The Student Room Group

CLC or Benenden school

I have been accepted by Cheltenham Ladies College and Benenden school but I don’t know which one to attend. My predicted grades are all 8s and 9 for maths. Could anyone give an opinion about which one to attend? Thank you so much.
That's amazing! Both are really good schools, great job! As I've heard, CLC has many Chinese students (not sure if it's good or bad, a personal opinion), while Benenden has less. CLC offers the IB alongside while Benenden only offers A Levels.
congratulations, those are both top schools! well benenden and clc are both good schools, my daughters one go to benenden and other went to clc but then changed to benenden. clc is more of a education and academic focused while benenden is a work hard play hard environment. i feel like work hard play hard is an important lesson for a lot of people so i recommend going to benenden, but that’s just personal opinion, hope you choose the right school!
Original post by Hjy20050823
I have been accepted by Cheltenham Ladies College and Benenden school but I don’t know which one to attend. My predicted grades are all 8s and 9 for maths. Could anyone give an opinion about which one to attend? Thank you so much.

Hi do you remeber what the entrance exams for Cheltenham were like ?? Which subjects did you sit and was it a similar level of difficulty to a gcse paper ?
Reply 4
Original post by Interestedstude
Hi do you remeber what the entrance exams for Cheltenham were like ?? Which subjects did you sit and was it a similar level of difficulty to a gcse paper ?

Hii I'm currently at CLC in Year 11 (so we're in the same year I'm guessing??) and although I don't know if the 16+ entry is very difficult, I can say that the 11+ entry was fairly easy and my friends and I agreed that the acceptance rate wasn't as selective as we thought it would be or based of what the internet had said so if you are doing good at GCSEs then you probably have nothing to worry about!

This is what the website says about the assessment day though

Sit two written Sixth Form subject papers along with an adaptive verbal reasoning test, and an adaptive test from one of two pathways: Maths/Science or Art/Humanities.

Have a 1-2-1 interview with a member of the Sixth Form Team or Senior Leadership team.

Take part in a small, group-based activity.
Reply 5
Original post by regina.wong
congratulations, those are both top schools! well benenden and clc are both good schools, my daughters one go to benenden and other went to clc but then changed to benenden. clc is more of a education and academic focused while benenden is a work hard play hard environment. i feel like work hard play hard is an important lesson for a lot of people so i recommend going to benenden, but that’s just personal opinion, hope you choose the right school!

Hi, May I know if you are able to share with me more about the culture in benenden?
Reply 6
Original post by regina.wong
congratulations, those are both top schools! well benenden and clc are both good schools, my daughters one go to benenden and other went to clc but then changed to benenden. clc is more of a education and academic focused while benenden is a work hard play hard environment. i feel like work hard play hard is an important lesson for a lot of people so i recommend going to benenden, but that’s just personal opinion, hope you choose the right school!

hope you could share with me more about Benenden school.. thank you!
Original post by bd40
Hii I'm currently at CLC in Year 11 (so we're in the same year I'm guessing??) and although I don't know if the 16+ entry is very difficult, I can say that the 11+ entry was fairly easy and my friends and I agreed that the acceptance rate wasn't as selective as we thought it would be or based of what the internet had said so if you are doing good at GCSEs then you probably have nothing to worry about!

This is what the website says about the assessment day though

Sit two written Sixth Form subject papers along with an adaptive verbal reasoning test, and an adaptive test from one of two pathways: Maths/Science or Art/Humanities.

Have a 1-2-1 interview with a member of the Sixth Form Team or Senior Leadership team.

Take part in a small, group-based activity.

Hii, I just got accepted into CLC and wanted to ask your opinion on it as a whole.
Could you mention how the boarding houses( is it dangerous walking to them late at night), clubs and overall academic environment is ( is it really cliquey ). I heard that there is a high number of international students, do they mainly stick Together in groups or mix with the general.

Sorry for the plethora of questions but seeing as we are in the same year, your classmates are likely to be mine next year 😂😂.
Reply 8
congrats on getting in!! Although school obviously has its ups and downs i would probably say CLC is a good school as a whole. I’m not a boarder , i’m a day girl right now (i will be boarding in sixth form though!) but i’m friends with lots of the boarders so i can still answer any other specific questions you have about boarding if you want. the boarding houses are separate buildings yes, but the furthest one is no more than a 8 ish minute walk and it’s super safe!! there’s always a LOAD of people walking down at the same time, especially in mornings, so there’s nothing to worry about. In the winter evenings when it’s dark there’s a school coach/ minibus that drives boarders back to houses so you don’t have to walk in the dark and the academic environment is pretty similar to other schools i would say (meaning there are people who try really hard and people who don’t really try at all etc) however quite a lot of my year group are super smart. There’s a massive range of different types of people and groups so i wouldn’t say it was cliquey tbh since you almost definitely will find a group of people that will welcome you. I mean yeah, the school is pretty international but everyone mixes really. there are lots of different people in different groups but obviously you find the old group with a bunch of similar girls but most groups are varied!!
Reply 9
Original post by Interestedstude
Hii, I just got accepted into CLC and wanted to ask your opinion on it as a whole.
Could you mention how the boarding houses( is it dangerous walking to them late at night), clubs and overall academic environment is ( is it really cliquey ). I heard that there is a high number of international students, do they mainly stick Together in groups or mix with the general.

Sorry for the plethora of questions but seeing as we are in the same year, your classmates are likely to be mine next year 😂😂.

also dw about asking lots of questions, i’m happy to answer anything 😚😚
Hi I also got accepted to both schools! Can you please tell me if CLC has a nice atmosphere?
Reply 11
Original post by chloez0228
Hi I also got accepted to both schools! Can you please tell me if CLC has a nice atmosphere?

woww congrats!! CLC has a nice atmosphere in my opinion but it depends what you view as ‘nice’ yk? What specifically are you looking for?
Original post by Interestedstude
Hi do you remeber what the entrance exams for Cheltenham were like ?? Which subjects did you sit and was it a similar level of difficulty to a gcse paper ?

hi, I applied for year 9 in clc and I got in. I personally thought that the test was quite easy, and I think that they relied more on the interview part of the exam
Original post by College lover
That's amazing! Both are really good schools, great job! As I've heard, CLC has many Chinese students (not sure if it's good or bad, a personal opinion), while Benenden has less. CLC offers the IB alongside while Benenden only offers A Levels.

hi, I applied to clc in year 9 and I got in. I still don't know if I will go, but when I went to the school there were alot of Chinese, but they tended to mix with other girls swell
Original post by Hjy20050823
I have been accepted by Cheltenham Ladies College and Benenden school but I don’t know which one to attend. My predicted grades are all 8s and 9 for maths. Could anyone give an opinion about which one to attend? Thank you so much.

hi, I applied for year 9 to clc for entry in 2025. I applied to both and only got into clc. personally I felt that if u want a more academic informant than clc. but I you want a more sporty school then benenden. but I liked clc more it also seemed more diverse and I am from America so I like that.
Original post by Interestedstude
Hi do you remeber what the entrance exams for Cheltenham were like ?? Which subjects did you sit and was it a similar level of difficulty to a gcse paper ?
Hi, current student, joined 16+. i sat the bio, math, eng lit and geography papers. they were very essay-based, but as long as you have common knowledge and logic, they are quite easy. keep in mind i took the cie igcses, so they may be different. they were not hard, but definitely challenging.
Original post by Interestedstude
Hii, I just got accepted into CLC and wanted to ask your opinion on it as a whole.
Could you mention how the boarding houses( is it dangerous walking to them late at night), clubs and overall academic environment is ( is it really cliquey ). I heard that there is a high number of international students, do they mainly stick Together in groups or mix with the general.
Sorry for the plethora of questions but seeing as we are in the same year, your classmates are likely to be mine next year 😂😂.
Hi, current sixth former here! generally, we have a rule where sixth formers have to walk in pairs at night. I'm in the most isolated boarding house, which is about 10 mins away from the college, and we take a separate road. i've walked it alone multiple times at night but I do not recommend. we have a LOT of clubs and societies (almost too many) so don't worry if you don't know if you'll find a club you like (as someone who does the most niche clubs you can think of). generally, it can be quite cliquey but there are many people who aren't as well. the international students generally mix, unless they're in my house, and then they don't (generally from Hong Kong and mainland). Not too sure for your year but it's not a problem.

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