You don't know what the cohort will be next September.

I think another poster commented on the fact that they found it a bit hard to get their head around that you are considering a school 1hr 20min+ away when you have one 10mins away, and I tend to agree. The proximity of the school is a massive plus. Both AGS and RHS have fantastic reputations.

Anyway, as I said good luck with it all. Whichever path you choose I'm sure it will work out brilliantly for your DD.