I know some friends over at Brampton from my old school, and from what I have heard it’s a bit more tense there. The overall quality of teaching seems to be better at NCS, due to some Brampton teachers being overworked or not being very good at teaching.
Brampton has a few advantages over NCS as well. They definitely move through the course faster than us at NCS, though this is a double edged sword as some of my friends struggle with keeping up with the content. Their principal also left a better impression than the NCSs acting principal, and they have more sports activities in school time. We get no sports here, except after school voluntary activities.
I would say the main and biggest advantage of NCS over Brampton is the overall working atmosphere. Both schools are selective, and both aim quite high, but the atmosphere at Brampton is very different than here. You only need to attend both schools’ open evenings to see the difference, but essentially Brampton felt much more brutal than NCS. Brampton is also more packed. NCS has a larger historic building, we use the Newham town hall for assemblies, and a large building for private study sessions. At Brampton, you have three crammed concrete buildings next to a secondary school, and you aren’t allowed to leave school grounds in lunch.
Overall, the NCS simply felt more welcoming, and you can see the effects of this if you ask a few alumni about the school. Right now we’re in mock exam season, and I know there is cheating going on in Brampton (my old friend is one of the cheaters) while I’ve heard no such thing here at NCS.
Of course, this is all an outside view of Brampton. It would be nice to see someone from Brampton challenge my impression of the school, to paint a more accurate picture. What I would recommend Y11 who are planning on applying to these schools to do is this: attend the open evenings, ask the alumni their opinion on the opposite school, and still, APPLY TO BOTH SCHOOLS. Although I believe NCS is a bit better than Brampton, they are both still amazing schools, and ideally on GCSE results day you will have multiple offers, one from both schools.