North London - The Hall

[Goosethemoose]

Hi, interested to hear any recent experience of The Hall please? The facilities are clearly excellent as are the academics, but we’re conscious of its “hothouse” reputation. Would be interesting to know if things have changed in recent years relative to some of the historical posts on here about it!

Hopeful bump

It's 100% a hot house but their pastoral care is great. Happy but very bright boys. They select carefully at every stage so the weaker ones don't even get through. So it's not pushy in some regards as all the boys are v capable.

It's not the school that's a hothouse - it's the north London private school parent population. Lots of parents (but absolutely by no means all) who want Westminster or St Pauls for high school at all costs and push their boys very hard with extra work at home and private tutoring. But that's by no means limited to The Hall. Reality is that most kids are tutored to get into any of the 11+ or 13+ schools.

Music and sport are very important at the school too. Pastoral care is wonderful. Learning support team is fantastic and lots of boys get that help to plug gaps. Don't know of any boys in my son's year having been pushed out because of academics (or anything else).

How do we define a "hothouse"? I agree that the school itself, is not pushy, rather the parents (or some ) parents push their kids. I speak as one of these parents with a son who recently left the Hall for Westminster. The Hall is a wonderful school in my view.

Thanks, some helpful views. We are also… I suppose pushy, in our own way. We highly value academics- my husband more than me - and a well-rounded education. Our eldest is/ can be quite sensitive though, so I was wondering whether it would be a good fit for him. Hard to tell from the outside in, but it’s clearly an exceptional place. No offer yet so might be a moot point, in the end!

@hampsteadmum

How do we define a "hothouse"? I agree that the school itself, is not pushy, rather the parents (or some ) parents push their kids. I speak as one of these parents with a son who recently left the Hall for Westminster. The Hall is a wonderful school in my view.

@hampsteadmum My DS has just been accepted at The Hall for Reception 2022 and we are very pleased and happy about it. As a parent who is looking at westminster/St Paul as future schools for our DS, I wanted to check if you had to tutor your kid along with studies at the The Hall for him to get into Westminster?

Bump