11 Plus Exams Forum

Dear all,
My son is in "selective top 180" and we do not know which school to choose.
Bexley or Beths.

Any hints... thoughts... ideas are appreciated...

Thank you.

moulie18 wrote:Dear all,
My son is in "selective top 180" and we do not know which school to choose.
Bexley or Beths.

Any hints... thoughts... ideas are appreciated...

Thank you.

Congratulations to your DS .

Obvious questions are
- which one did you and he prefer when you visited them?
- which one is easier to get to from where you live?

DS is in year 9 at Beths and he is very happy there.

When choosing his school, we were considering three schools...Chis & Sid, Beths and a non grammar. We visited all three schools and there were pros and cons for all of them. I think this is common when considering schools, and I came to the conclusion that there is no such thing as the perfect school that ticks all the boxes.

To be honest, we would have been happy for him to end up at any one of those three schools, so we let DS choose the order of preference himself. Beths was his first choice.

With Beths, what you see on the open days/evenings is what you get, and we liked what we saw. The big dilemma we had was whether we preferred all boys or mixed. DS is happy where he is so all good and glad he made the choice he did.

Good luck!

thank you for your responses.
My main concern is if "all boys" school makes him less polite and less aware of ethics, aesthetics...etc.
I myself came from all boys school(abroad) and I remember us acting like hyenas at school when teachers were not visible...

Have you visited both schools? I think you simply must go with whichever your son prefers, he is the one going there after all. Do you feel he would 'fit' better into either one? I think you get a good feel for the school that would be best suited to your own child.

i have only boys and it occurred to me that coming from a family with only boys and going to a boys school it might get a bit unbalanced - luckily they liked BGS and it was closer and a better fit for them

Each family and child is different in what they prefer. It is something to consider and I know mixed was better for us.
What does your son think? Good luck at the open events, hope something clicks

Apparently more of the top 180 (who eventually actually go with a Bexley school) opt for BGS than any of the other Bexley (Grammar) schools. Not sure why this is but if you look at the catchment area of BGS in comparison to the other Bexley grammar schools it does seem to be the grammar of preference at the moment.

I have a boy in Year 8 at BGS and his brother will start there next year (currently Year 6). It's our nearest grammar (20 min walk) so it was the only grammar we looked at for either.

I do/did feel strongly about wanting them to go to a mixed school. My older child wouldn't have cared, but the younger one is adamant he likes to be with girls as much as boys.

But I have heard that Beths is great - if that had been our nearest school, I would have been really torn.

It's very much a personal thing, I think. But I do really love BGS (as does my son): we looked around at Open Evening yesterday and it just strikes me as so full of opportunities, and they embrace everyone (quirks and all).

Good luck!