Suggestions on private schools in Herts/North london

[moonprayer]

I know I am a bit too lazy and I should have gone through all the threads and am sure I will find a lot more information. But I guess it's faster to gather all the ideas here...
I live near St. Albans and have a 2yo boy and a 2mo baby girl. I start to look into private schools for both and desperately need some suggestions. I only know Habs and Aldenham for primary, and want some more choices. Could anyone give me some advice on good private schools in Herts or North London? Another question is, is there any waiting list for these private schools and if there is, normally how long it is? Would it be too late for my 2yo? Thanks a lot!

Ok so do visit them but there is Radlett prep, Hendon prep, one in Mill Hill. In Herts there is Lochivner and Duncombe that I have heard of.

No waiting lists, all entry by exam and or assessment and interview: Ones I know of where friends have had children in the past and currently.

Manor Lodge, Radlett Prep, Edge Grove, St Hilda's Harpenden, Beechwood Park, Lockers park, Westbrook hay, Berkamsted Collegiate, St Christopher's letchworth, Queenswood, Sherrrardswood, Aldwickbury, St Albans High School ( Wheathampstead House for Juniors) Haresfoot - may have merged with Berko.

I am sure there are more!

St Nicholas House, feeder prep to Abbot's Hill. Rickmansworth Masonic, St John's, Merchant Taylors, St Helen's, Princess Helena Hitchin,

Some take at 3+ some at 4+ Habs do 20 children at 4+ and then a whole class of 22 at 5+and some extra places, along the way until 7+, but no 7+ entry anymore.

St Albans High School 2 x 20 at 4+ and then another 4 children for each class at 5+, main next entry at 11, though places may come up but are offered to those who stay on the waiting list.

Depending what side of St Albans you are and how far you want to travel- Duncombe school, Heath Mount or St Joseph's In The Park.

Thank you everyone. I don't mind about travelling a bit. I'll go through the list and do a bit more research. I am going through the previous posts about private schools... feel like i am definitely one of the newbies...

St Columba's in St Albans was a lovely school - don't know what it is like now as I am going back many years.

Try for the academic ones - my daughter was at Habs from age 4 and it is brilliant school. However most who apply don't get in due to the academic selection so try a few others too. If you can get them in at 4 or 5 to a great leading secondary school's primary bit then at 11+ there is less pressure. It worked well for us.

Habs is doing 5+ entry for the last time in 2016. It will be moving to 2 form entry for 4+ from now on.

Manor Lodge is a fabulous school but not easy to get into so not a true 'backup' option unlike Radlett Prep where everyone gets in.

Most of the others have already been mentioned. Do not under estimate how competitive the entry to many of these schools is. 1:10 for Habs, 1:4 for Manor Lodge etc.

Just to be clear: these schools do not operate waiting lists. You apply the year before and entry is based upon a competitive assessment. The process is ruthless and not being "bothered" to read the other threads suggests that you don't have the right mindset for this process.

There is St John's, Lochinver House and Stormont in Potters Bar.

I couldn't recommend St Johns.

If the child is bright I would certainly try NLCS and Habs where my daughters went. For a boy you can try Habs boys although I think that starts at 7+ so a bit older. I would apply to a good few of them and see where the child gets in and take it from there.

Thanks a lot Yeesss, I am reading through the other threads, just it takes a while to extract all the information. My concerns were whether I would be a bit too late to apply for the 3+ (if any schools) entry for my boy; that's why I took this lazy route to open a new thread to ask for a list of schools. I fully understand how competitive these schools are, that's why I want to prepare a list of schools at different levels, at least to have some backups. Really thank you for the details information. It would be great to know the entry ratio for these schools.

Hi 3littlefrogs I am curious why you wouldn't recommend St Johns? Thanks.

LotusLight, :) the problem is, I guess all parents think their children are bright, and I am definitely one of these over-optimistic parents. So I would rather back up a little bit and find some other schools as backups. As Yeesss said, those top ones are really competitive. Even with the brightest kids, I guess you need a bit of luck to get in. So I will take your route and apply for several of them.
By the way, with all these schools, would anyone be kind to give me some ideas on how competitive they are when compared against each other? Except the top ones (Habs, MT, NLCS), I have no idea on the order of the rest...
I really appreciate all your kind replies... very helpful

again, just can't help to say... alibubbles, it sounds like you have a full list of schools in your mind~! Thank you so much. I am now running down the list to do a bit more research..

I had children at MTS, NLCS and Habs all at once !!

Order of the rest.... I don't know the St Albans preps very well at all.

If they have a junior bit Aldenham and royal masonic for the ahem... academically challenged =- nothing wrong of course with schools where just about everyone gets in and they had add huge value. I went to a tiny girls' private school in the NE and did really well, top of the class etc. It can work for some children.

My habs daughter who is slightly dyslexic but very clever and got in at 4 a year young in fact in those days nearly didn't pass to the seniors (she did pass and thrived when handwriting and spelling was not as important and now is City lawyer on about £100k by the way and happily married...) At 11+_ she sat for Habs, NLCS (did not get in there), and then second tier? st Helen's, third tier - Northwood College and almost a boarding school but we heard she had passed for Habs before the entrance exam for that. She sat for six but that's 5 so I've obviously forgotten one.

If it's a prep school without seniors as it may be for a boy look at where the boys go on to - is it the better schools or not and decide on that basis. Also check how many scholarships are won at 13+ - 3 of my sons won music scholarships at 13+ when changing schools. (Two are still in school so I don't write about their school).

Do remember that most children sitting for Habs will be sitting for NLCS etc too so it might look like huge numbers per place but if you do a bit of maths you can see that some will apply to a lot. Also depends on the competition. Our second who was the only child of ours who read very well and very uoung they could hardly find a book she couldn't read at the Habns interview where her sister was at 4+ and didn't get in (triplets got in although I am not blaming those girls). So she went to Kensington prep for 2 years in London and got into NLCS at 7+ - 18 and is also a London lawyer now. To be fair their MTS graduate brother is currently a postman so this is not a show off post.

I do think ti helps to read to them every night, talk to children a lot, ours all learned 2 music instruments from age 6 or 7 ( we are very musical family) and all the usual stuff. I thin they are 50% genes and 50% parental effort and of course hard work - amazing how much hard work makes you do well in life not something everyone wants to hear.

Wow LotusLight, you must be very proud of all your children. I would be a very happy parent if I were you! :) Thank you so much for your long post. I can see you have made great efforts to make your children thrive. I also believe in hard work, and also not just academically. That's one of the reasons I want to go for the private route where hopefully kids can have more other activities and thrive in their own way rather than just focus on scores.

Including the postman.... although I doubt he'll be featuring in the MTS school magazine which did old boys who were judges and QCs last time.

Yes, I am happy because they are happy and I am glad we paid school fees - in fact our son was almost free to age 13 as his father taught at the same school but it's been a long haul. I began paying nursery school fees about 27 years ago and I have 2 more years of school fees and then university for the last 2 after that.

Good luck with your little ones.

Mine have certainly got as much out of non academic work as anything else. One daughter got the school sports prize in upper sixth and played a sport of England which I am sure has helped with her jobs since. It is the broad range of interests which helps too and their enthusiasm for learning. The girls certainly find girls from school and their contacts and friendships does not harm in their 20s in terms of careers.

So I've thought it was worth paying but I know it's expensive and I know plenty of parents whose children go to places like Henrietta Barnett and Watford Grammar and do pretty well so no need for anyone to beat themselves up over it if they cannot afford it or don't want to pay. IN fact some boys are leaving my twins' school after GCSE to go to state sixth forms actually in some cases to save money.

My DC went to excellent state schools in North London/Herts and have done extremely well. It is possible to do well in the state system.

OP I will pm you.

:) Yes I do believe that the state system can also bring up the potentials of children. I am sure there are a lot of posts arguing about the state and private systems. It is only my personal choice to go for the private system. I came from a pure state system, doing well, and now have a good job, though I always feel that I missed a lot as I was too focusing on just grades without knowing the other potentials. It's like I was just following a road paved by my parents' and teachers' expectations. Now I would rather give my children a broader range of choices on activities/life styles, so that they can have enough knowledge to make their own decisions on what life they want to pursue... I believe the state system in this country can do this job, but probably I need to do a lot more research to broaden the non academic activities. Hopefully the private system can just help me with this part (but probably this is just my wishful thinking...)

I think the difference is more noticeable at senior school. Some prep schools are not as good as decent state schools. The best senior schools have lots more on offer than some state schools. You need to see what each offers and see how that fits into what you want. My DD2, eventually, went to an amazing prep school, but the one she started at was very average in many ways, but had a brilliant nursery! Look at the destinations of the leavers. What senior schools are the children going to? What sports, music, drama, art and extra curricular activities are offered?

Yes, do pick a prep with care - some are worse than state schools. That is why check where the children go on to after as said above, and if you can, pick the junior part of a very good secondary. Also as my youngest are doing GCSE it is a good few years since I had a small child entering at 4+ so do your own current research. If it's a good school then registering a year or two before they would start is usually enough but obviously check that out.

Also for the boy you might be looking for a feeder school which gets boys into whatever you are after at whatever age. Eg if you want a chidl to start at a school at 7+ you probably want a prep school which prepares for 7+ exams. Ditto if 11+ not much use being a school which is not happy boys leave at 11 and only prepares them for exams at 13.