Pros and cons of Lady Eleanor Holles, Latymer and Bute House.

[Threescompany]

It's decision time in our household. Do we send our DD to LEH (far away), Latymer or Bute (not quite so far away)? Of course, only we can decide and it all very much depends on the child and family and nothing is black and white. But I'd love to hear your views on the relative merits/drawbacks of the three schools, warts and all. Are the parents pushy, snobby? Are the kids sporty, masters of the universe? Opinions on staff, food, money matters, pastoral care, head, facilities etc all eagerly anticipated.

I assume your move is pre 11+? I would personally favour LEH and Latymer as they go to 18 and you can concentrate on having fun and getting a good education without another go on the exam treadmill in a few years. They are both great schools, so do you want single sex or co-ed? The only reason I can see for going to Bute is if you want your DD to go to St Pauls at 11.

Our DDs are at LEH and like you I considered all three schools a few years back. IMO they are three quite different schools. LEH is single sex 7 - 18, Latymer is co-ed 7-18 and Bute is single sex 7-11, so this is not a comparison of like with like. Also all three are selective, i.e. to some extent, they choose you. not the other way around and all three are looking for different things. I have never met anyone whose dd got offers from all three schools, which maybe highlights that they are different to one another.

But I struck Bute off my list quite quickly. It was obvious to me on visiting that our family would not fit in there - lots of Mayfair, Chelsea types with girls being dropped off by drivers and the writing on the walls demonstrated that the pupils enjoyed lots of very exquisite foreign holidays in far flung places. Also the fact that my DDs would be thrown into the 11+ scrum quite soon after moving schools was not a draw.

Latymer - to me, it felt like the girls were 'allowed' into a boys school. It didn't feel balanced. I was put off by it's lack of sports facilities on site ( I know you can bus to White City). Also the whole entrance process seemed very formal and er, exam like and pressurised.

At LEH, it was geared to girls, of which I have a few, amazing facilities, including sports and the entrance process was very gentle by comparison. The girls turn up, spend a morning in a classroom, can put up their hands and ask questions etc if stuck, do some Maths and English, have a playtime outside, get fed a biscuit then go home. Every child gets an interview - i.e. group reading and a v quick chat about hobbies and that's it. Then they stay until 18. I am extremely happy with the school - academic, sporty, arty, parents in old cars who holiday in Dorset ( a few more wealthy, of course... but not so many) and very experienced staff who have seen it all. I'm a big fan.

Good luck with your decision.

hi we are looking at all 3 for 7+ entrance in 2013 so interested in replies - a difficult decision but we have decided it would be very risky just to apply for one given the competitionn; DD will be doing the entrance tests this year/next january - are you in the same position?

of course only doing entrance test for the two who take 7+ !

Janet41 - all three of the schools above have a 7+ entrance exam.

then the op doesnt mean latymer but rather latymer upper?

ok see the confusion

A friend's two girls attended LEH then went on to Oxbridge. A very good school; the best Girls School in that area. And Hampton Boys is nearby; another top school.

Thanks. Yes, we are at the 7+ decision stage. Our dd has done the tests, which were far less scary than we imagined. We are indeed leaning towards accepting LEH's offer. We like the idea of no 11+ and the sportiness of the school, plus all the clubs. The music teacher sounded really great. The curriculum doesn't sound that different to the primary school at which she is now, though probably more challenging. The head seems nice, though so new that it is hard to tell what her impact will be. I really liked the head at Latymer Prep, though the facilities are less spacious and we like the all girls route better than mixed. We liked Bute, and were quite happy with the worldliness of the girls. Not sure about the Chelsea set thing - we met only the children, not the parents! It did seem the girls at leh were more down to earth in a good way and that it was a bit more of a local school, rather than a destination school, with all the pros and cons that come with that. We are not local to Hampton, so feel dd might be a bit of an outsiders being bused in - tough on friendships, playdates etc i would think. Any more thoughts much appreciated.

Threescompany, if it helps I would say that c40-50% of the girls I know arrive by bus. You can speak to the coach co-ordinator now, who is based at Hampton Boys Schools (shared bus service) about how many other junior school girls would be sharing the bus from your neck of the woods. You may be surprised. Good luck with your decision.

Thanks for all your thoughts. These things are never easy, but we feel lucky to have a choice. We've decided to go with LEH - we loved all the lunch time and early afternoon clubs, the music teacher struck us as rather impressive and there's quite a bit of sport too. Academically, as far as we could tell, it did not seem too much of a hot house and I can't lie that the idea of not having to put dd (and us) through the 11+ exam stress is v appealing. We don't love the idea of the commute, which still makes us a little nervous, especially as DD's current school is walking distance. Janet41 - good luck next year, hope our brief "chat" helped. If any of you have kids there and want to meet up some day, just ping over a message. Again, thanks for sharing your thoughts.