City Junior, Bancroft, Forest or Chigwell school? 7+ entry

[ldnmama2]

My little one did the 7+ and has secured a place at four schools to start Yr 3 in September 2024: CJS, Bancroft, Chigwell and Forest but my family and I can’t decide which to pick. I’ve asked my son but he loves them all so that’s no help. They’re all roughly the same distance away from us (30 minutes). CJS is in the city and doesn’t have much outdoors space… that’s one thing to consider. Anyone have any advice? Thanks xxx

I’d pick Bancrofts. It’s got the outdoor space which is so nice for growing kids. But it’s still fairly academic. You can always change at 11.

The commute into the city isn’t easy. It’s tiring for them. CLS is a great school though.

Hi Idnmama2,
I am in the same position right now.
I understand Sibilantseamstress's point. However, our main intention of going through the 7 plus was to avoid the 11 plus more stressful drill.
The Central line (especially this week) has been horrendous and really not helping me to simplify our decision process either. Could I send a personal message to you, if you do not mind? Thank you for your time in advance.

Where are you currently? Is it the kind of place that could give you a steer about what would suit DC best or will they be too miffed to lose you? All v good schools, I can see why it'd be a hard choice. If nothing to divide them on ethos/approach can you think of quality of commute, where friends would be based, where after school activities would be? If you can pick a great choice that also makes life easier in other respects your future self will thank you!

@Sibilantseamstress I agree about Bancroft having the outdoor space, though my son isn’t very sporty, I think it’s still an important factor

@C0nfused23 yes I have pm you back. I agree the tube lines are unreliable and manic especially during rush hour. I only consider City because it’s 30 minutes away from us. Anything more I think is too much for a seven year old… but the 11 plus needs to be completed regardless if you didn’t know already. It’s done more ‘lightly’ / if pupils don’t maintain their academia level, the school will advise parents to move them to a different school. This happened to my niece when she was at Bancroft :(

@LizHoney I’m in the heart of Canary Wharf. I agree, but just don’t want to pick something for myself because it’s easier for me and not my boy. Mum guilt is real!!

If you live in Canary Wharf, then the commute is not so much an issue.

I think you first need to decide, if you prefer all boys or coed.

Depends what you want for later in life. City Junior definitely keeps the most doors open and is by far the better one academically.

If you're not planning to move house, I'd go for city junior - it has significantly the shortest journey times. The other three will be too long for a 7yo - you'd need to allow 50 mins by car or 1 hr+ by public transport each way.

We had a similar position last year and chose City. If you’re staying in CW then City is the easiest and quickest commute on public transport - maybe 4 stops on Elizabeth line then 13 min walk. Back up of DLR and central line. My child is very happy there and I’m glad I chose it. If you’d drive to the other parking is a nightmare.

Bancroft doesn’t actually have that much outdoor space on site, they go in a coach to offsite locations for hockey etc. CJS uses Coram’s fields and facilities of the senior schools. Forest and Chigwell do have large onsite grounds.

I asked about the 11+ point carefully at offer holder events at City as this was a big deal to us - the head was clear that they did NOT do the 11+ and transfer was automatic. However if they really felt the child would struggle at the senior schools, they would start discussing that with the parents very early on as to whether other schools might work better and she could only think of one or two historic cases of this. But that there was no cull. CLS is a very academic senior school, the cohort is very bright and the pace is fast so frankly it wouldn’t serve a child well to stay if they would really struggle.

FWIW at 11+ CLS is typically harder to get into than the other three.

I’d be hesitant to believe the move to senior school will be automatic at CJS. They have yet to go through this process as their first year group is only in Y4 right now. I know CLSG was known to ‘cull’ in the past.

I would expect the workload and expectations will be quite high starting in Y5 (or earlier) so as to weed out those who would struggle at the senior schools. So while you avoid the pressure of a single exam, there may still be other pressures.

That said, getting into either CLSG or CLS at 11+ is exceedingly competitive and many very bright children are turned away, so I understand why parents want to get a foot in the door.

Hi @ldnmama2 we are in the same position and we are leaning towards CJS and Bancroft. It would be good to hear yours and @C0nfused23 thoughts as I keep going between the two! Please do PM me x

we are in exactly the same position. Any decisions between the four? Any tips for travel to CJS?

@Bow7400 @JJ128 we have decided to pick CJS as the school is well known and high in league tables across the country. Have to put our little one and his future first. The other schools are good but they are in a different league entirely (quite literally). We will move to Snaresbrook in the summer to be closer to our family so the commute will be further than from Canary Wharf but plenty of children do it anyway

hi - may I ask which one did you go for then? We live in CW too and have offers from Bancroft, UCS, Eltham and Highgate - very confused becasue the school also dictates where we should move to - since commuting from CW will be very difficult? Would love to know which one did you choose? T

My husband worked at Canary Wharf for 24 years and commuted in from West Essex. Our youngest went to Bancrofts and is now at Cambridge. We were very happy with Bancrofts. It was very gentle and the teachers knew their subjects.

We lived near london bridge and were deciding between CJS and Highgate. We chose Highgate mainly because it was co-ed and moved to North London. Happy to chat via DM if you'd like.