habs girls

[milkshake2019]

Reviews on this school pls. Been to an open day and have to say wasnt inpressed particularly with small class rooms, large class sizes and lack of diversity but my husband wants our daughter to try.
A teacher also said something negative about the large class sizes which concerned me. Also something about a new head??

My experience is a bit out of date and 2nd hand as my kids are grown up now (I know nothing about the new head) but we looked at Habs for eldest daughter and although she didn't end up going (didn't get in!) she has some friends who went there and also some daughters of friends. I'd say it's a bit of a marmite school, the right type of kid seems to absolutely thrive and love it but if you're already getting vibes it might not be for her then I'd maybe listen to your gut. What age is she? There are other lots of other selective and non-selective north London options esp for secondary so if she's little you could look at a smaller, more nurturing prep option then consider the super-selectives later on or even try for grammar, depending on where you live?

It's easy to get caught up in that 3+/7+ entry panic and feel like it's essential to get your kid into a prestigious through-school as early as possible but TBH just going from my experience I'm glad they rejected DD (much as it was disappointing at the time as I was sure she was more than capable) - Habs isn't as much of an academic hothouse as some other north London schools but every girl there will be naturally very academically able, they're all expected to work hard as well as being strong all-rounders and pursue plenty of extra curriculars, so (at least in my day) it added up to quite a culture of super-high achievement, which is great for some but IMO can send the 'wrong' sort of personality totally over the top into anxiety/stress/over-competitiveness (to be fair I think the school is quite good at filtering out children that won't cope at application stage which is maybe where my DD fell down). Plus I'm not sure if it's chicken or egg (i.e. are they selecting for this personality type or 'training' it into them or a bit of both) but virtually every Habs graduate I've met has been a really bubbly, friendly, extroverted, confident type which is great but I can see a quieter, more introverted child getting lost or overwhelmed even if academically/talent wise they were more than able to keep up with the others. Obviously at 3 and even 7 it's quite hard to tell so maybe keep your options open? You could always put her in for the selection process and see what happens?