LAET or Woodford County?

I was wondering if any sixthformers could give me any insight into which school i should go to,
basically im stuck between LAET and Woodford which ive recieved offers from both,
From what ive heard about Woodford ive heard loads of stories about people leaving bcs of the stress they put on students, but on the offer holder day it seemed rl chill and everyone seemed kinda chill. Also they doing have set hours so you can leave and come as you have lessons.Also they have loads of traditions like a teachers band or smth and house dramas every year. Some of my family rl want to go but the thing is ik ill be staying in my comfort zone in a way bcs it a girls school and i already go to one.
Compared to LAET i havent rl heard anyone talking about the stress, but the teachers seem to treat the student more like adults, and they have a more professional environment as well as better grades in the long run, and bcs of their sponsors apparently they have rl good apprentichip options, and asw as that a lot of my friends are going which i know shouldnt rl matter but I rl cba to make new friends and it just makes me anxious, and Laet is a further travel from me.
I was wondering if anyone goes to either one of these schools if they could give me some insight bcs im honestly so lost and i feel like i shoulve decided which college i want to go any its rl stressing me out.
any advice is appreciated <333
(help meeeeeeeee)

Hey. I went to woodford county and studied A level maths, physics and geography. What I want to firstly emphasise is that sixth form is only 2 years and is the deciding factor as to whether you get into uni so be selfish, do what's best for you and go to the best sixth form out of those ( up to you to judge).
Having gone to Woodford I will tell you that a lot of the departments aren't that great. The physics department when I started had 3 teachers, one of which was shared between the 2 physics classes there were. All 3 of those teachers weren't that great. I and other peers in my class had to do a lot of self-teaching. The teachers didn't seem confident in their knowledge of physics or in their responses to students questions and it felt like they were regurgitating their powerpoints without adding anything meaningful. My teacher used to make a lot of mistakes during practicals and in her explanations which is okay once or twice but when frequent, it gets confusing and you start to question what they know and dont know. My friend's physics teacher had to apologise to her class as she couldnt teach and instead would pull up exam questions, let the students do them and then explain the working out in the answers. Quite a few people dropped physics, understandably so, as they were failing. A lot of us were doing average, getting C's which was worrying. We were told in Year 13 that intervention would be introduced for some subjects only to find out physics wasn't one of them despite our subject probably having the worst average grade.
As for maths, everyone had one good and one bad teacher. Unfortunately for me, the 'bad' teacher was teaching statistics which was my weaker topic so I had to out in double the work outside of school and even attended tuition privately. She too would make mistakes throughout the 2 years of studying. It was so bad sometimes she'd just put up videos for us to watch such as TLmaths or Bicen. A LOT of us were struggling and so intervention was introduced for maths which many attended but that teacher happened to be the one leading it😭.
As for Geography, I again had some good and bad teachers. What I hated is that we didn't get many timed essays to do in class. There were many occasions were my teachers were gone for trips be it geography or not and so many lessons were missed out on. Due to our teachers poor planning they missed out some maths content we were supposed to do as part of geography like statistical tests and we didn't finish the syllabus in time.
What I will say is that I really liked the school grounds. it was beautiful and I enjoyed the walk to different parts of the school. I do miss it a lot! There are also clubs each half term that students in year 12 MUST take part in such as critical thinking in STEM, cooking, sports and a few others which was nice as we got a break from studying. Unfortunately it doesn't make up for the wealth of issues the school has.
If you are worried about making friends you'll definitely find it easier to do so at LAE than at Woodford especially when LAE is solely a sixth form so everyone starts fresh with the same mindset of having yo make friends. I struggled to make friends because I came to woodford externally from another secondary school and as most of the students came internally, everyone stuck to who they already knew. It was also quite hard to get comfortable and settled into classrooms. I felt very awkward around my teachers for the 2 years I was there. It was much easier for the teachers to chat to internal students and I felt they didn't make much of an effort to accommodate externals (yes students did refer to us as externals but not as a way of being rude), although not intentional. Things were just awkward. I wasn't close to my teachers, none of them knew me well and it pushed me away from seeing them or talking to them when I struggled. I ended up skipping my tutorials (1-1 and group sessions with your form tutor) which I later got in trouble for. For that reason I felt even more alienated as it wasn't just the students but the teachers also. I ended up making my first friends in my final year when I sat in between 2 girls on our own row at the back of our physics class and one of them goes to uni with me too now! I value our friendship and wish we met earlier but it was really difficult to make permanent friends.
Overall I'd recommend LAE having been to Woodford myself. The quality of education at Woodford isn't great or even good. The computer science department is just as bad as the physics and for the psychology and economics department, both saw many teachers come and go over the last 2 years when i was there. Don't let the fact that it's a 'grammar' school fool you. They have tradition, true, but it's very annoying when these events are compulsory to attend because they happen so frequently during the year and with how poor the teaching is students would rather have lessons but it's not possible. It's also difficult to make friends. I felt very alone and isolated as did a lot of the externals who went there - that's not to say you can't make friends. Also if you want to do physics or engineering there's very little to no support or extracurriculars. They constantly invite financial and law firms over and there were plenty opportunities for art, classics and english students but none for STEM. Lots of medicine talks, medicine alumni coming back to give advice and clubs with teachers giving feedback, personal statement advice and mock interviews. The sixth form puts all their focus into their med and humanities students, basically neglecting everyone else. There is very little support. If you are failing you'll be told and hounded for it but there's no support in place to help you recover and perform better. you are left to work on your own which is stressful. From what ive heard there's plenty of support at LAE for you to develop, plenty extracurriculars and support securing them the teachers and quality of education are good/great.
Best of luck deciding!

Hey, Thanks so much for the response!, when i went to the taster day and offer holder day, none of the students really were telling me the downsides of everything (not that they really would considering they were meant to promote it), and its rl helpful to know that there are inconsistencies in the maths department bcs for alevels im planning on doing maths,further maths,bio and chem, and I 100% do not want to do medicine and it would suck if I had no extracurriculars for STEM.
I do think i was looking at the school through rose tinted glasses bcs the school is so pretty lol,and i thought the traditions would be fun, but now that ive read this i would also probably find it annoying.
I was honestly already leaning towards LAET but i was sooo worried that i would be missing out on Woodford if i didnt go,and now i think im solid on the fact I want to go to LAET,only problem now is that I have to get this through some of my family, who are adamant that i go WCHS (praying that i get good enough results tho)😮*💨.
Thanks again so much! hearing this has really lifted a burden off my shoulders.
(P.S also i hope uni goes well for u <3 )