How is the Norfolk House School in Birmingham?

[shawnch]

We just arrived in Birmingham. My DS is 6 years old. We are looking forward to an independent school for him. Blue Coat doesn't have a place. The Norfolk House School has an offer for him. However, I don't know much about this school. There aren't many reviews on the Internet. It's in a small space I found when I visited it. Is it a good one? I appreciate any help. Thanks.

Bump - would also like to know about prep schools in Birmingham. Did you have a good first impression of it shawnch?

Not bad. The headmaster is friendly with passion. small size with a family atmosphere. everyone is friendly.

It depends what you’re after. A friend sent her two children there. It seems fairly traditional and focused on 11plus exams as the end goal. I’m not sure how much extra curricular there is as it’s quite small and cheaper than other preps.

Personally if I was paying I’d want lots of extras for the money as I’m not convinced you need to pay for 11 plus success. My 2 children got almost identical results to my friends in both the grammar and independent exams without us paying anything (not even tutoring!). I think they’re fairly similar in ability too.

None of the entrance exams require anything that’s not taught in state primaries.

That’s just my opinion though - I’d like to be getting something extra for my money. I haven’t been round any prep schools in Birmingham, so all my information is from friends and my children’s friends! However Blue Coat certainly seems to offer a lot of extras from what I can see - sport and music is very high quality.

@crazycrofter Thanks for your opinion. yes, I think so too.

Thanks, that's interesting.

Crazycrofter:
“I’m not convinced you need to pay for 11 plus success.”
“None of the entrance exams require anything that’s not taught in state primaries.”

While I don’t disagree with those statements, it would be easy to read them and believe that any bright child can pass the Birmingham 11+ without preparation. The vast majority of applicants do a lot of prep, whether that’s through private primary, paid tutors or DIY.

Agreed - the vast majority do lots of prep. I’m not convinced it’s all necessary though! That’s not to say that some practice isn’t necessary - to get used to the format, improve exam technique etc. I think it can be done over a couple of months though, either at home or with a tutor.

We started in July with dd and in June with ds. They did make some initial progress as they learned how to tackle the questions etc but overall I think they reached a peak and then plateaued. I was glad we didn’t start any earlier. I’m not sure that years have preparation would have made any difference to either of our children’s performances.

Some of my friends’ children did have years of prep and achieved similar scores. I thought at the time that they were probably similar ability and they’re performing similarly in secondary too.

I think paying a fortune on tutoring - and even more on private school fees - just for the 11 plus is unnecessary. However, that’s not to say that both tutoring and private schools can’t be very beneficial educationally in a wider sense. I’ve nothing against paying for education - I just think people do more than needed for 11 plus!

crazycrofter - I and my siblings got into the KES/KEHS schools after the same sort of DIY tutoring from parents that you did with your children, so I do see your point. (That was ages ago though, so for all I know it has got much harder!) I suppose I am less attracted by the extras at prep school and more by the small class sizes and pupil:teacher ratio, and the fact that he will be with classmates and teachers who expect to go to grammar/indep schools (positive peer pressure and aspiration, basically. I have a friend with a v clever, older child at the same state primary, who thinks her child could do the 11+, but this child wants, naturally, to go to the local secondary with his friends, so has no motivation). Our current primary had no Y6 children going on to grammar/indie schools last year, is really stressed financially, and I'm concerned about the class sizes, which are due to increase. We probably could DIY, I agree, but it's all such a gamble.

But yeah. This sort of question is on my mind a LOT at the minute. The daily commute to prep would also be horrific. :(

I guess it depends how terrible your local secondary school is! In our experience the kids were motivated by going round KEHS/KES/Five Ways. To be fair we had to apply a certain amount of pressure on ds in the form of rewards for hard work and improved mock scores! Both of them went to secondary without knowing anyone and it was fine.

The downside of being in a prep or a high achieving primary is also the peer pressure and competitive parenting! We were quite happy to do the whole thing in a vacuum!