Lockers Park and Westbrook Hay, both Herts

[MrsJAlfredPrufrock]

If anyone has any information I'd be very grateful.

From my little research into preps in the area, it seems

Lockers park

Boys only prep
Very sporty and very good at it.
Go on to good senior schools (but depends largely on which sen schools you're after)
Very good all round reputation.

Westbrook hay
Co-ed
Based on general opinion but not necessarily fact lockers park seem to be THE prep school of choice if dc are boys, but westbrook not bad either, i'd visit both to get an honest feel for them.

nokissymum - thank you very much.

We looked at Westbrook Hay and York House last year when we were deciding to move our son for September.

We chose York House, which DS now LOVES.

His best friend from his old state school moved to Lockers and they are very happy with it for him. His mum said she didn't feel it would be the right school for my DS as they don't push them (at least not in YR 2/3) very much, and I was moving my DS because he was getting away with very lazy behaviour in his old state school.

YHS has given me a completely different child, he is totally motivated by their credits/stars/stripes/badges system (who knew it could be so simple, huh??!) And now WANTS to work hard. I am thrilled with him and the school.

We looked around WBH and had a meeting with HM. I think the facilities at WBH were possibly better than YHS, particularly the outside playing space- they get to play in the "woods" and rockery - my DS thought this was amazing and he was sold on that, after doing a three day stint at the school. But I chose YHS because i thought the staff came across better.

Have you thought about YHS too?

If you haven't already done so then I would go round each school on their open days and book a meeting with HM to get a real feel of what will be right for YOUR child.

HTH

Principality -Thanks for that. York House isn't possible for us geographically. I thought Lockers Park was an academic school,much more so than Aldwickbury and Beechwood Park.

Shameless bump

Alfred,the leavers destination page at Lockers doesnt say how many scholarships,exhibitions etc are obtained,I would certainly want to know that info,a couple of the schools they send boys to in decent numbers are not exactly renowned for intellectual rigour,a little more investigation is prob needed if you think you have a strong academic child.

propatria - www.lockerspark.herts.sch.uk/scholarship-success.php

Not bad,not great but certainly the best of the ones youve listed.

I've just spoken to Aldwickbury. The registrar listed a similar number of scholarships as above. One Win College scholarship last year. Their boys
seem to mainly go to St Albans, Oundle, Stowe, Aldenham and Haileybury.

What about Beechwood Park? Doesn anyone know anything about that?

propatria - I just want to say, thank you very much for taking time to help. I know literally zilch about prep schools.

Alfred,more than happy to help,you need to get leaving destinations for the last five /10 years,I know one private /prep that claims on its site,"we regularly send children to..... Winchester....Eton..." they have actually sent one to each in the last 10 years,you need to find a pattern of which schools they regularly send to,that" mainly send to" list isnt over impressive,at least one on that list(which also features on the lockyers site) is known as being the cream of public schools.....as in....rich,thick and full of clots,but it may just be a geographical thing....
Beechwood ,doesnt look great,from the list youve provided,its def Lockyers...

propatria - I like the fact that Lockers are completely transparent with their information. It feels like the basis for a sensible relationship, based on mutual trust and understanding. Getting information out of Aldwickbury is like getting water out of a stone. I feel any future relationship will result in frequent beatings and will reveal a prediliction for questionable practices. I already feel I dislike the registrar quite intensely.

OP will pm you.

MrsJAP- will PM re Beechwood Park.

My friend has children at Westbrook Hay and they LOVE it. She has one of each, her daughter in the lower school there and her son further on (I think he is in his final or penultimate year). I think the school also had a really good inspection report recently from what she said so it might be worth investigating this. I know her son tried Lockers too, but some of the behaviour they saw wasn't 'desirable' (her words!). Good luck choosing!

We moved our sons from Edge Grove last year to Lockers. Looked at BWP (horrible Registrar) and Aldwickbury. Witnessing break time or pick up at Lockers for the first time was a shock based on the fact they were having so much fun! This is probably the "undesirable behaviour" Harriet123's friend witnessed but its orgainised chaos! Everything becomes very serious the moment the bell goes! It's a lovely school, great teachers, happy boys, high acedemic standards and unlike what we experienced over 5 years at Edge Grove, Lockers seem to really care about each boy. I am so thankful we moved our boys there - wish we'd done it sooner as oldest still catching up acedemically having been left to own devises at EG too long [anger].

Can anyone help with more information about York House. DS has been at another prep school for 5 years and getting away with very lazy academic behaviour. looking to change his school and York house seems to tick the boxes but anyn information will help.