to feel a little aggreived - London schools

[shouldnthavelistened]

I read with interest about London prepreps on this board, started a thread myself once, and was told in no uncertain terms that the "you have to put your name down at birth" rumours were a myth. Was even told that the schools always had places and were desperate for people to go.

So, just rang around anticipating a move later in the year and want to start looking for a property and school... and they are all full. Indeed one of them actually said the words "you have to have your name down at birth as we are oversubscribed".

It is not a myth.

IME it’s not so much putting names down at birth but at the correct deadline. So if applications for Sept ‘18 intake opened on 1st May 2016 that is when it needed to go in. Wandering along a few months in advance for an oversubscribed school will never go well.

However, some parents will put their dc down for several schools despite the deposit they will sacrifice and people do move so hang in there and ask each school for advice.

A friend of mine phoned up a school when her son was 4 months they actually laughed at her and said obviously we are already full then hung up . Another friend took her enrolment forms to hospital with her when she gave birth they filled them in when her daughter was 2 hours old and her husband dropped them off on the way home. Both these families ended up sending their children to state primaries as the whole thing was just too competitive and horrid.

My son’s school is one where you have I put your name down at birth. I know of a couple of others where you get a window to apply (from 2 weeks to a couple of months). Pre prep schools set their own rules.

Thanks Matilda. We are now on the waiting lists of three schools but at one school they did say that they had over 100 on the waiting list!

Oh well it's not as though private school is essential.

Oh dear. What a shame.

I am surprised anyone told you that London preps are desperate for pupils: they are terribly misinformed. London private schools have always been oversubscribed.

Registering at birth is only necessary if the school permits this. It is very important to register by the deadline though

boy or girl, what schools and what entry points?

the very competitive girls schools in NW London for 4+ take names up to Oct/Nov the year before the assessment (e.g. channing, nlcs, habs - shhs it's the year before that). for 7+ boys again you put your name down up to the Oct/Nov for a Jan assessment, UCS a bit earlier I think.

It's just a few that want them down very early, the Hampstead preps like the Hall, Hereward House, Trevor Roberts etc. If that's what you're looking for then I'd suggest a pre-prep like Hampstead Hill, Annemount or Golders Hill then do the 7+.

I'd suggest you get this moved to primary education for useful advice.

Boy, 4

We wanted Wetherby (good location for us) but there is no chance.

Why would you ever take the word of randoms on the internet?

You should have done your research and have no one else to blame.

I don't know the central London ones so much. didn't you ring the schools at the time though? there are usually less selective pre-preps around.

I actually once spoke to a woman that was trying to get her name on a school list whilst still ttc - she wasn't even pregnant let alone with child. She spoke of it quite seriously and I was bemused by the whole dramatics of it all.

It's not just London...!

Well damage is done now. Will have to rethink. Bugger.

I know a fair few people where generations of the males have all attended the same school and the names of their sons go down at birth. Hereditary Places!

Hilarious.

You do know you can get them into the private secondaries perfectly easily without sending them private at primary level, don't you?

Save yourself a fortune.

Or you could even, - shock horror - send them to state schools all the way through.

Obviously, your perfect dcs would have to mix with children of plebs like me, though...

YABU to feel aggrieved. It's your responsibility alone. Even just the tiniest bit of research on your part would have revealed that Wetherby is notoriously difficult to get into. Lesson learned.

If they need to be registered at birth does that mean the intake is mainly autumn born children and summer born children barely have a chance of getting a place?

By June or thereabouts wouldn't all the places of that year group be taken, if they're all so oversubscribed?

This doesn't affect me at all, it's just one of those random questions that will bother me for the rest of the day...

Yeh people I know have dropped the forms into the school on the way home from hospital after birth.
Madness.

The madness of it all

Why the nastiness from PPs making snide comments about private schools? OP’s money, OP’s choice. Or are we now only allowed to come on here to complain about a list of previously agreed acceptable topics?

I was born in a shit area in the 70s. My aspirational mother registered me at the local prep while pregnant with me - I was down as "Baby (surname). So not a new thing.

I feel a bit sorry for the few primary aged kids I know who go to private schools. Long commutes, and no friends where they live.

DD goes to a state primary that's the fourth closest to us, so it's a bit of a walk, takes me at least ten minutes to get there.

Imagine the amount of one-to-one tutoring you could buy with all those thousands of pounds not spent on a private school.

The private school near us doesn't give any advantage to those who register early. They take children from age 7, there's an entrance exam where 30 applicants are selected from 200 doing the exam.

No way I was I going to let DD enter an exam that had an 85% probability of categorising her as not good enough at that age.