Central London prep school

[Chimpchat]

Has anyone experience of a good prep school within striking distance of Marble Arch (hate the thought of an hour commute)?

DS in year 3 now, so 2012 or 2013 entry. TIA

It was much the same last year. You are just really unlucky in looking to move at a key squeeze point ie 8+, although 11+ would probably be worse. There seems to be a school short, esp for boys, in West London and the reasons are highly mysterious, especially when you consider that in the last 5 of so years both Wetherby big school and Knightsbridge have been set up (and Fulham Thomases not all that long before that). Where have all those children come from?
V puzzling

Don't know what its like outside cental London, but the vast majority of children at ours and other schools I know are ex-pats (fees paid). Must be the booming economy haha!

I bit surprised about Hill House reaction as when I called they said it's a little late, but to just come in anyway to fill in the forms - and I was asking about this year.
Wetherby is very popular and is known to be one of those you register from birth. My understanding is that the pre-prep is in Notting Hill, then in Bryanston Square they take from 7yrs old. Am I right?
Connought House has both boys and girls at pre-prep level, not sure where they go after that.

Next to CH there is also Ravenstone which starts at nursery. Don't know reputation, but friend has a girl at CH and boy at Ravenstone. Your LO will not chop and change as they go up to 11yrs old.

There is also Abercorn on Crawford Str and Marylebone Rd. Did you look at them?

Good luck

Be persistent. Most of these schools end up having openings during the summer. Send letters stating your interest and follow-up with phone calls during the summer term.
Which school does your son attend now? IT's a shame he missed 8+ exams as that's the usual entry point (except for Thomas's, which doesn't have an 8+ entry and only rarely has openings beyond reception).
The Hall is an excellent school. I don't know their entry points. You could look at Cameron House in Chelsea -- it goes up to 11 and some boys leave at 8 for prep schools so perhaps they'd have room for a boy in Y4 (but then you'd have to try for an 11+ space at a prep school, which might not be any easier than trying to find a school now).

Sorry to revive this but you all sound like you know what you're talking about.

I had a friend who attended a central London prep school which had 12 pupils in total. I have lost touch with him, but every so often I wonder which school it was. I think it was near the BBC, Bush House? Does that make any sort of sense?

Anyone have any idea which school it was? It may have closed since he was there.

Starting with the positives, the Knightsbridge school building is beautiful and spacious and they offer the opportunity to study a variety of modern languages. Knightsbridge school was founded as recently as 2006 by 3 City financiers and the Headmaster is an ex-Army Captain. Knightsbridge school also seems to have "branches" in Bogota, Colombia and Panama. However, I do agree with the not-so-glowing Ofsted reports of this school, that the quality of teaching in some classes is unsatisfactory. The pupils did not appear to be disciplined by their teachers, some children were fighting with each other, were not engaged in purposeful activities during the classes and none of the pupils replied to us saying Good Morning to them. I asked the school registrar to send me the records of the numbers of pupils moving on to various senior schools and she was not pleasant... reluctantly she agreed to send me this information but has not done so ! We have registered our child at another school with a more established academic record and run by teachers. Something did not feel right at all about Knightsbridge school...

Jux it could well be Portland Place School which is small and less than 5 mins walk from BBC.