Independent Schools - Outside London

[Belaria]

Dear All,

I am a long time follower and a first time poster. You have all helped me a lot during my pregnancy and after having my baby girl. Now, I need your experience and your opinions again.

My LO is now 8.5 months old. She is going to study in an independent school. We have started our research already for nurseries and 4+ schools.

We know pretty much about the ones in London; however we are also considering moving to the areas outside of London with an average of 1,5 hour commute to Bank. I really need your help here, as we only know those areas from maps.

May you please share your opinions and your experiences with me? Are there any independent schools with a very good academic reputation outside London that you can suggest?

We are a bit new here in the UK so I would really, really appreciate if you share your thoughts about this.

Many thanks in advance and have a great week!

The St Albans area would be a good place to start. St Albans High School is an all through school and has an excellent academic reputation. You can also access Habs Girls and NLCS from there through their bus services or driving (although with traffic the drive could be awful).

You might also want to have a look at Berkhamsted. Another all through school but co-Ed. Very popular with people moving out of London and has a great reputation (although less selective than the three above).

Or you might want to keep your options open at 11 and go to a prep school where the children go to a wide range of next schools, both academic and more fitting with their other strengths (sport, music etc.), or grammar.

Beechwood Park, York House, Radlett Prep and Manor Lodge all send children to top academic schools regularly.

Moving further west there’s Godstowe and Maltman’s Green. A lot of girls head to top schools at Godstowe, perhaps with more of a focus on boarding, and MG has an 80% success rate for girls getting into grammar schools.

Ultimately you don’t know how academic your daughter will be though - she’s not even one. Top academic schools can be miserable places for children who are bottom of the class. All through schools also offer no support if you want your daughter to change schools at 11.

Based purely on personal experience, leaving at 11 allows you to make an informed choice, supported by your prep school.

My best advice would be to look at the school websites and visit those you like the look of before making any decisions. I really didn’t like two of the first three I mentioned and whilst it took me a while to come to terms with thoughts I was doing my children a disservice by not sending them to a “top school”, it was totally the right thing. They are happy, confident, learners who are being well prepared for their next schools.

What about surrey? loads of good independent schools around woking/guildford

Ladies, you are amazing! Thank you very much! Thanks a million!

We’re in Sutton (so zone 5) but a great deal of fab schools in London and Surrey is accessible from here (looking at the list of top 100 senior schools, about 10-15 have reasonable commutes from here) . And the commute would be under 1h to the city (either trains to London Bridge or City Thameslink).

I think you’ll find that many areas in London and the Home Counties offer access to excellent indies. You need somewhere that will offer other types of schools too in case your daughter isn’t that academic but perhaps a talented musician or artist etc.

Sorry, also meant to say that you need to identify areas that you want to live in + the commute works + where you get the house you want on your budget. And then see where’s best for schools.

Canterbury.

Seriously, there are hundreds of options! If no school jumps out at you then you are far better looking at commutes and a few areas you like then looking at the schools and practicalities in detail from there.

Yes you need to choose a rough area first and then look at schools - otherwise your net is just far too big to be usable.

So yes, start with how far you are prepared to commute and look at key stations and schools in those areas. You will still find you have a hard choice to make from a number of good schools.

If you have no idea about schools, you could start with The Times parent power school league tables. They aren't won't their problems, but could be a good start to get a sense of which high performing schools are in each area outside London.