Eaton House Belgravia or Wetherby Kensington

[matildeye]

Does anyone have children at these schools? The posts with regard to Eaton House Belgravia don't appear to be that recent. Our DS has a place at both of these schools. We are in two minds. Eaton House has a great reputation and exit results but has recently started taking boys from age 8 - 11, we wonder whether the focus from 7+ and 8+ exams will shift. Wetherby Kensington seems relatively untested exit result wise, however I have heard mixed feedback from friends who have their kids there (benefit - it is slightly closer to where we live). I wonder if the Kensington school is comparable to the Notting Hill one? And I don't know any parents with kids attending EHB to get feedback. Thanks!

Eaton House Belgravia by far. Son just left for one of the top private schools in the country. Pastoral care is second to none as it is a very small group with brilliant Head. The right kid in this school will end up at the right place irrespectively of the parents' social status. A lot of Asian kids set the academic benchmark for the high achievers, the Prep just serves to reduce pressure for the ones that will not quite make it. Speaking from personal experience I would only consider the other one if I aspired to a certain lifestyle at the school gates which does not mean it does not take place at Eaton House as well. It is just that at the latter your child's achievement and your belief in them will set the tone rather than birthday parties and so forth. Saying that if you subscribe to the relevance of Wetherby Senior you should consider it but if you have your sights set higher then Eaton House Belgravia is the only option realistically. The only thing is you have to believe in your kid , their potential and their personality. And you have to work with the school to bring out the best in them being respectful of their unique talents whatever these are. This is what Eaton House has always done and continues doing with surprising integrity. And listen to the success stories that prove it. Good luck!

Since the buy-out by private equity I think EHB has been struggling to decide is it still the exam-focused pre-prep or is it trying to transition into being a full prep school and there have been a few U-turns along the way.

I don't think the prep school has been very successful. However, it would take years to build out fully, so it's still early days. In the younger years EHB is very good at focussing on 7+/8+ exam curriculum and standardised testing to benchmark. This can be problematic for kids that can't cope with the work, pace or pressure. You have 60 kids (or parents) that all want a spot at Westminster and some kids crack. All the Y3 boys have a guaranteed spot for Y4. That really took a lot of pressure off, but most people leave anyway.

Some of the teachers are brilliant. Others are average. The head probably divides opinion. There was a brilliant games teacher that had been there for years that left recently. I don't think he got on with the head.

Physically, the challenge is the limited space. The head and the PE money has done a good job of expanding the school in ways that it can, but it will never have the footprint of say EHB the Manor.

I liked the school, but I've also seen it change in a direction I don't fully agree with. If you want a very academic, test-prep oriented school it will fit the bill. But you may have a hard time if you find out, or are advised that Westminster isn't going to be for you, and blame it on the school. All the other parents are thinking the same thing. But if you are happy to accept the possibility you may end up just below the WUS/SPJS/KCJS tier then you will probably be very happy. I think admissions at Sussex House (their traditional destination), Wetherby, boarding schools, WCCS (closed off now they are going with 4+ exclusively), Harrodian, etc is almost a sure thing because the boys are very adept at hard work and exams and they will have plenty of classmates they know once they arrive.

Thank you for both of your replies. Vampire31 congratulations to your DS, it’s reassuring to hear your positive feedback about the pastoral care. I am definitely not interested in the school gate politics either.

User201578 I would be thrilled if my DS were to get a place at the likes of Sussex House. It is important for parents to manage their expectations, I understand your point.

NC for this as we are still at EHB.

Agree with most of what @user201578 says. EHB and Alpha Plus (which owns Wetherby) are both owned by different private equity firms. But EHB was only sold into PE hands by its owner four years ago - sold to the same firm that bought Alpha Plus in 2002 and flipped it four years later for a huge profit. That tells you quite a lot of what you need to know. The EHB strategy now seems to be a) cram as many pupils as they can onto the premises so every inch of fee-earning space is used (so they got rid of the school library - it was more profitable as another nursery classroom) and b) try to get as many pre-prep pupils as possible to stay on for the prep. And there are other things too, like relentless double digit annual fee increases & getting rid of long serving staff who are paid a lot (two much loved senior staff were made redundant over the summer, as @user201578 says).

There are still some really great staff at EHB, as well as some less-than-good ones. But the focus of all of them is still for the moment on preparing boys for 7+/8+ tests, so the curriculum is dominated by the maths and English they need for those. Having said that, offers for WUS/SPJS/KCJS weren’t all that great this year...so much so that the school has decided not to publish them. Instead they’ve published an aggregation of the last ten years results. As @user201578 rightly says, the school has a very difficult dilemma - they need just enough leavers to go to WUS and SPJS in order to lure new parents in with the prospect of glittering prizes, but they need most boys to stay on in order to make money. Fortunately there are a lot of parents willing to believe that their child will be one of the ‘chosen’ ones. (In one memorable parents evening, one parent asked whether the school would be publishing a league table of which bookband each five year old in the year was on, so the parent knew how hard to push their child to get to the top, if they weren’t already...)

Regardless of what happens at 7/8+ we won’t be staying on - my view is that nine and ten year olds need more space than the premises can offer. Also the last four years has made us question whether private equity ownership is really suitable for schools.

That is concerning not to have released exit results. I also could not find the exit results for Wetherby Kensington. They opened in 2017 so should have had their first 7+ exit results this year I believe.

How do you feel the older children are doing that stayed on after 7/8+? I agree the space does seem tight for that many.

@matildeye The older boys have very small class sizes so that’s a benefit. But we won’t know how effective the teaching been until the first 11+ results this year, as this is the first year of year 6.

Picking on from the comment on small class sizes I believe that this plays a big part on Eaton House success. This and the inherent competitiveness of little boys which makes them work hard to get rewards. To be fair their business plan does not interest me, it is their academic plan I care about. There is a reason for 7+/8+ and this is to get the kids that are able to deal with a pressure cooker big league school. To this I would add that it is great to weed out the toxic parents that pile on the pressure so hard that they break their little ones. If someone thinks they can force their kids to work for a couple of years and sit back and enjoy their child being in let's say Westminster it seems they do not have a clue what is going on inside these schools. The right kid will thrive and sail through the academic high standards, the wrong kid will end up with psychological problems and low self-esteem. The teachers at these schools know what they are doing and what they are looking for. Saying that and trying to predict what is going to happen (although my comment needs to be taken with a pinch of salt ) if we were not sorted I WOULD put my child again through Eaton House for 2 or 3 years before 11+, assuming I and the teachers believed in his abilities because it is a genuine mix of mainstream school/tutoring-focused school where they would focus on the things that matter in exams and get him where he inherently needs to be. However if I could not handle the pressure or listens what the school is telling me I would stay away. The bottom line is if you cannot deal with EHB what makes you think that you will be able to deal with having an ill-suited kid through Kings? Yes Eaton House did not have outside space but then we were not there for this. What I did is organise sport activities like tennis in the weekends. And it worked brilliantly to distress him when other parents piled on more homework on their little ones on top of the school's recommendations. No amount of extra pressure or outside tutoring would work if your kid cannot deal with the existing mock stress-test that EHB is.(so I repeat listen to what the professionals tell you: the Head has been a Headteacher for something like 150 years so listen what he says. The Head of Music ,brilliant lady with a heavenly voice, nurtures musical kids in a non-core subject and gets results. The Head of Science is so inspiring with his infectious enthusiasm that made ME want to start revisiting the science basics. And everyone I mean EVERYONE will focus on your kid in terms of pastoral care to get the best possible results out of him. It is not an one person effort and the result does NOT rely on the class teacher. But you HAVE to be part of that team in a positive way because cacophony of whatever shape or form is weeded out. I hope it helps and to whoever is still in there my heart is with them ,hang in there, try to stay positive for your little one(because it is the only thing that works along with being able to listen along with what people at the top of their profession are trying to tell you) and the result will come or will not come. If it does not come do not panic your son still has a school that wants him and the options are endless(as long as you have the money to pay for the huge privilege that private education is). Good luck to everyone!

Sorry spellcheck because I was multi-tasking trying to work at the same time: I meant' de-stress 'and I also was trying to say 'doesn't solely rely on the class teacher although the teachers on key year groups tend to remain unchanged . I agree some of the staff are better than others and to my experience if a bad decision is made it is quickly amended by more senior members of staff. No one is given too much power , the curriculum is standardized to compensate for different speeds and different teaching styles and crucially the speed of teaching which relies at times on the parents makes sure that children are never left behind, especially at these coronavirus-stricken times. Obviously not everything is rosy(especially some of the most-inexperienced staff that need time to find their feet on their roles and the exam stress.to be fair you need to be slightly bonkers to enjoy the pain that exams bring especially at this crucial age for the children..but this is not forever , it is nearly inevitable within the British education system and it is better to know where your child stands early on so you can consider your schooling strategy. Talking of my own experience I would encourage every parent on that school run to consider the reason why they are there in the first place. If it puts too much pressure on your family life Do NOT ALLOW that: be happy with yourself and the child you have ,NOT the child you would like to have or the one other people would like you to have and your child will sense that and perform to the best of their abilities. That is the only way for the child to ace that exam test, they need to want to be at that school they are applying towards. My son would probably have ended at the same school at 11+ through another school with massive outside space but what Eaton House did for him is speed up the process and teach him discipline and hard work and that is why Eaton House kids are sought after by any other school they are applying to(assuming that parents /kids keep it together), it is just towards the best interests of the said kid to apply for a school on his own league.

you need to be slightly bonkers to enjoy the pain that exams bring especially at this crucial age for the children..but this is not forever , it is nearly inevitable within the British education system and it is better to know where your child stands early on so you can consider your schooling strategy

Sorry, don’t agree with any of this.

In the vast majority of the UK education system children only experience this kind of pressure at 16 &18 when they do their public exams. Not aged 6 and 7. It is NOT necessary and it is not healthy. It’s not inevitable - it’s entirely avoidable if you opt for a school that runs from 3-13 or even 3-18.

Secondly, children do not develop at the same or even a consistent pace. Where your child is relative to others at 3, 6, 7, 11, 13 or 16 will change. Passing an exam (or not) aged 6 does not forecast the future and parents would be foolish if they think it does. Equally, any decent school should be able to tell parents where their kid is academically at any point in time. You do
not need to put them through months of stress and external entrance tests to find that out.

If you think that your child is not ready, what I am actually saying is, you DO NOT have to make them sit the exam. NOONE is forcing you, you are the parent and you choose to pay the admission fee. For the record I was told Westminster is not for us and I chose to not apply for him to sit through it.

I agree that kids mature at different levels and that is the point I was making about putting him at the Prep 2-3 years before 11+ had he not already found his own way.

At 5 you do not know how your kid is going to perform although there are signs on the horizon. If you feel it is too much pressure for you or them just follow the curriculum ,listen to the teachers and try later on. I personally would not put my kid through a school that goes through to 18 because I believe in the idea of academic excellence as an objective that needs to be instilled from a young age if the parent cannot do it themselves. I like the debate you are commencing about the beauty of exams but it is up to you to guide your kid through a process that is less painful. 8+ or 7+ exams do not agree with your family obviously and you still have a choice to withdraw but for the right kid it can be great fun.

I am sure you will find later along the way that 11+ is very stressful if you want to pay fees for the right school. The schools that do not do 11+ will miss out on the clever kids and this will affect their university results because oxbridge will take them less seriously. This is how this country operates at large and maybe that is why have the unhappiest kids in Europe but until this is rectified I am not taking any chances.

Besides I am annoyed with the assumption that a kid can excel academically and he will automatically be unhappy. The kids that do well are over the moon to be placed in a challenging academic environment, some of them unfortunately cannot operate outside it. For the record since starting at his new school my son is over the moon and is happy to go to school every day. That is the whole point: if he is not happy doing Maths at Eaton House and obsessing about house points and silly things like that maybe he is not ready so wait until 10+ or 11+. If you think he will never be ready take him to a school that goes up to 16+ etc. You are the parent , you know your kid, you listen or not listen to the experts that are there to help you . Again good luck!

@matildeye what did you decide at the end? We already paid for the deposit at Wetherby Kensington. We heard from 3 parents there that were very happy. We also leave closer.
Having said that, I just had an open morning (virtually) with EHB and really liked it too!!!

morning

i am torn between choosing either of the two schools for my son.

1. Wimbeldon prep school which is a feeder for kings college but quite far from where I live so not the most practical
2. Eaton house Belgravia which is closer and also near the school I plan to send my daughter to.

Can any parents who have experience with either schools give me some feedback on what these schools are like.

My son is very intelligent and enjoys studying so I’m looking for a school which is ambitious for their kids and will stretch him as I’d like him to go to westminister or Kings college.

I need to choose between the two schools by Tuesday so any assistance or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

@Confused1976 , go for the nearest, think about friendship groups, play dates and how often you need to visit the school (always more often than you imagine). There are many fantastic senior school options if you live in central London, no need to go to Wimbledon for a prep school.

My DS went to EHB. It definitely has a fast pace and will prep them in a very focused way for 7 and 8+. I would strongly recommend going to whichever one is nearer. It’s no fun sitting with a tired six year old on the tube or three buses for 45 minutes after school, with homework still to do when you get home.