The Hall school

[GoodMorningSunshine2]

Hello, I know there are a few historic threads about the Hall, but just wondering if anyone has more current opinions about the school. Is it nurturing all the way up these days? Are they supportive of different types of children (not just the sporty/ alpha types)? How is the teaching and learning support at both ends- extending and supporting?
And are they coming round to boys wanting to leave at 11+, now that the landscape of day school secondary entrance is changing (CE being slowly faded out.)

Any opinions gratefully received.

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Any Hall parents past or present, or anyone who knows the school at all able to offer any insight?

Hello. My DS goes to The Hall, Y3. I've no experience with older years but I think the school is wonderful. Very caring & nurturing and I would say music and art (esp. music) are even more celebrated than sports. There are equal measures of quiet boys and rambunctious boys and they all respect for each other and get on well. I just wish it was a through school to 18!

Yes wish it was an all through school, would be perfect for DS.

@HarryPitta @FlawlessSquid Thank you so much for your responses. That’s very reassuring! It sounds as though the boys are well cared for emotionally as well as academically these days. Do you happen to remember how the settling in process worked for Reception in September? Is there any flexibility when the boys start out, in terms of hours, or is it straight into full days?

Do you have a son starting in September aswell ? :)

Yes - I am a recently ex Hall mum. 2 boys. From Reception. Very different experiences. What do you want to know? One loved it, one did not. I never really know what 'nurturing' means? Are the staff kind, yes, very. Some exceptional teachers. Is it the most competitive environment I've ever been in? Yes.

@GeorginaLS thank you so much for your answer. I’d be very interested to hear more about your experience- both sides of it. If you don’t feel comfortable going into it all on here you’d be very welcome to pm me. But generally I just want to get more of a sense of the culture of the school, all the way up. What kind of boys are respected, which are less valued. Is the competition coming from the parents? Is it just competitive when it comes to exit schools, or is it all the way up? About sports/ music/ drama etc or just academics? Is there a lot of tutoring all the way up? Anything you’d be able to share would be very much appreciated.

It is a very competitive school, especially at the parent level.

Ha this thread is interesting. My DH went to The Hall when he was a child. His mother is very competitive so the competitive parent comments don’t surprise me!

He did like it though, is still in touch with his school friends and they’re all in their 40s.

@Coronateachingagain Yep and @Loooooopyloo83 that is funny! @GoodMorningSunshine2 I don't mind sharing my thoughts but I do think that any school experience is hard to generalise about.
So - I had two sons there, one loved it, one less so. It is HIGHLY competitive ..... I was at Oxford and then in what you might call very testing work environments - but NOTHING topped the Hall for me. Nothing ever will - sharp elbows out!
I have always worked full time and didn't get hugely involved with the school but lots( of mainly mums) do and it's all systems go from Reception. They are on the case and all over the curriculum, sports, music, extra curricular stuff.
The 'next schools' conversation starts very early on, in fact looking back I'd say that a lot of people have a plan in mind for their kids eg Westminster/St Pauls/Eton from day one. We didn't but it worked out ok, more or less.

The headmaster is a lovely, lovely, kind and softly spoken man, the head of the middle school too, adored by the boys.
It is now a highly musical school too - many boys are on G6/7/8 from tiny, so if you are scratching away at violin g2 not much fun (aka DS2, mind you I was rubbish about enforcing practice.. ) It's sporty and again, if you are not sporty you won't get picked, again a lot of extra coaching and stuff going on. Most people tutor, ( I tried this for Maths but my two refused as they were so knackered by the time they got home.) The school asks parents not to by the way, but in a straw pool of friends I would say pretty much everyone does - but don't quote me! )
One thing I would say is echoing @Loooooopyloo83 my boys both have many very good friends from there, and I love that about it. Also, I have three close and very dear women friends who I met when DS1 started Reception, and that must be a sign of something good!
Hope this helps.

He went onto a very competitive school afterwards, and got offers for a lot of others. So I think it was very competitive even then!

(Couldn’t be more different to my school experience!)

Anyway all these years on, my DH’s experience is probably irrelevant (?!) but one thing he disliked which he talks about still, and has influenced our school choices for our children, is that he didn’t live close to his school friends and didn’t feel part of a whole community in that sense. He loves that our kids walk to school and know all the neighbour kids. Plus the commute (from Highgate) was, according to his mother who talks about the school days a lot, arduous. So perhaps a better choice if you’re already fairly local to the school?

@GeorginaLS Thank you so much for taking the time to write about your experiences with the school. That’s all incredibly helpful in terms of giving a better sense of the kind of institution it is, so I really appreciate that. I mean I’m not much of an ‘alpha mum’ so I don’t think I’m hugely enthused by that side of things. Then again I went to Westminster and Oxford, which were both I suppose competitive environments on paper- although very dependent on how you approach them (and probably much less competitive when I was there than they are now.) But I wouldn’t necessarily want either of those outcomes for my children.

I just want them to be happy and stimulated and to have access to a really good education, whilst also being emotionally supported and not put under an inordinate amount of pressure.
It’s good to hear that the kids (and you) came out with close friends. That’s always a positive sign.

@Loooooopyloo83 So my brother in law was at the Hall as a child, and equally still has very close friends from his time there, but he was concerned that the profile of the school might have changed over the last few decades. Hence my starting this thread to find out what it’s like these days

We opted for an all through school in the end. DS has couple of best friends go to the Hall & we have heard great things about it.

Which Hall school are we talking about? There are a few in London.

I would assume Hall NW3

@winetime123 @Tiredmumofthreekids Yes, the Hall school in NW3

We have only experience of some Hall boys that went to Westminster. Their parents were fiercely competitive which may have made their sons fundamentally (and consistently) unpleasant, not just to WUS boys and ones from other preps who were naturally more academically superior but also had similarly competitive attitudes to other Hall families. Possibly the ones we knew were especially difficult however it put most WUS families off the Hall. Other posters have said the Head and staff are lovely, which I find strange because the Head and staff in a prep school tend to influence boys' attitudes, however perhaps the parents' attitudes overwhelmed any school influences in the case of the ones in DS's house? Our experience of Hall families completely put me off the school, because however good the staff are, your son has to spend an awful lot of time with family values that are unproductively unpleasant.

It’s a fierce fierce school. I know 4 boys who are there/were there till recently. It’s very very demanding - relentlessly pressurising. Kids who don’t fit (like 1 I know) are pushed out. I would not subject your child to it unless you are 100% sure they will come near top in everything, w no effort. It’ll suck the joy from life otherwise.

A handful of boys leave my DC's pre prep each year to go to The Hall and it's usually the ones with pushy parents.

this is very interesting to hear. I was hoping that this wouldn’t be the case. @moonbows I do fundamentally disagree with the “managing out” aspect of some private schools. Both because it creates a homogenous group where only certain characteristics are valued, and also because I feel as though schools that take children from 4 have a duty of care towards the kids they take in, and should ideally support them to succeed, however they develop. The pushy parent thing is something that is annoying but potentially avoidable, if you don’t have that attitude yourself. And surely they can’t ALL be like that…. But yes I imagine the ones who have had Westminster and St Paul’s on their hit list from birth are always going to be competitive. And I imagine a school like the Hall with all its extra curriculars and its exits will attract them. It must surely vary year to year though? All great food for thought though, so thank you very much for commenting @maryso and @ItsRainingTacos79

I don't have kids at The Hall myself, so this is all at one remove, but neighbours had to fight tooth and nail for their very clever but also really pretty difficult son not to be kicked out (I think they only managed it due to famousness of family members, otherwise he'd have been booted). He skedaddled at 11 w huge relief and is way happier elsewhere. Other family said 2 kids from their son's class (class! not year!) had been kicked out one term.

3/4 of the boys have now left, and are doing fine elsewhere. I can't see that all the aggro and anguish was worth it tho.

Any selective prep will have a high proportion of pushy parents. This particular school graduates boys into other highly-selective senior schools, so the academic pressure in the last years before graduation is building up. Some children who were selected at four simply are not able to keep up with the pace. The school is aware that the pressure will not do any good to some children (plus of course, this impacts their exit result) so first, they try to help the child and if there is still no progress I think the best course of action for all parties involved is to change the school. I'm not saying its right but sadly that's the reality of any competitive selective school. Saying that very few kids leave because they can't keep up. However, there is a bit of natural movement at school as NW3 is a very transient area fill of expats

If you are worried about managing out aspects, academic pressure etc its better to opt for non-selective preps in the area.

Hi, did anyone here go through the occasional places route? I’m thinking of registering this way but I don’t know my chances and whether it’ll end up as wasted money! Thanks everyone