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Original poster

Habs Boys vs. St Albans

4 replies

SimSt123 · 16/02/2025 22:06

Hello all, my son is fortunate enough to have received offers for 11+ entry for both Habs boys and St Albans school and we now debating which one to choose.
St Albans is about a 45 minute coach journey, whereas Habs is about 15 minutes and he wouldn’t need to take the coach. My son likes both for very different reasons. He is leaning more towards Habs purely due to a wider variety of extracurricular offerings, but I worry about the pastoral care and overly academic side of the school.
He is very much into sports and gets his head down to work when he has to, but I wouldn’t say he’s a natural ‘academic’

Does anyone have experience of either of the schools? Or had to make a similar decision previously?

OP posts:
BarqsHasBite · 16/02/2025 23:22

They are both fantastic schools, the question is where do you think your son would be happiest?

We are accepting a place for our son at St Albans School. We ruled out applying for Habs for two reasons:

  • we live in St Albans and our son could walk to the school (albeit quite a long walk, 35+ mins, so we’ll likely give lifts or do lift shares some of the time). He would have hated a coach journey to school and we like that he will have local friends (and those that come from farther afield are more likely to congregate in St A).
  • I felt Habs was too hothouse / too much of a stretch for our DS, who is definitely bright and capable but not at the very very top academically. If he did get in Habs I feared he may find himself in the bottom third of pupils and that would be demotivating.

Obviously the first of these considerations is reversed for you with Habs your more local school. In your shoes it may well be enough to tip the balance to Habs, though it would depend on whether I thought DS would struggle academically or if it would motivate him to push himself to be surrounded by such high achievers.

Original poster
SimSt123 · 17/02/2025 07:49

Thank you for your reply and congrats to your son on the offers!

Personally I loved the more relaxed approach of St Albans compared to Habs and he came out bouncing after the ‘taster lessons’ on the callback day which was lovely to see, but it’s such a long journey twice a day :(
Also, as you mention, hanging out with friends may become difficult as we are so far out.

In terms of Habs, my son is above average academically but I’m afraid he may drown when surrounded by extremely high achievers. Worry about the pastoral side too but the journey is simpler and it’s closer to my other sons school and he already knows a lot of boys there.

OP posts:
user1470907786 · 15/01/2026 10:51

BarqsHasBite · 16/02/2025 23:22

They are both fantastic schools, the question is where do you think your son would be happiest?

We are accepting a place for our son at St Albans School. We ruled out applying for Habs for two reasons:

  • we live in St Albans and our son could walk to the school (albeit quite a long walk, 35+ mins, so we’ll likely give lifts or do lift shares some of the time). He would have hated a coach journey to school and we like that he will have local friends (and those that come from farther afield are more likely to congregate in St A).
  • I felt Habs was too hothouse / too much of a stretch for our DS, who is definitely bright and capable but not at the very very top academically. If he did get in Habs I feared he may find himself in the bottom third of pupils and that would be demotivating.

Obviously the first of these considerations is reversed for you with Habs your more local school. In your shoes it may well be enough to tip the balance to Habs, though it would depend on whether I thought DS would struggle academically or if it would motivate him to push himself to be surrounded by such high achievers.

Hi there

Hoping to get an idea about the wrap around care particularly regarding food options for year 9’s onwards. I have heard there is breakfast club and vending machine options for staying late but no hot meal availability, is this correct? The website says there is a sixth form cafe but I would have hoped all children would have access to this if they start for after school clubs too.

Would greatly appreciate any information! Thanks!

SAmum26 · 17/01/2026 17:35

SimSt123 · 16/02/2025 22:06

Hello all, my son is fortunate enough to have received offers for 11+ entry for both Habs boys and St Albans school and we now debating which one to choose.
St Albans is about a 45 minute coach journey, whereas Habs is about 15 minutes and he wouldn’t need to take the coach. My son likes both for very different reasons. He is leaning more towards Habs purely due to a wider variety of extracurricular offerings, but I worry about the pastoral care and overly academic side of the school.
He is very much into sports and gets his head down to work when he has to, but I wouldn’t say he’s a natural ‘academic’

Does anyone have experience of either of the schools? Or had to make a similar decision previously?

Hello! What did you end up doing ? If you did take Habs would love to hear how your son is finding it? My son is applying to both Habs and St Albans and I have the same reservations of Habs being too pushy however we may need to consider in case he gets one and not the other …

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