Prep Schools in Kensington near St. Pauls Girls School

[Mjoshi28]

Hello All - My elder daughter has just secured a place at St. Paul's Girls School (SPGS) and we would like to move near SPGS in the next few months. My younger daughter is 7 years old and we would like her to secure a place in one of the good prep schools near SPGS. We asked a few schools like Bute House, St. James Prep, Queens Gate Prep, Falkner House and we received positive replies only from St. James Prep and Queens Gate. The others are oversubscribed and asked us to look for occasional vacancies in future. We would ideally like our daughter to start Year 3 in the new school from September, 2021. Any recommendations will be highly appreciated. Thank you.

What about Kensington Prep (very highly regarded selective girl’s school) and Ravenscourt Park Prep (non selective co-ed)?

@Beccabean - thank you! Kensington Prep is also oversubscribed, no response received from them. I will check on Ravenscourt Park...

Have you tried all of the preps - Glendower, Pembridge Hall, etc?

How far are you from SPGS currently? And how good is your DD2’s school? And, finally - do you think she is similar to your DD1 in abilities?

If she is also bright and potentially SPGS’s bound - I’d not move her to Queens Gate or St.James. Not if she is currently in an academically strong school.

A fair share of SPGS commute. In your place - I’d wait until a place in a good school for DD2 opens up. Just to be fair to both of your daughters.

@nhnhnhnh, thank you so much for your response. We are currently in Wimbledon but looking to move to Kensington over the summer to be nearer to SPGS. Right now the younger one is at a local prep school in Wimbledon. We have also received offers from Ravencourt Prep School and Garden House School. Fulham Prep says that they may be able to help, subject to my DD doing well in the assessment. Any thoughts on these schools?

It depends.
What is DD2’s ability and your ambition for her? How is the school in Wimbledon - how many girls do they send to the top academic schools in the area?

Ravenscourt Park barely sends any girls to the top Hammersmith schools.
Garden House and Fulham prep do send a small numbers to the top academic secondaries, occasionally some to SPGS.

It really depends on how much of sacrifice to DD2’s chances you are willing to take over DD1’s commute at least in the short term.

Is there a reason you didn’t sit Dd2 for Bute 7+ this year?

If Dd2 is more of the medium ability (vs top Hammersmith secondaries) - and you think she’ll be aiming at Putney High or Francis Holland - then Garden House or Fulham prep would work ok

I think DD2 is medium ability, DD1 is a little more gifted I would say. I think SPGS may not be the right school for DD2. This year's results in the current prep schools have been exceptional, but otherwise it is like any average prep school - mainly a feeder to Wimbledon high School. DD1 had offers from Tiffins Grammar, WHS, Putney and SPGS, all schools we had applied to. But the current school overall had only one offer from Tiffins Grammar (which is to DD1), 2 from SPGS and 4 from Godolphin and Latymer. All others went to Epsom or Surbiton High or Sutton High.

Was thinking maybe we could take Garden House and then keep trying for Bute or Kensignton Prep? We didn't apply to Bute earlier as we had no intention of moving! My husband just came up with this brain wave! :)

Ravenscourt is not a selective school so could actually suit your DD2 really well.

If you’re moving to Kensington, St Mary Abbot and Fox state primary schools are as good as any of the middling preps.

Well, in that case - I’d do that.
And keep trying for all of the local schools - Ken Prep, Glendower, Bute.
Have you tried Putney high, btw. They also have a prep and maybe it’s the school for her?

At the same time - I’d think and chat with your H again. Moving this way would make it harder for your Dd2 as competition for schools at 11+ is fierce. It’s hardest for the middle ability kids. Smartest ones end up in the top schools anyway. Rest fight it out for FH and Putney Hi and Wimbledon.

If your current school feeds to WHS - it may not be a bad thing? Could you maybe live a bit closer to SPGS but still make it to her current prep?

@drainrat and @nhnhnhn thank you both for your suggestions, much appreciated... :)

In my opinion the commute from Kensington to Garden House isn’t great and may not be worth the benefit to your older daughter? Traffic was pretty bad when we did the same commute 25 years ago so I’d imagine it would be worse now!

What about Francis Holland Prep? Putney High will not have places for Y3 at this point, unless they are facing last minute departures.
I did not think Ravenscourt Park was that bad and they do feed to the Hammersmith Schools. It is co-Ed, so you have to look at the results more in detail.

Have you tried Norland Place ? It is almost walking distance from SPG, a lot of families from Brook Green. They may have space as now running two classes through to year 6. In the past have had almost a third go to G&L, this year 3/4 got offers to FHSS. A much more British parent group and More down to earth than some of the Kensington schools.

Norland Place has an exceptional Head but it’s a dismal school building.

British establishment parents are not a draw for the international elite of London, who find them socially insular (euphemism) and intellectually unambitious.

I’m intrigued by the expansion of Norland - when I looked at (admittedly several years ago) the children were already squashed in like sardines. Where do they put the new forms?

I can see how the school benefits from the dearth of school options between Westfield and Notting Hill but the site is horrible. How do they open the windows without asphyxiating the children on all the traffic fumes?

The Head being the chief draw is a poor strategy. I still remember the chap at Norland in a sea of mediocre Heads, but if they leave it can change the character of a school fundamentally.

Also wondering why you’ve decided on Kensington if both your DDs will be going to school in Hammersmith. The tube there has far better commuter links than Ken High Street.

Curious about the comments re Ravenscourt Park Prep. No offers for SPGS this year but offers for Godolphin & Latymer, City of London Girls and other very good schools. Am surprised Fulham Prep is considered a better school. We looked at both schools for our DD and much preferred RPPS (although eventually went state).

I would have to disagree about the space at Norland which has been expanded and refurbished. Norland classrooms are as big as Pembridge, where the class was constantly tripping over chairs if they needed to move in the room. Their playgrounds are ten times as big, at PH they played on the “patio” which was a space 2m by 5m between the pavement and the school building or a tiny walled in basement area !

Thank you everyone for your comments. We are deciding between Hammersmith and Kensington... we would like to stay 1 - 2 miles from the schools, if possible. We are visiting RPPS and Garden House tomorrow and Fulham Prep next week. The Fulham Prep principal seemed quite impressive, DD had a phone interview with him.

The Head of Norland owns the school and is unlikely to leave anytime soon. They would be a very good option and are a nice and nurturing school, albeit perhaps less likely to offer a sure-fire path to the most competitive day schools.

Personally, for a child who is strong but perhaps not quite SPGS-bound (although who knows, things change and children develop a lot at that age!) think it will be even more important to be in as strong a prep as possible in order to have the best chances to get into a decent public school. Many children increasingly have to board despite parents not necessarily wanting them to as it is so tough getting into London day schools these days.

As a previous poster had mentioned, perhaps your older daughter can commute until a space at a better prep opens up for your younger one? There may well be some leavers over the Summer and beyond, once people find those country houses which seem to be in such short supply at the moment.

Bute would be best in terms of location and options further along, but is fierce to get into and unlikely to have a place now that the 7+ is done. Falkner House is top in Ken/South Ken but equally fierce, Glendower a bit easier but not by very much. I wouldn’t go for Queens Gate if you have higher ambitions for public school, but on the upside the school goes through to A-levels and that may put your mind at rest.

If you’re intent on living in Kensington worth looking at Thomas’s Kensington? Lovely school, very local, well rounded and also goes through to A-levels now that they have the senior school, albeit that’s in Battersea. Same goes for Thomas’s Fulham. They must have a bus to the senior school, when the time comes.

Good luck!

From your username I’m thinking you’re Indian (I am too) and I think it’s good to have a look at the parents and not just the school and teachers and outcomes if you’re new to the British system.

I’ve been in the UK since I was 16 and attended international schools before that but I still have an accent and a different mindset and am conscious of lots of cultural differences. I spent a long time analysing the parents and children at drop-off and pick-up before deciding on my tribe.

It’s not as simple as ethnicity - we’ve no insecurities on our part about that, but more that we would have had almost nothing in common with the old English shooting crowd (Norland, Wetherby) or the shiny new teeth in shiny new gym kit mums at the Tatler favourites.

At secondary school children make their own friends (I think, although mine are too young to know really), but until then it’s your job to facilitate friendship and playdates so you need to really think about the sorts of people you want to be with at this age.

@drainrat

If OP wants to live not far from SPGS - then the choices are either more ‘English’ or the Central london mix of cultures and ethnicities. I am guessing by shiny teeth/gym kit you are referring more to the wealth. It’s unavoidable in this area as otherwise people can’t afford to live here.
But generally - in all the primary schools my kids have been in - there has always been a range of cultures/languages/wealth - so you can always find your ‘tribe’

And surely we can all applaud the advances in English dentistry over the past couple of decades....!

Hey, an observation that it seems brutal to move DD2 to another prep and then went for a better prep. 3 schools..wait for a better prep to come up and have the older daughter commute

There is a popular school bus directly from Wimbledon to SPGS so seems surprising you would uproot your entire family on account of one child’s commute when you don’t know what it would mean for the younger one. Different if you are tired of Wimbledon of course!