The Hall (hampstead) - big dillema

[triplespin]

Any parents out here with sons at The Hall who can help us with our dilemma?

DS just received an offer to start in Yr 1 (v. exciting news). We are however not quite sure whether to accept the offer. Ultimately we want our son to go on to Westminster/St. Pauls/boarding school which clearly The Hall has a very good placement record for. DS is v. bright and extremely competitive and so we do feel TH would be a good place for him. However an alternative option for us is for DS to take the 7+ tests for one of the above schools. He is currently at a pre-prep where he is very happy and there is always the slight concern about uprooting him.

The other bigger concern is the need to move closer to the school - we think that is necessary because its not only easier from a school run perspective, but I would imagine that most families with children at TH are living in hampstead/finchley rd area and not many are travelling in from afar - please correct me if I am wrong on this. We currently live nowhere near The Hall (applying for the school was a bit speculative on our part, we didn't really expect him to be accepted !) and in order to move closer to the school, we would essentially need to downsize. It is this concern which is making us more double-minded in accepting the offer. Certainly TH is a very good school, but is it worth the significant change in terms of moving home etc.

So I guess its a question of taking something certain like TH or potentially taking the 7+ gamble (i do notice that ds's concentration is v. poor - too early to say how well he'd do in such a test)? Moreover is moving for a school worth it - especially as it could mean in fact a smaller house as we simply cannot afford the prices in that area (schools fees are not an issue - no stretch there thankfully).

Would love to hear ppl's views. Thanks for reading !

Thanks hampsteadmum and thisoneandthatone. Yes the most rationale choice would be to accept the offer as we are comparing between the certainty of the The Hall versus the gamble of the 7+. DS is one of the oldest in his year so will probably be more ready than other children for the 7+ exam, but that may not necessarily favour him as I suppose they will expect more from winter-borns that summer-borns? Regarding the pre-preps results - its a fair point that I cannot compare with TH where over half the class will be moving on to St. Pauls/WestMinster, simply as there are fewer spots available at 7+. I don't have doubts regarding the pre-prep, but its more the risk of the 7+ itself as it depends on the child's performance on that day. The link to the school bus is very helpful as I was not aware of it. It may be too early to use it when he starts, but it could be useful in later years. Were it not for the consideration to have to move, it may have been a lot easier to come to this decision. Thank you for pointing out the much wider 'catchment' than I expected. We will now more actively look at Hendon and E. Finchley - or anything with a bus route into the school so that we can come to a conclusion soon. Its been v. stressful - its nice to have this choice, but part of me wishes it hadn't come along so that I wouldn't have had to make the decision !.

Sorry coming to this thread late, but it makes me feel such a slacker! Your son is 5 and you already know which secondaries you want him to go to? You applied to a school miles away and now you're prepared to move house to be near it? And then when he gets into St Pauls will you move again so that you're near that? Are you buying property each time in which case you'll be shelling out thousands in stamp duty.
There must have been a reason why you applied to the Hall, which is presumably that you had misgivings about your son's current pre-prep. In which case move him (and house!).

Farewell, quite a few parents moved or commute huge distances to send dc to my dc1's school. I think they are mad It's not at all unusual.

OP, with same school I had similar dilemma into whether to move dc1 to a good prep that suddenly had an opening in Y1 or keep her where she was and do 7+. I did the latter. It worked. I would do same, because surely, your son can move to The Hall in Y3 or 4 anyway.

OP you refer to 'the certainty of TH' but it's by no means certain that your DP will get into the school of your choice. If you send him to TH he will be amongst other very bright boys, some of whom will end up going to Westminster/St Paul's. The others will go to Highgate, UCS, Mill Hill, Merchant Taylors etc. Are you prepared for that? At the 13+ involves pre-tests as well as the CE (involving around 11 different papers). Is it not worth trying for the 7+ before uprooting the whole family?

Probably too late to be useful for the OP but we live opposite the Hall and the traffic is crazy in the mornings and very heavy in NW3 in general. Our baby son goes to a childminder a half-hour walk away and we have to leave nearly as much time if we take him in the car as we do to walk. So if you are planning to move I'd say that the only real advantage is to be in walking distance (or otherwise on a bus route, as suggested).

Given where we live, we pass parents dropping off children for a large number of NW3 schools. Purely an impression, but I have to say that the Hall parents/nannies etc seem the most stressed and anxious in the morning. Much more relaxed impression from parents dropping off for, for instance, Hampstead Hill School.