Am I Crazy? Surrey to London Prep?!

[jessicalake]

So we have just moved to the outskirts of London in Surrey but we can't get my daughter into a Surrey Prep School at the moment as they are full but we can get her into a couple of the top London ones, Kensington Prep & Falkner House.
Both my husband and I work near Kensington but not every day, she's six going into Year 2 in September.

Am I crazy to be considering accepting her place at one of the London ones and getting the train in to school?

I think she’ll be exhausted from that travel every day. There’s a lot of preps in Surrey, are you sure every one near you is full?

Yes it’s crazy. She needs to have a local school for local friends, play dates, parties etc. No-one will want to go all the way out to Surrey to pick up after a play date.

Where about in Surrey are you?

We're in Esher :)
I've heard bad reviews about Danes Hill so reluctant to send her there.
I know of a few but does anybody have any recommendations of good ones around? Can be co-ed or just girls. :)

Surbiton High School
Claremont
Norte Dame
Tiffin's

I have no idea of their reputations now but they're all local to you.

Rowan in Claygate is outstanding.
Try
Feltonfleet
The Study New Malden
Weston Green
Westward Prep
Milbourne Lodge in Claygate
Twickenham Prep just over Hampton Court Bridge

From all of the above you can try for Lady Eleanor Holles and Guildford High for 7+ in Jan '19 & avoid 11+. LEH isn't as hard to get into at 7 as it makes out. It has an extensive school bus network.

I agree with others that's crazy - she'd be too tired to get the most out school and it would affect her social life. She'd be much better off going to a state primary, or any other local prep school and waiting for 7+ entry or a waiting list place at your preferred school.

Jack and Jill Hampton, Walton has some preps, Surbiton High Prep. Claremont , Hampton Court house. There has got to be space closer than Kensington

Would you look at preps towards Weybridge, Woking and Guildford? There are loads. You can get to London from any of those stations easily.

can't you just move? I don't know what your options are in Surrey but Falkner and KPS are both top notch, I would not swap those for Surbiton High & co. Check some Surrey ones that have buses though, the likes of Feltonfleet.

Study School New Malden

I’ve NC but if you search under my username you’ll find an old post where I responded to a question about Surrey preps recently with some background (some personal experience, some more general local feedback).

I’m surprised you moved here without a school as it’s well known for being competitive, can I ask where she is at school at the moment and what you think her strengths are?

It depends on what you’re looking for as to what the right choice is re London / here. As you’ve probably found, the most popular schools are all at capacity and waitlisting for places in her year. Schools will mostly know their availability for Y2 now as existing parents are on a terms’ notice for fees. I would expect you’ve found Feltonfleet and Milbourne at capacity. Maybe also Surbiton? I would expect there would be availability at Daneshill as it’s enormous and they move up to the prep in Y2 (they also add another form of 20). I would expect you’d also find availability at Claremont, Notre Dame, possibly at Rowan. Downsend move up to the “big” school in Y2 I think so again there might be a possibility there.

However, the good thing is that many schools do have a big new intake in Y3 and the closing date for entrance exams (usually taken Nov-Dec) has not yet passed, in addition to those above these include LEH, Rowan, Feltonfleet, Guildford High and Surbiton High (I think?).

So there are two options:

Plan A

1. Find a school with space in Y2 that you like and want to keep her at until 11, you really have to see places to make your own decision. Post back here if you’re struggling with a decision and you might get some more help, my other post has some more info

2. Find a school for Y3 onwards and register for the exams PDQ. Then just get her in somewhere (or keep her where she is??) for Y2 and either make sure it’s good enough for you to be confident that she’ll be ok with entrance assessments (depending on type of school.. remember they do value personal skills, not just academic), or else supplement her learning with some extra help like Kumon now (considering Y3 assessments are in 6m time). In this situation, a London school if it’s good might not be a terrible option as it would only be for a year and she would be well prepared. I would only consider this if you were driving her everyday though, I think it would put a lot of pressure on her... also how much are they really going to teach her in half a term?

Other options that are easily accessible but I don’t know much about are Manor House and Ripley Court.

Many children do travel some distance to preps even here, so school buses are frequently used and are good to think about.

Good luck

At the moment she's at Sevenoaks Prep in Kent, where we used to live. We're only living in Surrey part time at the moment so she is staying with my mum half the time in Kent, we didn't want to move her half way through Year 1 and decided to take her out and start Year 2 again in September at a different school .

Ideally we wouldn't have moved without a school set for her, but it was a last minute change to my husbands job that was too good to turn down!

We didn't originally plan on living in London and thought Esher was a good option but maybe not anymore! We are only renting so if it doesn't work out we could always go to London.

I'm definitely going check on that list, I did like Downsend when we looked a little while ago. :)

Thank you for your help :)

Look at Epsom Ewell thats not quote as far
Ewell Castle and Downs end comes to mind

Esher is a fantastic location as you have easy access to so many top schools, girls and mixed plus a fast train to London for commuting. I would consider a stop gap for 1 year and then LEH juniors, (the 11plus is awful) or if you want 11plus visit Rowan, you never hear a bad word about it.

Congrats on the new job :-) Esher is an absolutely super location, but because of that you have to know what you want otherwise the good places gets snapped up. You’re well placed to sit for Y3 though, Sevenoaks prep is meant to be great so I’d be interested to hear your feedback when you do pick somewhere.

Sorry hijack but am keen to get views on Milbourne Lodge vs Shrewsbury House Pre-prep (and then prep). I'm assuming they're on a par academically? We like the fact that Milbourne do sport every afternoon but worry it may be too small.

But London is so commutable from Sevenoaks. So why move at all? Sevenoaks Prep meant to be fantastic as is Sevenoaks School for Senior

Surrey is a quite expensive area. It cannot be that there are no good private schools around. Travelling to Central London is an absurd solution.
Obviously there are more/less desirable schools. If you cannot get into a more desirable, you go to less desirable and try to get where you want later, at 7+; 11+ etc. Worst case you go to a state school and hire a tutor for entry exams.

I took my daughter aged 5 for 2 years to Kensington Girls Prep on the tube each morning and it worked out fine (our nanny collected her at the end of school). We had a nice time. We got a seat every day, she did her reading and spellings on the tube next to me. It was fine and nice to commute into London with mummy. Then at 7+ she got into London London Collegiate and used the school coach.

Milbourne is too small for competitive sport vs Shrewsbury. Shrewsbury preprep takes small numbers of girls. You will really want local friends and think about where you are dropping off / easy of commute. Notre dame has great facilities as they share with the senior, downsend is now going up to 16 which might appeal. Danes is huge but is a good school, decent academics and sport.