St Hilda’s Harpenden

[TwoGirlsAndOneDog]

Thinking of a move to Harpenden and may be out of time for state school places. I can’t find a huge amount of info about St Hilda’s (also looking at STAHS). Can anyone provide local inside info on its reputation? Thanks!

It has a great reputation within the area but with the following caveats.

It’s a small school. That comes with some big positives and negatives. The negatives mostly being social if the friendship balance is off in one particular year group.

Girls mostly leave to go onto STAHS, Berkhamsted, Abbots Hill and Queenswood with some others going to St George’s (state). Begs the question if you are thinking of STAHS or Berkhamsted at 11 then why not just send them to the respective preps where they are pretty much guaranteed a place at secondary? Both are becoming increasingly competitive to get into, although the impact of VAT is TBD.

Parent body is quite down to earth. Tends to be quite local families. It’s not a school people tend to travel large distances to get to.

Thank you, that’s really helpful. We need to look around all of the options and decide which is best for us. I guess reasons for not choosing STAHS for Prep would be (a) commute out of Harpenden, as we would want to drive rather than use school transport at (at least early) Prep age, (b) might be a softer start than STAHS (?) and (c) we might not get into STAHS. Sounds like St Hilda’s might be a great shout but will come down to which we think best suits our girls at their respective ages.

St Hilda’s is a popular choice for local families. Re car drop offs though - it’s on the corner of two residential streets. Parking can be a nightmare. My friend used to live next door and had one mum who thought it ok to park on her drive (without permission) and my friends children didn’t even go to St Hilda’s 😂😂😂

Carparking is the biggest issue at all of the schools in our current area too 😂😂 Hopefully, we’ll be close enough to walk but let’s see!!