Girls School chat, North London

A friend of ours prepared their daughter for the schools you have mentioned with Queens College as a back up. They ended up loving that.

Habs doesn’t have small class sizes I think they’re about 27/28. Habs NLCS and HBS are all tough environments. Habs probably slightly less so than the other 2. There’s also St Helens in Northwood but ultimately if you’re going for highly selective schools they’re all going to be fairly hardcore.

If you want somewhere more balanced you’re looking at St Margaret’s royal Masonic Northwood college and the like who all get excellent results. If you’re in mill hill area don’t discount mill hill county, an excellent school or if you have a faith then the faith secondaries are generally excellent academically.

Fwiw the new Channing head is the current deputy at dd’s School and she’s fabulous! Will really miss her!

PS results at SHHS equal to NLCS and Habs, have no idea if the pressure is the same as we're not into GSCEs. So far, homework pretty light.

Hello just to clarify yes SHHS is South Hampstead.

Exploding offers - search mumsnet for more details but in short all private schools offers have a deadline for acceptance just after the state school offers (early March). However some schools (SHHS, City boys, UCS, NLCS to name a few) will honour all offers made to this date. Others - chiefly City Girls, Channing, Highgate - operate 'exploding offers'. The official acceptance date is the same but when they get as many acceptances as places, they'll rescind the offers they've already made. I think it's pretty shit but others will argue that it's completely fair enough. Read the threads and make your mind up, here's one
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/3167209-City-of-London-Girls-withdrawing-offers

I hate league tables as actually a bright child will do the same in any of the reasonably academic schools. However having said that, I'd disagree that Haps and NLCS are in a different league to SHHS - I've just looked and Has is lower than SHHS for both GSCEs and A levels and NLCS is lower in one of them (can't remember which). Either way I wouldn't make any conclusions based on tables (and I'd argue that the grammar schools are harder to get into than any of them).

I don't know it personally but hear good things about St Helens in Northwood.

In terms of pressure, there is little to separate Henrietta, NLCS and Habs. I am increasingly hearing that St Albans is getting more high pressured but the change of head may revert that. For what it is worth, my view is that if you and your child thrive on competition and being the best, then these schools will suit your family well. If your child is a worrier or squeaks in having missed out on all the state options by a big margin (if attempted), the schools may be too pressured for your DD.

Exam wise, all the state selective options are much harder to get into than any independents on the above list because of the large number trying to get places and the level of extreme prep. Many do try some state schools and then panic when the results are released in October. Do not be concerned and just view it as a good trial run, as many unsuccessful kids get into all the above schools.

Someone mentioned Queenswood above - a great school indeed!

Channing is refreshingly down to earth the staff are just amazing, girls vibrant and new theatre is a fantastic asset. Sadly the wonderful headteacher retires in 2020 but there is a blurb about the new one on the website.

I would say Henrietta barnett is very comparable to NLCS and habs so if you're avoiding that then makes no sense to go for the two privates. Channing and SHHS are I think the middle men in your list although I know during this massive bulge year it's horribly difficult to get in anywhere.

NLCS and Habs are quite hardcore I’m afraid. For the right girl they are exceptional schools and I have friends with girls at both and they all sing their praises.

I also have a friend with a daughter at one of them who is suffering from anxiety due to the competitive and pressurised environment. Her parents are not happy with the pastoral support and the way it is being dealt with by the school. It’s a bit of a “just get over it” attitude. She is moving schools as a result.

Depending on where in North London you are, you might also want to have a look at St Albans High School for Girls - buses run from Stanmore, Mill Hill and Winchmore Hill.

More of a curve ball school take a look at Queenswood. Door to door transportation service. Known for getting results without the pain. Beyond fabulous extra curricular. Not on many parents radar as it used to be the backup school if you didn’t get a place at the academic North London academic schools. In such a competitive environment of course their results aren’t as high as the other schools in the area as they are not selecting the very brightest. What is astonishing though is that girls get, on average, one to two grades higher than would be expected at similar comparative schools. Girls do walk away with nine A stars. A very different vibe to all the other schools you are looking at and obviously not Uber selective. But a school that really blew me away.

ps dds had one hour's tutoring a week from a non-high-achieving state primary so not intensively tutored. Both above average but not super bright. Got offered everywhere they applied to, with a few scholarships.

We're North London (but centralish) and have ridden a couple of rounds the 11+ rodeo and survived (just).

First time round I really liked Channing but went off them with their exploding offers. Second time round I was maybe looking for reasons to be glad that the first dd's offer had exploded, but the process seemed kind of lazy and as if they were a bit complacent. The head has been there a very long time (has she left now? Can't remember), which can be a negative.

We didn't try for City although it was an obvious choice as it's near us and I think, appealingly, appears to make more an effort to attract state primary applicants. However (see above) the exploding offer thing put me off and one daughter attended a special state school open day and really didn't enjoy it so we couldn't see the point of making her apply for a school she didn't want to go to, especially since she probably wouldn't have been offered a place. But loads of people love it and it's genuinely more diverse than most of these schools (though there's an argument that if you want diversity, go to your local state, which is what I sometimes wish we'd done).

Don't know much about Habs and NLC as they're too far away for us.

Francis Holland impressed us loads through the process. I get the sense that it's becoming a positive first choice for many families and rightly so.

We've ended up with SHHS and it's great, fab building, excellent head, a real effort to address the mental health issues that can be rampant in these sort of girls' schools. Don't want to say too much for fear of outing, but it's exceeded our expectations. Very sensitive to girls' needs.