Anyone applied to Maida Vale School?

We had a great experience at North Bridge House. There is less interaction between parents and school as compared to other day schools, but it prepared our son extremely well for the 11+ and he flourished and was accepted at every senior school and boarding school he applied for.

Hello, could you shed some light on that comment, please. thanks

@MumsRule20 If you are able to join MaidaValeParents2Parents FB and do a search in that page, you will find a recent post with lots of great feedback.

@Milomonster thanks very much, good to know.

@PipaJJ not the impression my friend got at all re SEND heavy. She has a child with SEN and didn’t think he’d be supported there.
@MumsRule20 the feedback I have has been very positive from parents in the local community. I follow their Twitter to get a feel for the ethos and it seems like a down to earth school.

Any more thoughts from anyone on MVS?

Hear they are taking anyone and everyone to fill up spaces - so children may want to put this as a back up - instead of Northbridge ! However, cohort therefore quite mixed.....I'm hearing in the wrong direction - will be good facilities, but I think the right friendships are more important than the sports ground. SEND Heavy. Parent Cafe is a good idea though.

I am considering Knightsbridge for my 7 years old ...I would appreciate any opinions

Yes we have a place for our son who will be starting year 7 next week. Our son is very bright and did very well at primary school. We wanted a co-educational school and there were just not enough places at the the other North London schools. We have high expectations - the culture seems good and facilities are also good.

Having recently joined this forum, I had been looking for others feedback on Maida Vale School. In general, our first impressions have been very good. My initial contact was a phone conversation with the Registrar, who was helpful and informative about the school. Despite not being able to physically visit the school due to the lockdown at the moment, we have now been able to book onto a Virtual Event on the 20th May, which we will be able to see the site and facilities. My daughter recently completed the assessment process as well as the interview with the Headmaster and came away smiling (which has been a first in the whole process). It was refreshing to find a school that seemed very personable and made it all about the child. Maida Vale School is definitely our first option. I hope this feedback helps.

Having recently joined this forum, I had been looking for others feedback on Maida Vale School. In general, our first impressions have been very good. My initial contact was a phone conversation with the Registrar, who was helpful and informative about the school. Despite not being able to physically visit the school due to the lockdown at the moment, we have now been able to book onto a Virtual Event on the 20th May, which we will be able to see the site and facilities.

My daughter recently completed the assessment process as well as the interview with the Headmaster and came away smiling (which has been a first in the whole process). It was refreshing to find a school that seemed very personable and made it all about the child. Maida Vale School is definitely our first option. I hope this feedback helps.

We're not a fan, having left NBH at year 1, we found it too commercial and not personal. But as usual, there are thos who like it.

What I’ve heard from NBH parents is that it’s like a comp but without the lowest tier of students by attainment. So no bells and whistles but no risk of being dragged down by underperformers and poor behaviour. This is worth something to me as I went to a comp where this was a real problem. But I’m not convinced they are doing enough with what they’ve got. I don’t know about nurturing - I didn’t get any impression either way.

I think some of my bias against it is that I spoke to an educational consultant who was frustrated with it - and I thought the request for a deposit before offers are out was poor. They’ll no doubt make a few thousand that way but I’d rather their business model was based on providing a really good experience to students rather than exploiting parents’ anxiety. All the schools could play that game but they don’t.

Interested to know if I’ve got the wrong impression here. Any NBH parents want to chip in ?

Offer arrived today so that’s good. Erring towards that over Northbridge House because of the warm words on here and elsewhere about the group behind the school. There are two schools we have yet to hear from - either of which would be my preferred outcome because of the facilities. But nice to have a safe offer.

Also NBH want. £2k deposit by Friday midday which feels like taking advantage of parents’ anxiety since some offers will still actually be in transit by that point.

Ah ok. Our post is useless so no surprise there !

We got ours yesterday in post (Saturday)!

Are offers out then ?

We are and we got offered a place. We liked the place after a good chat with the owner Mrs Gardener. This is for a very academic DS who needs good pastoral care and nurturing. It's still our back up as assessments are ongoing and he's still entering intervies etc for City, St Paul so on, but overall we are impressed with the Maida Vale school. It looks like they will get very personal education and this is very valuable for us.

I went to the open day for Maida Vale. It's still a building site, but it's going to be quite impressive. I might apply for DD3 for 2021. It is mixed ability, and my impression is it will be quite nurturing. They will use Paddington Rec and Regents Park for sports. Unfortunately, there is not very much outside space on site.

Thanks cake! Good context. :-)

stircrazy - please don't let hearsay or posters put you off looking at schools, do your own research. Kew has a link with it's two prep schools and made 31 and 34 offers to each of them last year according to their websites. But of these only 15 and 12 places respectively were accepted, 27 in total leaving lots of places for those applying from elsewhere. Look at the prep school websites to confirm this.
By giving preferential places to the prep kids Kew have made it quite clear that they have different priorites than chasing the league tables but still some parents try and make out that it is a co-ed St Pauls. Oddly you think that it will be easier to get a place at Ibstock a school with much better results and it's own prep which I suspect would have about 50 places. Go to a Kew open day and the open day for any other school you are interested in and talk to the schools themselves. To get information about results look at the Govt website, link below.

www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/schools-by-type?step=default&table=schools&region=all-england&for=16to18&orderby=ks5.0.TALLPPE_ALEV_1618&orderdir=asc

Rocky I was initially looking at Kew as you are right, it’s an easier journey, but I’d heard it’s gotten v oversubscribed and most places go to ‘feeder’ schools. (Correct me if this is wrong!) Maida Vale was suggested as a school with a similar feel but potentially more spaces as it’s new. On reflection it’s probably too far away and we’ll probably be better off having a look at Ibstock.