Hampstead hill or Mulberry house

[teoma]

Our daughter is due to start Mulberry house in West Hampstead in a few months when she turns 2. In the meantime, we had a place offered at Hampstead Hill which is also an excellent school.

Ideally, we’d like her to sit 4+ and go to an all though school and HH is only offering to take her in Sep 2024 when she’ll be 2.9 y.o while Mulberry will take her at 2.

HH is within walking distance from home and it’s really tempting to go for the more convenient option.

I’m really lost and would appreciate any intel.

not sure why the school is anti tutoring…..if every child wasn’t tutored then it would be fair, but not tutoring, especially aiming for the top schools is like going into a gunfight with a knife.

while exam prep is happening at that age the actual prep at schools is play based as at 4+ they dont really access the academic abilities in a sense many people assume (3 years old doesnt need to count to 50 or read a chapter or write a poem, these are just common 4+ scare that are making rounds among North London mums) Intellectual development, teachability, a certain level of maturity, peer to peer interaction and "good" behaviour is what they are looking at this stage in a first place. they of course do check certain skills but nothing extraordinary. Moreover prep departments of many traditionally known "hard to get in " and overly selective school are actually quite gentle once you get in. I have been through 3 rounds of 4+ with my three DCs and in my opinion 4+ assessment is a very random one.

Intellectual development, teachability, a certain level of maturity, peer to peer interaction and "good" behaviour is what they are looking at this stage in a first place

@Tiredmumofthreekids That’s exactly what I assumed it would be - that they just want to check if your child will fit in. Hence why talk of tutoring at such a young age blew my mind!

We apply in a year and the prep schools we’re looking at are further out, along the north west London / Hertfordshire border, so no idea yet if the level of competitiveness is the same, but judging by the very concept of tutoring a 2 year old, I fear it will be!

HHS is just an exceptional school. My older daughter went to Highgate with no tutoring and most of her friends achieved similar results without external help. My second one is still there, loves the school and is also doing well without tutoring. The school actively discourages tutoring because it just exhausts the kids and honestly having gone through 7+ even without it I can see why

Thanks @NWmum1 - did she have lots of children in her class moving at 4+?

Could any MHS parents clarify on the neighbourhood around the school? Seemed a tad rough when I went past.

Not a parent but I know the area well as I used to live near there. Looked at where the school is on the map - is it on Minster Road? If so, that is where the nicer part of NW London tapers off and the rougher side starts.

Yes on minster, the adjacent areas to the school seems rough.

Yeah that sounds about right. There are still nice pockets scattered around there, but generally, it’s where the nicer part ends and the rough part starts.

It’s in between mapesbury and West Hampstead, neither of those areas is “rough”. It’s not an area I would ever worry about walking around in the evening or night, it’s fairly residential.

It’s less affluent than Hampstead in case that’s a consideration.

To give an update here, we went for Hampstead Hill - it’s within walking distance while we’d have to drive or catch the train to MHS. That swayed the decision for us.

That's reassuring to know thank you!

What time does HHS start in the morning? Saw 7.30 which seems early for a 2y old. Or is there a window that they can be dropped off?

where did you see 7.30am? id reckon its the earliest they can be dropped of as a part of the extended facility. HH has normal school start times and they are listed here https://www.hampsteadhillschool.co.uk/pre-prep/