Which secondary school to target? DD wants to study Maths at Uni

Hi all,
My daughter is currently in Year5 at a local state primary school. She is good at maths and enjoys it. Her long term goal is to study maths at Cambridge.

11 plus exams are fast approaching. We must now decide which schools we want to aim for. I have a nagging feeling somewhere that we didn't do a thorough research to help DD choose a school that suits her. We live in Croydon, but we are happy to move anywhere (commutable to London) for the right school. So far, we've been considering Tonbridge Grammar School, Newstead Wood School and Henrietta Barnett school.

Henrietta Barnett is our #1 choice. Why? Because its the only state school that stands in the top10 alongside top privates. Because they have a impressive Oxbridge record.

Please can I ask the wise people of this forum to help my daughter choose the right school ?

1. DD plans to start preparing for UKMT Junior challenge soon. Does Henrietta Barnett school offer support /guidance if she wants to work towards BMO?

2. Which secondary schools would you recommends we consider for her?

3. We haven't looked at private secondaries at all. We can afford to send her to one of those top secondaries but that means major compromises on lifestyle for us. In your opinion, do you think sending her private is worth it ? Do private schools really make a difference in terms of polish etc or are top state secondaries as good?

Any other relevant advise is gratefully received.

Hi all,
My daughter is currently in Year5 at a local state primary school. She is good at maths and enjoys it. Her long term goal is to study maths at Cambridge.

11 plus exams are fast approaching. We must now decide which schools we want to aim for. I have a nagging feeling somewhere that we didn't do a thorough research to help DD choose a school that suits her. We live in Croydon, but we are happy to move anywhere (commutable to London) for the right school. So far, we've been considering Tonbridge Grammar School, Newstead Wood School and Henrietta Barnett school.

Henrietta Barnett is our #1 choice. Why? Because its the only state school that stands in the top10 alongside top privates. Because they have a impressive Oxbridge record.

Please can I ask the wise people of this forum to help my daughter choose the right school ?

1. DD plans to start preparing for UKMT Junior challenge soon. Does Henrietta Barnett school offer support /guidance if she wants to work towards BMO?

2. Which secondary schools would you recommends we consider for her?

3. We haven't looked at private secondaries at all. We can afford to send her to one of those top secondaries but that means major compromises on lifestyle for us. In your opinion, do you think sending her private is worth it ? Do private schools really make a difference in terms of polish etc or are top state secondaries as good?

Any other relevant advise is gratefully received.

...

Your daughter is in year 5 and already has long term goals to study at Cambridge (maths no less as well). Am I the only one who thinks this is very weird. Why not just let her enjoy her childhood rather than planning 8 years ahead jeez send her to the best school for her and let her be.

This thread is actually quite worrying imo. Seems like she is far too young to be thinking about this.

Do you like where you currently live?

If so, what are the 3 nearest secondary schools with sixth forms to you?

And "even" Henrieta Barnet only has a 50% success rate for applicants getting an offer vs the university average of 25%. And the Maths average offer rate is higher anyway (40%) because of their use of STEP as an entry requirement.

Honestly I wouldn't recommend moving your family just for this.

The best Maths support is right here on TSR
Maths Forum: https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=38
And eventually she'll use this, well the 2023(?) version : https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4275906


Oh and the top state sixth form for Cambridge is Hills Road (in Cambridge) - I presume you don't fancy moving all the way there though...

Edit to add: LB of Sutton has 11+ selective grammars. Closer than Hampstead, or Cambridge.

I routinely send students to Cambridge for maths from a "bog-standard" state comprehensive. Their location or availability of tuition is less important than their natural ability in my opinion. I suspect a student who is drilled to jump through hoops from an early age will find it quite difficult to cope with the removal of this scaffolding at university. If your daughter is a strong candidate for Cambridge maths, she will get there with only a moderate amount of parental support.

Hi! I'm not in the Croydon area but hopefully can offer some general advice. I'm currently holding a Cambridge offer for Natural Sciences subject to A-level grades this summer. I've been at my local secondary school, which is widely regarded as the worst school in my area, since year 7 and stayed on for Sixth Form. When I was researching Cambridge, a lot of what i heard was that, in reality, it doesn't matter what school you go to. They take into account the track record of your school with regards to applications when assessing a student's application. As far as i know, the applicant to offer ratio is in fact lower at the top school in my area than in my school. And they also expect schools with high numbers of applicants and offers to prepare students slightly more thoroughly than at schools where offers are somewhat rarer.

I guess what I'm trying to say to you is that if your daughter is good enough to go to Cambridge and applies, she will get an offer - the reputation of her secondary school isn't that important. I actually turned down a place at a top local sixth form college to stay where i was and it hasn't done me any harm.

Thank you. Do grammars have specialisms at all? Are there any Maths specialism schools in and around London?

Why? Its never too young or never too old to have ambitions in life. She wants to study maths at cambridge - that doesnt mean she is doing GCSE maths already and is being tutored day and night. Nopes. She is a normal 10yr old who does loads of activities (that she likes) . Just that she LOVES maths and is slightly more mentally matured for her age.

Why? Its never too young or never too old to have ambitions in life. She wants to study maths at cambridge - that doesnt mean she is doing GCSE maths already and is being tutored day and night. Nopes. She is a normal 10yr old who does loads of activities (that she likes) . Just that she LOVES maths and is slightly more mentally matured for her age.

So, the best school would be the worst one, because then she'd get grades that are above everyone else in her school and Cambridge would be more likely to accept her if he grades aren't great.

Is is all relative in uni admissions ? (please forgive my ignorance, I'm totally new to all this, but addicted to TSR at the moment)

Student1 : 5 As from a top grammar school
Student 2: 5 As from a local comprehensive

Are you saying student 2 stands better chance? Are you sure?

A 10 year old doesn't have sufficient experience/knowledge to be able to decide what they want and you looking at moving just to and try and get her into Cambridge maths seems ludicrous. Maybe in 5 years she will want to be a doctor or lawyer or historian or social worker or artist or actor or.....

As already noted by Mr M if she is good enough and still wants to go there in 7/8 years then she will be be free to apply.

You seem like one of those parents who pushes there children too hard quite frankly. How do you even know she is capable of Cambridge maths? They must reject a lot of very talented people every year.

Seriously though do you honestly think your 10 year old has ambitions to go to Cambridge maths or is that something you are pushing on her. I would be very surprised if the former. (Maybe some people are only ever out for maths from a very young age people like Tao for instance but you're daughter is not on that level or even close sorry to say)

Anyway if she likes maths as much as you make out then it is a gift imo and you should look at helping her explore things she is interested in at her own pace rather than shoving things like training for maths challenges down her throat.

Certainly it used to be the case that if a school/college hadn't sent many students to Cambridge, their students might typically get a STEP (maths entrance test) offer of 1, 2 rather than 1, 1. These lower offers are no longer so common.