STAHS vs JAGS vs Wimbledon High

[4plus]

DD was very lucky to get 4+ offers from St Albans, Wimbledon and JAPS/JAGS which for us means facing a very difficult trilemma. I'd appreciate any info from local parents to help us decide.

A bit of a background: DD is reasonably bright but not exceptional, she is confident and sociable and already shows quite strong competitiveness, wants to be the first all the time and can get upset if she doesn't, though not too much. I think it should be managed somehow.

She has English as SL and is not fluent yet so I assume she scored high enough to get through because her other cognitive abilities are quite strong (though it's just my guess, we didn't get detailed feedback). She has an exceptionally good attention span for her age e.g. she can sit 100% focused through a 3hrs long ballet performance and can concentrate on reading/writing/colouring tasks for an hour.

She is very much into ballet now, has been doing it for 2 yrs and has an aptitude for it so is rather advanced already and absolutely loves it. I think we will continue until she's at least 13 but I wouldn't dream of a professional career in this field for her and we wouldn't like to look at a full time dance school even though we were advised to do so. She also does gymnastics.

She's been doing music for 2yrs and is very keen on violin. We as a family love music, go to concerts every week and several times a week on holidays (Southbank and Barbican are our usual places), and would really like the school with excellent music provision and results. However, we will do 1 on 1 tuition outside school anyway as no prep does violin from Reception and I'm not quite sure how it will fit into the school's music stream afterwards.

She also goes to a Saturday school in Camden which we want to continue.

All in all, at the moment it seems to me we will need a school that leaves enough time for outside extracurricular activities OR does music (possible?) and ballet (unlikely) to a very high standard comparable to the outside clubs and conservatoires.

We want to avoid 7+ and 11+ and really need to understand the actual situation with the cull at these three schools. This is one of the most important factors for us.

We're comfortable but not loaded so probably prefer a school with down to earth professional families.
I work from home and quite flexible so drop-off/pick-up is not a huge problem.

Sorry, long read but I thought I need to give an idea of our circumstances as we are trying to find out which school would be a better fit, overall.
Any ideas?

I will definitely ask WHS about that tomorrow, thank you grindel.

We don't have similar offers in N London yet, otherwise I would stay of course as it's so much easier. We didn't get SHHS and it made things complicated.

Take St Albans and try again at 7+?
Re WHJS - parents gently told early in Y5 if your child is not up to the mark. Nobody is told out of the blue "you have failed the 11+". If that makes any difference.

Just to say that I’ve two daughters at STAHS, one of whom is now at the Senior School, the other who is still at Wheathampstead House. It’s a very lovely school, and we’re extremely pleased with it BUT I personally wouldn’t want my under 10 year old commuting daily from Barnet if there are other, closer options that are also a good fit. Delivering your DD to play dates and parties (of which there are a fair few) would become more of an undertaking from Barnet as most of the girls are St Albans/Harpenden/Welwyn based. As the girls get older, they do start to come from further afield. If you think your family could be happy and settled in the local area, then it’s an amazing school - but if the area doesn’t appeal, then I would go for an alternative school in an area that the whole family loves.

The nature of the parent body seems a strange thing to comment on, because it's unpredictably changeable.

In the same school I had two year groups where other parents were lovely, and one with a cabal of very nasty, bitchy cronyism (though very much in the minority, they changed the atmosphere somehow). There was absolutely no way that the dynamics could have been predicted or expected. And although schools might screen out one or two utterly impossible parents, they are fundamentally selecting the prospective pupil not their family. You simply will not know whether you will be in a community you like or not. But the chances are that within the cohort there will be families you like and families you don't.

Both JAGS and GDST schools have a reasonable proportion of pupils on bursaries (in the case of JAGS these can exceed 100% of fees) so neither is colonised by the wealthy in the senior schools. There will be more paying parents for juniors though, most of them will be local.

Thinking about it again, the 'no weeding" I heard at WHS was under old head (or in the first year of the new one). The policy might have changed since then, and might change again by the time your DD reaches weeding age. So even asking for assurances now might not give you the level of confidence you want. But then again, that's probably true of all schools.

Dragontrainer thank you, will need to think about relocation. Maybe renting for a few years... I loved the prep, STAHS was my second choice since November, when we started assessments.

Would it be a hassle to commute to the prep from somewhere near the station? How is the train service to West Hampstead, reliable?
TIA

AnotherNewt we have discussed it all day with DP, his opinion exactly - there is no 100% guarantee. Perhaps I'm just being overprotective, I don't really want DD to go through 11+. It's not just for myself of course. Hence all that agonising.

I would choose so as to optimise your DD's free time. Do what you can to lessen time travelling to school or music lessons etc so as to ease the time pressure there will already be from the extra curricular things your Dc is doing.

4plus There are a fair few girls travelling from central St Albans near the station. From Year one (I think!) your daughter would be able to get the coach to or from the senior school, but I suspect you might find that you’d have found someone interested in a lift share by then. The most difficult part of St Albans to travel from is the bit near Waitrose as it tends to get the most snarled up, but that’s further out.

Generally the train service is fine and quick to West Hampstead/central London, but I’d be lying if I said it was even approaching perfect!

You know the heads of St Albans and wimbledon are identical twins???

They were in the “relative values” article in the (Sunday?) times about 6 months ago!

Really?! Prep school or senior school? Love it!

Senior school

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/relative-values-twin-sisters-and-headteachers-jenny-brown-and-jane-lunnon-48-on-sibling-rivalry-bfqww5sh7

I'd be surprised if your daughter were to be culled at WHS based on everything you've said here.

I can't comment on the others.

I can certainly appreciate your apprehension, I have a friend who went so far as to move to a different country to avoid the 11+. It ain't fun.

I went to SAHS when the junior house was in Townsend avenue and I got the coach from about half way between St Albans and Barnet which took 30 mins min at that time of day. Dread to think what Barnet to Wheathampstead would take.

STAHS is just fantastic. Sent my DDs there after pulling them from a disastrous prep school elsewhere. Can't recommend it highly enough. There's no spin; I've found they do everything they say they do. There's not a lot of pandering to the parents - girls come first. Really lovely school community feel and the older girls really love the little ones (made my DD's Christmas when she was in Reception and got a card from a girl in Yr6).

Most people seem to live in Harpenden, but there are a few from further afield and a bus service (yr 1 upwards) that goes out into London.