University College School

[NKF]

in North London. Does anyone know anything about it? Have or had children there?

Anyone?
Surely?

My Uncle taught there

But I know nothing except he got very nice Cristmas Presents & that John Le Carre's son went there & they once had a talk from Edwina Currie

Okay. So nice for teachers. Could pass on Edwina Currie though! Thank you.

I went to school round the corner from them. Lots of girls in my school had brothers in UCS.

Not a lot of help to you though, .

Great place. What do you want to know?

Well perhaps not.
But at least it's confirmation that it exists.

Uncle (& I) are from Liverpool

When returning EC to train station after a talk to 6th formers Uncle said in broad scouse accent "well girl you've come a long way since you were tucking your knickers in to your skirt & kicking your legs up against the wall at Moss Pits lane Junior School"

"Well really" said EC "you did your research very well"

"Research???" said uncle "I was there watching you

It sounds better than it writes (cos I can do the accent)

I want to know if that rather kindly tone that is suggested by the website, prospectus etc actually exists. That would be the first thing I guess.

It sounds - and I have a lovely friend from there - quite nice. Liberal but clever. Academic but independent minded. But maybe not.

I would say so

Uncle spends a lot of time caring for pupils & going that extra mile

Lots of consideration (from him at least) and real interest (iyswim)

I'd say that's spot on. The boys are scruffy beyond belief but there seems to be a genuine great atmosphere and they acheive good results without any (seeming) pressure. It also seems to be Fame Academy at the moment with two successful indie bands formed from their sixth formers!

That does sound good so long as the indie bands don't pratice at my house!

I want good results but positive independent learning more than that. And I think boys can do well in single sex schools but I'd rather avoid that sporty heartiness that seems to come with that territory.

They are taking girls in the sixth form from next year. And you certainly couldn't accuse UCS of sporty heartiness!

My only warning would be that it is possible to drift because it is so laidback. You need to have some degree of self-motivation.

Yes I can see that but presumably they don't drift very far off track.
The chap I know who went there is very well educated and creative and has a lovely way about him. Then again, a friend's husband went there and he is a bit idle but again, in a rather charming way.
Gah, it's too difficult.

Compared with Highgate? Forgetting about the all boys thing for a minute.

I get the impression that Highgate is quite rigid and pressured - lots of holiday homework, for instance - but parents I know with kids there seem happy.
You will just have to visit and get your own feel of the place.

I have an acquaintance with two boys there, who is very happy. Chose it over Highgate, which is significantly closer and easier to get to from us. But most boys come from that side of the Heath, which you might want to bear in mind wrt friendship groups, travel etc.

Different pupil/parent profile to Highgate, or so I hear. Very large proportion of Jewish families, whereas Highgate is more Wasp-y, apparently.

We're looking at Highgate as a backup incase state school plans at 11+ go awry, but probably won't go for UCS as well, just because of unfavourable geography from where we are.

I'm looking at the state selective too but rather nervously as they do seem a bit all or nothing in North London.

Yeeesss, we did that route with dd1. But if you keep your nerve, for the right child it's okay. Which ones are you looking at?

We're going Catholic, non-selective with ds, probably, though will go and look at QEB. But they do take the top 1-2% of the ability range, and I don't think that's him, in all honesty.

Latymer. And I suppose QEB though it looks a bit awful to me.
I don't really fancy Latymer that much to be honest.
My favourite would be Dame Alice Owen but it has a complicated admissions policy that we don't seem to fit in any way shape or form.

Which Catholic non selective if you don't mind me asking?

It's 67th in last Sunday's Sunday Times top 100 state and private schools which is a very good league table as it is based on A/B at A level and A/A* at GCSE. So that's quite good. Not as good as St Paul's Westminster, Haberdashers, Merchant taylors, Harrow school even.

Thanks Xenia.I saw that list and the discussion around it last week but I guess I was looking for something a bit more subjective than a league table. I mean, many individual children would get loads of A/A* at any of those places mentioned but the table doesn't tell you what the place is like.

have friends kids who go there and they rate it.

I taught someone who had been there (UCS) and he was lovely. One of my all time favourite students. If he was representative of the school then I would say it was a good school.