Badminton VS St Catherine's, Bramley

alisonbabe

I intend to skip a grade from F4 to Year 12 this year and luckily, I pass the assessments and interview.
I got an offer from badminton for Sixth Form previously but I am still waiting for St Catherine's one. I have accepted the offer from Badminton and paid the deposit to secure my place right now. So, just in case I am lucky enough to obtain an offer from St Catherine's, should I opt St Catherine's in lieu of Badminton?

I have always heard  good things about these two school and seems like they are both achieving high, having similar rankings. The only drawback of Badminton I heard so far is that the school has lots of HK and Chinese students, while St Catherine'e has a relatively less proportion of Chinese girls.

If you were me, what would you do?

Hopefulmom

Would you also wish to compare the exam results of these 2 schools on the subjects that you intend to study?  I note that both schools do not provide the results breakdown by individual subjects in their website, but you may wish to ask them if they can supply you with the breakdown.

Have you checked with St Catherine's the likely time that they expect they can get back to you?

alisonbabe

回覆 Hopefulmom 的帖子

I have asked the admission office of St Catherine's for the results but they replied that they were not in the position to give offer at this stage.
Assume the academic performance of both school are fairly same, which would you choose?

Million thanks!

4eyesDad

I like St Catherine's, Bramley.

Hopefulmom

I do not know St Catherine's well enough to give any advice about choosing between the 2. I strongly suggest you to dig out the results of these 2 schools on the subjects you are going to study and compare those results and see which school fare better academically in that limited perspective.

On the other hand, what I can tell about Badminton, from various friends whose daughters studied / are studying there -- it seems the HK students (at least my friends' daughters and their friends) there are united, happy and hard working, supportive of one another, and the atmosphere there is conducive to working hard, and their girls thrive there. One of them went to Oxford, and one came back to HK to study medicine.

In terms of size (area), i think both schools are similar.

Though some people may say Badminton has too many HK students (I do not know about St Catherine's), this however may not be that bad as this may help a new HK student to more easily adapt to the school with someone who come from the same place and have the same culture near you.

I think at the end of the day a student has to ask herself what she wants most from her new school, what aspect is most important and on the other hand what is least desirable for her, in order to compare between the 2.

Just my 2 pence.

Hopefulmom

Forgot to mention, Bristol is farther from Heathrow than Surrey and in that sense not as convenient to HK students. However in Bristol not too far from Badminton there is a big supermarket selling HK / Chinese food and snacks which can be quite good for HK students to help soothe homesickness. (You may wish to refer to the thread 9月英國開學，the article by andyng2014's daughter :)

Hopefulmom

Sorry, the thread is 9月去英國讀書

alisonbabe

回覆 4eyesDad 的帖子

Why? In terms of academic results or location?Thanks!

alisonbabe

回覆 Hopefulmom 的帖子

Thank you so much! Your honest and detailed advice definitely helps a lot.
Million thanks!

4eyesDad

To be fair, I heard Badminton is a very good school and you will not go far wrong with any of these two choices. I have never been to Badminton but I know Bramley is a beautiful village just outside Guildford. There is no large Chinese community nearby unless you go to London which is less than an hour away. Academically, both are quite similar. It's the rural setting at Bramley which wins my heart. I personally know graduates from St. Catherine's. I like them. By extension, I like the school.

WeiSB

Both Badminton and St. Catherine are excellent schools on academic performance and almost on the same level. The fact that most people here know much more about Badminton is because you can apply through agents here while you need to apply directly with St. Catherine. So you would expect more HK students in Badminton. But like Hopefulmom said, it may not be a bad thing depending on how you look at it. However, aparted from striving for good result, another key reason we sent our kids thousand miles away to study is to give them more exposure to foreign culture and independent living. In this respect, I would say St. Catherine should be a better bet.

wloi

If you refer to the A level ranking for 2014,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/educa ... -results-table.html
Badminton ranked 51 and St Catherine's ranked 52, so these 2 schools are in the same league.

My girl classmate is studying Y9 now at St. Catherine. In her form, including her , there are only 2 students from HK and 1 Chinese immigrant. Therefore, she has made a lot of friends with the other foreign students and boarders.

As for school life, she said the lessons are lively and she loves studying there.

I have applied St. Catherine for my girl who will study Y10 in this September.

I have also applied a few other schools, but I have not applied Badminton.  My girl told me that she has quite a number of classmates studying in Badminton and she was told that nearly all boarders are from HK or China.  Since the academic results and school's size are similar, she prefers St. Catherine over Badminton.

Therefore, it really depends on what you want when choosing between these 2 schools.

alisonbabe

回覆 4eyesDad 的帖子

Thank you for your sharing! Seems like St Catherine's has a better location.

alisonbabe

回覆 WeiSB 的帖子

I do see your point. Without a shadow of doubt, St Catherine's has less students from HK or Mainland and it is easier to make friends with foreigners. Thank you :)

alisonbabe

回覆 wloi 的帖子

Exactly. It really depends on what you prefer... ...BTW, wish your dd good fortune in receiving offers from St Cats!!
Thanks :D