Harrogate (North Yorkshire) Independent Prep School Reviews

[hockeymom16]

I am looking at prep schools in the Harrogate area. I am not currently located in the UK so I have not been able to visit any of the schools in person and was hoping to get reviews/opinions of them here.

My top 3 choices are:
-Belmont Grosvenor
-HLC Highfield Prep
-Ashville College

If anyone has experiences, good or bad, with any of these schools I would really appreciate hearing about them.

Ours are at Highfield and we are very happy. Lovely school, particularly strong music and arts. Children are confident, nice and kind - a new teacher who started this year said compared to her previous school down south the children are very centred and therefore able to take risks with their learning. There are a fair old mix of teachers - all good but some much better than good, so I have previously felt mine weren't perhaps stretched enough, but they've both been so happy there I haven't worried too much. And now they've proved I was a bit too antsy by testing into selective schools down south. We have also been super lucky this year with totally awesome form teachers.

I think Asheville is honestly similar, people I know with children there are happy. When we visited I loved the pre prep headmistress but simply liked Highfield more.

BG personally I'd avoid, Highfield has a fair number of refugees from there, but you'd need to visit and make your own decision as it has a lot of fans. Parents who have moved their children tend to say it was very strict on particular rules and behaviours, to the extent it made some children quite anxious. If you have a robust kid may not be an issue. Tends to be more 'county' than Highfield and therefore a bit less diverse - the harrogate schools and Highfield in particular have a fair number of families where one parent works at the US army base and also people coming to work at Asda, Smith and Nephew from the US etc., so you get a nice mix of backgrounds..

The other school everyone tends to like is Brackenfield have you looked there?

Pm me if you want to discuss further.

And I have seen / heard the opposite to Nicola on quite a few things she says, and have / had kids in two of those schools. Visit if you can and make your own mind up. Have a taster day and see how your children get on. So much with any of the Harrogate schools depends on the kids in your year group and how those kids get on together. One year can be great - and another awkward. What some people love, others hate. I would describe them as all being a bit marmite.

We are currently looking at Highfield and Ashville amongst others OP.

I am leaning towards Ashville just because we are not entirely sure we want single sex at secondary. Not entirely sure about the religious element though tbh at this point.

If we end up living in catchment I would really like DD to go to HGS but DH would prefer her to stay wherever she goes in yr5.

If we were close enough (now doubt it) we would consider Boothams, love the outdoorsy bit of the EC timetable which would suit DD down to the ground. Oddly I am much more relaxed about the Quaker influence.

We are visiting/will arrange taster days after half term, moving shortly thereafter.