Highgate or CJS at 7+

[BumpyS]

Any views from current parents at these schools on them? To help make a decision between the 2 over the next week. Many thanks

I have a child at CJS. I’m very happy with the school. I also have a child at one of the senior it feeds and am happy with that too.

I can’t compare it to Highgate as we never considered it as the location didn’t work for us. But we had offers at other schools and so things we thought about included:

• feel for the school and ethos. We really liked CJS and in particular the head.
• location and practicalities - how would they get there and back both as a junior (supervised) and at senior school (unsupervised)
• senior schools - where did we want our child to be for their GCSEs and A levels. This is so important as one of the key advantages of 7+ entry is not doing the 11+ so you want to feel it would work all through, not just for the 6-7 year old in front of you. CJS is obviously mixed but secondary would be single sex for City. You should get an invite to your the relevant senior City school if you’ve not been already.
• non core offerings - music, sports etc. CJS does not have large sports grounds onsite (nor does CLS or CLSG give locations) but has access to lots of things and uses space well.
• Siblings - older or younger - impact on them eg if you’ve got an onerous school run
• options before and after school for care - key if two working parents and/or if you need family support or a nanny to do drop offs and pick ups at school times.

We're in the same position as @BumpyS . @ATaleOf2Cities - assuming your older child moved from CJS to senior school, how did your child adjust to the single sex environment? The senior schools mentioned joint events (CLS & CLSG), but do they happen often in practice? Thanks.

We applied to CJS due to its co-ed primary, option for 11+ entry and the current commute works well. We generally prefer co-ed but the relocation choices for Highgate are looking trickier than we initially expected.

My older child joined through 11+ and was in a mixed primary before. They are only in the 1st year of secondary so less than half a year and I think focus has been on getting everyone settled into the school. I don’t think they have done joint events yet but I believe something is coming up. I think that is more focussed on slightly older years.

We were satisfied with single sex so wasn’t an issue for us. But I don’t think occasional joint events and drama productions etc are ever going to be a substitute for proper co Ed if you really value that.

There is a school bus to Highgate if that helps…

Our daughter is at Highgate Junior - it’s been amazing for her with a strong focus on pastoral as well as being academic. The bus is also really straightforward so works well