Help Please? Anyone's D got into Haberdashers or NLCS at 4+?

[funkychic]

My D is will be going for the 4+ 'play group' asesssment at Habs and NLCS. I'm desparate to know what they ask them to do. Really need advise from all mums whose child are already in these schools. Pleeeeeeaaaassse help!!!

Ah yes.

I see on the Times league table of top 100 schools in both sectors MGS is placed 32 and Manchester High School for girls is 24 (simply because girls usually do better than boys at exams I'm sure). Withington is numeber 3 in the country just one place behind my daughter's ex school North London collegiate with st pauls's girls ahead. Place 4 is girls too. Eton is 10. Habs girls is 12. Merchant taylors where my son went 18. Not often it beats MGS actually. It's doing better recently.

Place 21 is the first state school on the table - Henrietta Barnet.

Having gone to NLCS myself, I wouldn't dream of putting my very bright ds into the private sector. Perhaps there's less externalising of problems (disruptive behaviour) as they're kicked out pretty quickly but eating disorders and self harm are often HUGE problems in these hot houses some people call schools. For boys the drug culture is enormous.
I also want my son to mix with everyone and to know he can cope with the world and not feel that large sections of society are alien or even dangerous.
I feel worried about him going to our local secondary comp as it too is far from perfect but at least he should continue to discover that he can learn from and have fun even with people who are not pushed to their limits and with very high iq's.
All schools have problems, private schools have terrible ones and you get to pay for them too. They do tend to be in nice buildings though...

The poster who stated that this is a very English problem is correct. Why knock people like Xenia who are in the fortunate position of being able to afford private education.

Additionally with regard to disabilities. I am not totally convinced about the label ADHD. A friend of mine has adopted at a very young age a boy who was hitting, biting, bulling and at one point attacking the teacher. He has now been allocated a support assistant to sit next to him. He is in mainstream education Hand on heart would you want your child to sit next to him..... We can be very liberal when we make sweeping generalisations but when it affects us maybe our view changes. Sadly there was a petition from some parents to have him removed from the class. Lets be totally honest and admit that could have been any of us.

Earlier on in this thread, people were talking about private schools excluding people with special needs or disabilities. I just wanted to say that I attended a highly selective academic school and there were several girls there with physical disabilities of one kind or another - cerebral palsy, severe rheumatoid arthritis, very impaired vision etc etc and probably others with less severe or invisible disabilities which I happened not to notice as a self-obsessed teenager. This was in a school of approx 600 girls. It seems to me that this is actually pretty inclusive. Certainly, the girl I knew who had very severe problems with her vision was offered a lot of extra help.

Pls help help help!!!!!!!!

My DD sat entrance this yr for 7+. She was shortlisted for 2nd round. Now we are anxiously awaiting results to arrive in post by Friday.

Pls help with my Q's:

1. Should I ring the school to convince my dd being part of Gifted children group..will they take it in a good stead and will this help with her selection?

2)Do they take current school ref only for those children that they want to offer place? or is it for all children shortlisted for 2nd round?

PLS REPLY TODAY!!!! AS i cannot sleep..
thank you

no idea about question no. 2, but as far as your first question goes, then it's a resounding 'no' I'd have thought ....

honestly, try to relax about this - your dd is 6 or 7, she's done very well to get this far, but her life won't be ruined if she doesn't get in ...

polo did yr dd get in...i hope so ....did u send her for coiaching and what level was she at ....did u do workbooks with her and which ones. and do you think having them at level 7-8 is the way to go....xenia did yr teacher husband coach them and which workbooks did he use ? is there a thing like feeder schools?

Xenia, I think that people see the world as they are, not as it is...
I think you are right that the world is inherently unfair in some cases, so yes, prettier, cleverer people end up getting better jobs. This is what happens in extremely capitalistic societies.
But I don't subscribe to the view that the making of money is the only measure of success or a successful life. For some people, stepping back from it and looking at your life with a , let's say, more philosophical edge, is possible. This is where the artists, painters, poets, ecologists, environmentalists come from. Not everybody sees themselves as a commodity or a product as you mentioned. [I was quite shocked to hear you describe your daughters as the "end product" of a Habs education].

If I could afford it, I would probably send my child to Habs because I just checked out the website and it looks great, but there really is more to this life than what job you can get, how you look, and how much you earn, or even how clever you are.

Kindness, gentleness and other personality traits can't be measured, and money certainly can't be made from them. I was shocked to hear that some private schools weed out kids with problems. While its true that on educational terms your child will get on better without a "problem child" in their class, what does that teach your child about the world? Absolutely nothing. It teaches them nothing about empathy, tolerance ( I thought the example about the boy who'd been given the job of helping the autistic boy in the school play was perfect).

oops, just realized how OLD this thread is. My post is totally irrelevant. Sorry

Some interesting articles.

As a side note, many people revert to the private system through lack of choice. Our nearest state school is poor, we didn't want to send our children to a single religion school so opted for NLCS. We were delighted to get them both in.

Both have thrived in this school and enjoy the day to day activities. It is not as pushy as one may think but that may have alot to do with their selection process where the classes are made up of a similar standard of children academically and therefore the syllabus can be covered at a lightning pace.

Academically and option wise it is hard to argue that this school is not better than the majority of the schools in the country. Will this make my daughters better than any one elses - no.

Schooling is only a choice for very few. I put good parenting infront of schooling but that's my own beliefs.

Oh, and in answer to the original question, NLCS is far better than Habs

I was T Habs Girsl from age 5 to 18 (initially in Acton then Elstree), I left in 1980 i'm 48 now. I think we were fairly chilled in those days (although I did manage to scrape into Cambridge medicine in the end I initially failed the entrance test age 5). My parents were never pushy, quietly supportive.

We live in the country and I am amazed to read some of the posts above. My boys are 10 and 14 one at prep school one at public school. Children find their own level . If they don't get in to these very competitive London girls day schools then probably better to go elsewhere than be lingering at the bottom. There are a couple of girls I was at school with who still think they are really 'thick'' because they were near the bottom at Habs. I went back to Habs for a thirty year reunion recently, obviously very very academic however I did get the impression it was a bit of an exam factory.

Chill out and get a sense of perspective! Looking back those who have done best career wise of my cohort were not necessarily the most academically able, often tenacity is more important.

You don't like judgements made on your child but just did exactly that with your comments on David Beckham.Unbelievable!

Habs have no backbone they send out their second round letters and don't bother with rejections for ages leaving parent In hope...

Depressed

Can you pm me as I wanted to ask a question offline

KP17 I'm not sure who you wanted to pm you but this thread started over 7 years ago and was last posted on over 2 years ago! Some of the original contributors children are probably in senior school now.

Mumteacher is the person to pm, she is a very succesful 4+, 5+ and 7+ tutor who get lots of children into these schools every year.

Hi Judie

Your comments refers to the junior assessment at Habs for girls? I can't seem to see any threads on Habs junior assessments for girls! Can anyone shed any light on what the assessment entails ? Any threads or info anyone can share would be useful also anyone who recently got in and their experience. ?

Galbers- tenacity is everything aswell as been an all rounder! I'm living proof of it ! However we do have a n obligation to give our children a good start in life and that why many of us pay for that privilege! I'm sorry to say states schools the ones near me are struggling and low on funds ! Huge numbers per class, junior and inexperienced teachers ! So what are we to do ? Open to advice on any other private schools that mums rate or their dd go to ?

Psychologists do not know how to assess ability at that age, in fact they know that it is not possible to assess ability at 4, something that most educationalists agree with. And I am sure both NCLS and Habs like most private schools end up with around 10% diagnosed with Specific Learning Difficulties like Dyslexia and Dyspraxia (often with associated poor coordination) because that is the incidence in the population at all levels of ability.

I would just remember that this is a marathon not a sprint. I naively put my DD in for an assessment at 4 because her nursery thought she was exceptionally bright and she was not successful. At the time I worried I had let her down and should have coached her or got a tutor as the child from the nursery who was successful had. However now I am glad I didn't bother with such nonsense and instead enjoyed reading and playing with her and going out to explore the world. She went on to get into a more selective secondary school at 11 even though she applied from a very gentle international primary overseas (going out to explore the world became a bit more literal when she was 7!) and she just graduated with a first as a Master of Science, headed for a career in scientific research and with her name on several research papers already. So relax, and focus on making your child a happy confidant inquisitive individual with a love of learning, and don't take this nonsense at 4 too seriously.

Can you please tell me the contact information for the tutor that preps for the 5+ for habs boys......

I remember really offending a friend when she was telling me how anxious she was that her daughter passed the entrance at 4 . Her daughter was only just three at the time ...August baby. She mentioned her daughter would be devastated too if she didn't get in and her friend did. I said I thought it was a shame three year olds needed to worry about anything like that ......it was taken as criticism and went down very badly

hi mums,

Anyone going through NLCS 4+ Assessments for 2018 September intake?
Please reply, need some help.

Thanks

Hi,

My DD got though the first round of assessment in HABS for 4+ admissions. Now we have been invited to a family meeting with the head teacher. We are wondering how to prepare for it. Any help is highly appreciated. Many thanks:)