Radlett Prep vs Edge Grove

[Hullabalooloo]

Hi, we are looking at both these schools for a switch from an outstanding primary. Any advice gratefully received.

RP website seems extremely limited with information and were rated good by Ofsted rather than outstanding, plus the whole no hot lunch issue and not very extensive extra curricular club list but destinations list is very impressive. All seems a bit incongruous?

EG seems excellent, inspection reports agree with this and it feels wonderfully nurturing but destinations for girls suggest it's not so academic for them? Is the emphasis on preparing boys for CE and top public schools??

(Part of us is wondering why they both still have spaces so close to the start of term).

Radlett Prep is a serious hardcore hothouse. If your child thrives in that environment then great and they've don't do a great deal of differentiation and I know that for children who might struggle it's not a good environment. It's also cheap and part of that is that it's essentially fairly no frills, classes are big for a private school, up to 26, there are or certainly weren't many LSA's and SEN is not well catered for and it needs some money spending on it or did when I was last there. It's privately owned and there's no board of governors to report to if there's a problem which in itself is not my preference. Leavers destinations are excellent but be in no doubt, almost all children are tutored. It's also boy heavy. I believe that the head teacher has his own children in a local state primary.............

Edgegrove has a great reputation, it's significantly more expensive but you get a full prep school experience with all the extra curricular. I would ask them about their leavers destinations for the last few years because I think that they've really come up massively and I've only heard good things over the last few years.

I wouldn't be overly worried about there being spaces in either school, they're both quite big schools with a vast choice of good state and private schools locally and places come up in all but Habs / NLCS etc all the time.

What year are you looking for?

Thanks v much! The leavers dest for E.G. seem to be (what appear to be, based on gcse/a level results - we know v little about them otherwise) generally non academic independents for girls e.g. Abbots Hill, Queenswood. We were a bit about the absence of NLCS/Habs as regular destinations, there seem to have only been 1 or 2 girls going there in the last few years. There are a few going to st albans which is more what we are looking for but would prefer not to have DC travel so far as we are more local to Radlett area so prefer NLCS/Habs option in long run.

If RP is a hothouse with everyone being tutored, it feels like staying in an outstanding state primary with an experienced 11+ tutor would be preferable. We were a bit about the apparent lack of governors and the proprietors being teaching staff. The website is off-putting as is the packed lunch arrangement and the 'state school length' days, not sure how they manage to cover everything with such short days.