St John's Senior Private School (Enfield)

was nearly 6 years ago I was there I think. I believe it still was the worst year of my life and a lot of other bad shit happened since my time there

Thoroughly disappointing establishment. The school is run like a dictatorship and if you do not align with the exact beliefs of the head teacher you are effectively an outcast whose views and opinions are null and void. As the school is run by a family and most employees are friends and family there is a very strong allegiance to the regime. There is clear preferential treatment in place towards certain individuals. The head master's son attends the school, and his wife makes extra sure to wield her relative powers, perhaps to overcompensate for her broader insignificance in the world and clear abundance of insecurities. I'm not sure if she thinks she's important or if she thinks that other people think she's important, actually most people think she's highly annoying. We shall also place to one side that ironically their child is one of the most misbehaved in the school. Rather strange for a family whose foundation is in education, not really doing a great job at that based on your offspring.

The parents of most of the children are quite polite and civil people, and inevitably you do end up getting some individuals who do not take the care to also educate and nurture their children at home, therefore you end up with children whose parents believe their responsibilities start and end with the respective pick up and drop off of their children to the school. Overall the parents are lovely and there isn't too much pretence.

Not anywhere near enough is done to communicate with the parents when situations happen in the school, and you will almost always need to rely on the fact that your child comes home and discusses things with you. When you raise this with the teachers the normal course of action is not to consult with any of the other related parents, the normal course of action is to discuss with a class of children broad life topics and ways to behave. While I understand the approach, as a parent you should have an interest in knowing if your child is exhibiting inappropriate or concerning behaviour.

Will do thanks for heads up

@Fullmoon02 start a new thread of your own with the name of the school in the title. No one will see your question otherwise!

Hi there, we're in Enfield and wondered if anyone had any opinions on Grange park Prep School in Winchmore Hill.
ISI reports are excellent but not much else in terms of parent's experience. Any thoughts?

@Soma St Margaret's is way too far for us unfortunately. We should hear from Queenswood imminently so we'll make our decision than.

@Meadowbreeze learning support & pastoral care is hit and miss at Mount House since the deputy head died a few years ago. Queenswood or St Margaret's Bushey are more consistent in that regard.

@XelaM Thanks so much, I'll have a look. We had mixed feedback about it and DD doesn't know anyone there so I didn't look into it that much.

Mount House is definitely a more relaxed friendly school if that's what you're looking for. They also don't finish late. Kids can leave at 4pm every day if they choose to (bus leaves at 16:15). After school clubs finish at 17:00 and an additional bus leaves at 17:15. They also have a wide choice of GCSE subjects.

My DDs friends. Not my dad's friend lol. We have also narrowed it down to Mill Hill and Queens wood because my DD already has friends there from her sport. She really likes them and knows their friends too from parties etc, so it wouldn't really be that big of a move. I don't think I'd be doing this if that wasn't the case though. Her friends are very studious and academic though so im conscious her experience will be different and wanted to find out more info, hence going on here.

@AlmondMilkTea the homework question is one I've asked queenswood as the length of day worries me. My Dad's friend who is on the Mill hill bus for over an hour and doesn't get home till 7ish, does it at lunch or on the coach home. I'm assuming that will be the case with queenswood.

@AlmondMilkTea Good questions. We'd been thinking about it for a while. My DD has an ehcp, not because of super high need but an anomaly. Our borough doesn't fund speech and lang support past the age of 7 without one, so we have it on that technicality. She is quite bright but has a language processing disorder and dyslexia. If she is in a small class of kids or even a big class of kids who are behaving, she does really well. She did brilliantly for a while until our senco left. All support has been taken away. She has no TA, has been put into classes in the lowest set full of kids who have also had all their support taken and are now lashing out.
If it was just academics, sure we'd just get a tutor. She's struggling mentally with it. Her school is incredibly strict and she keeps getting into trouble for the silliest things. I could go on and on but I'm desperate to get her a more enjoyable 2 years. I feel like this won't end well if she stays where she is. We previously loved the school and I recommend it a lot on here, so I'm sad about it all. Funding cuts are no joke at the moment.

@AlmondMilkTea In my experience kids are normally in specific areas. For example a bunch will be in winchmore hill, crouch end, a bit of Highgate etc and than all go into one school. So children will make friends with kids that are localish to them.
Depending on the actual route, 1hr is an average commute. If by coach, its often longer. Remember these kids tend to stay on school longer so the after school friendship bonding you might have, takes place in school. Queenswood for example, busses don't leave till around 6pm. That's what time is normally be leaving my friend's house to go home if I went to hers after school. St John's is unusual in how early they finish.

@XelaM Yh it's the most expensive for us too. In a way I don't mind as it'll only be 2 years for us and we've saved lots staying put in state. DD is not academic enough for a levels and Indies don't offer vocational courses so I'm confident we will only need to pay 1.5 years of fees which is very doable.
Their apprehension is making me like them the most. We've found far too many non or gently selective schools, say yes to everything but when it comes down to it it's all just words. Im not getting that vibe from them at all. DD is in a competitive swimming team and the only con I can see is she would struggle to go to training with their late finishes.
Do you have any other suggestions you might know about?

You are apparently bombarded with numerous daily emails by the school about constant events at Queenswood so beware 😅

My daughter's best friend from primary is at Queenswood and is super happy. We didn't choose it at the end because I wanted co-ed and it was one of the (if not thee) most expensive of the schools we had offers from. The facilities are amazing and if your daughter is sporty- there's no limit to the opportunities she can get there. They constantly have the girls do something extra-curricular and there is apparently an endless choice of what they can do. The pastoral care is very good and the girls are apparently very friendly. They get good results without being a hothouse. And also have a door-to-door bus service plus the option of boarding/flexi-boarding. I haven't heard anything bad about the school at all.

@XelaM you are a wealth of knowledge! Thank you. We are trying to escape an overly strict school so this doesn't sound like anything up Dd's street. If you have any info on Mill Hill or Queenswood would you mind sharing? I don't want to hijack ops thread. I'm happy to DM.

@OP is Haileybury College too far for you? Both day and boarding though err's on the side of boarding more but plenty day students .brilliant school with right balance of academics and pastoral care. It's closer to you than St Edmunds and has a better academics too although both are good schools. Haileybury also offers both A'Levels and the IB if that's of interest in future.

My list was getting too long, so I split my posts in two. I mentioned the pros above and here are the cons of St John's (that I found):

There are only lunch-time clubs (no after-school clubs), so you can't stay later than 16:20 (not sure if this applies to sixth formers though).

The Head is marmite. I know many parents who say that his father (who passed away before we came to the school) was a much better Head. I personally got on well with him though. He can come across as a bit arrogant, but I never had any bad experiences with him at all. He clearly cares very much about the school. Some kids/parents really don't like him though (not 100% sure why). If you go for an interview with him you get a sense of whether you will get on or not. Like I say, I personally never had any issues with him.

It's very boy-heavy. Definitely more boys than girls and given that it's a small school there are not that many girls to choose from for friendships (not an issue if you have a boy). My daughter was friends with kids from older years though and as it's a small school, everyone knows each other.

It's very traditional and strict. The teachers don't tolerate even a hint of bad behaviour and my daughter used to constantly get into trouble/get detentions. She's quite chatty and not studious though.

I believe they are strict on what GCSEs can be taken and there isn't such a wide choice, although you can speak to the Head about additional GCSEs as far as I know.

It's not that well-known. I think they pride themselves on being quite "exclusive".

At the end of the day, my daughter didn't like the strictness and the ugly uniform (which she said was uncomfortable, especially the winter uniform) and the kids in her form were all a bit too serious and different to her. But then if I were at school today, I don't think my daughter would be friends with me 😂 The wish to change schools came from her, especially as some of her outside-school friends went to the other school. I was quite happy with St John's.

Op I would say AJK but do try and speak to current pupils and see what they say about it. have you thought about Chase Community?