Hello,
My year 3 daughter has been offered a place to start at STAHS prep (in Wheathampstead) to start in year 4. She’s been at a local state primary in Muswell Hill to date. We absolutely adored STAHS prep and so we are thrilled with the offer and are v keen to accept.
My question is really concerning the commute and whether it’s just too much / too tiring for a year 4 child. Whereas school buses / coaches for Habs, NLCS etc all collect from MH, the closest station to us for the St Albans prep school bus is Southgate which is a 12 mins drive in the morning. The drive isn’t the issue but is it just too much for a primary school child to be effectively getting up at 6.30am and getting home at 5pm every day, plus homework?
I realise there’s a huge amount to be said for attending a primary which is not only free but a five mins walk up the road. And she’s been happy there. But on the flip side, my daughter is academic, has a chance of a wonderful and lovely school, will not need to go through the 11+ and is pretty mature to the extent that I imagine she’ll cope well with the concept of commuting. I also feel she has somewhat outgrown her current school and certainly needs something more challenging. We intended to go private for secondary in any case.
It’s really the potential tiredness, the practicalities of me not being able to run up to the school for whatever reason, her social life being potentially impacted by the fact that play dates may be 45 mins away etc.
Just to say, we do actually intend to relocate to St Albans at some point but in the current climate, that’s impossible so the commute would need to work for a year or so.
I’d be so interested to hear from anyone else who commutes to the school from North London.
Thanks so much. X