Good indie or outstanding local comp?

[fairyelephant]

Slightly different to the grammar/indie threads, we are now wobbling over choosing the local excellent North London comp, or Channing girls school.

Financially it will be a stretch but doable, with no fancy holidays and kids will have to take a loan through uni, I will have to work a bit more and drop the epe habit

Comp is excellent, they get some great results with large numbers of Russell Group leavers but if you are not working hard yourself you may get overlooked/not stretched. DD works hard, DS more of a problem!

I am also concerned about all girls environment, DD has been bullied by the "A" type girls at her school, and often retreats to the boys to get away from it all. She has matured a lot recently however, and we feel she would cope much better now than say 6 months ago, this 11 plus process has helped her to develop a bit of confidence.

[pixiemop]

Hi ive posted very little on this forum but am intrigued as my DD is in identical situation. We've chosen the same indie for her and live on top a flourishing haringey state school. My DD has had issues with girls in her class and now she's saying that she's worried about all girls. She says she prefers the less complicated friendships with boys. She also has younger brother who is needing more of a push. She has said she would prefer to go to channing than local state and although its an issue of money I think her local primary didn't give her the chance to shine and I think she could be offered this opportunity by channing. Have you asked your dd about it?

[pixiemop]

Excuse typos am replying on my phone!

[P's mum]

I suppose that I made this choice (in favour of the state comprehensive). My situation, financially, was probably a bit different from yours as the state comp involved boarding and therfore associated fees and my daughter had a scholarship to one of the two indies in our final choice. There was a financial benefit to the state but it wasn't large/ decisive. I gave the final choice to my daughter on the grounds that I would have been happy with any of the final three and there were pros and cons to them all.

In typical childish fashion her choice was premised on a school uniform that didn't require a skirt!

She did, however, make some serious observations based on taster days, which despite all my careful investigations I wouldn't have spotted. One (indie) was doing less science, in at least the first couple of years, than the national curriculum. This was how they fitted in other (very attractive) extra-curricula activities. My daughter was desperate to do secondary school science.

I think that (in line with advice given by others elsewhere):
* ask the child, you are probably happy with either - but bear in mind that their criteria may not be very adult!
* you can buy an awful lot of extra curricula activity for indie fees (and remember when consider all the activities that they offer your child can't actually do all of them, are the fees worth what she would do?)
*if money really isn't an issue, which would you choose (remembering the last point - terms of which facilities will she use!)?
* social mix is probably at least somewhat different what are your views? (Though when faced with inverse snobbery on the part of my daughter I have pointed out that her school is hardly representative of the general population - after a bit of observation of her peers' clothing on school trips she concurrs with me!) There are pros and cons.
* parents make more difference than schools to the final outcome! So perhaps it's not worth going grey over the 'right' decision!

Finally despite much popular prejudice there are some very good comps.

Good luck with your decision.

[Sue123]

Hi there,

I am a Channing parent - please feel free to either post on the forum or PM me if you have questions I might be able to help with!

Sue 123

[pixiemop]

Just to add - please PM me too if you would like - sounds like our daughters have had similar experiences and could end up at the same school - although re Comps I'm talking about HWS which is 'good' and not outstanding. Would be quite happy to send her there though as it's on the up. I think though that we will probably choose Channing. If she's not happy I will look to move her.

[BarnetDad]

Of all indie girls schools in North London, Channing seems to be the "nicest" - and if I was worried about a fragile daughter's well-being, that would be near the top of my list!

BTW - Just in case there's any doubt, I'm not being sarcastic here...

[copella]

Unfortunately the reply I posted earlier seems to have disappeared, so here is a quick summary. They are very different schools one is huge with a very diverse population. You need to decide how robust your DD is and whether she needs a smaller more nurturing school or can managed the variety of characters she will meet at Highgate Wood. Also I just wanted to point out that it may not be as easy to move her later in the year if she is unhappy at Channing. HWS is over subscribed and ther will be quite a waiting list. However I am sure she would be happy at Channing I hear good things about it and gilrsnseem happy.

[fairyelephant]

Thanks so much everyone for taking the time to reply. It's been said before, but I'll say it again, this forum is indispensable. We have decided on Channing. Phew!

[pixiemop]

We've just handed in our acceptance form at Channing. The replies were really helpful to me too. It does rule out our local comprehensive but I think I've made the best choice for my DD and most important she will still be fairly local .