Westminster 8+ - commute from North London, prep and how hard is it?

[ML82]

We decided very late in the process (totally my fault, he is at a local primary and we thought he'd be ok there until 11+ at first...) to make our DS sit the 7+ at Highgate and unfortunately, while he passed the first round, he didn't get offered a place. He is an incredibly smart, mature but somewhat reserved kid and we were not overly-convinced Highgate would have been a good fit anyway but it semi-local to us and, as I said, I had not even considered other schools.

We were told Westminster might be a great fit for him as his current primary is not academic at all and they won't do any preparation for the 11+.

My questions are:

• Is anyone's DS commuting to WM from Crouch end? How bad is it?
• How tough is the 8+ compared to 7+? The first part of the exam was easy for DS but no idea about 8+. How much tutoring will he need? We did not tutor for 7+. If anyone has tutor recommendations pls message me.
• Any other schools you can recommend that might have occasional places/do 8+ that are nearer?

Thank you!

Without a tube in CE it's bound to be a bit long. I guess you could go to Finsbury Park and tube it to Pimlico. Tough with a young one I imagine

While we wouldn't do the ~2hr commute especially with the homework level by Y6...

There are a lot of families coming in from further north since Y3 to our surprise. Your commute would actually be easier than a lot of the North London families.

As we don't commute we don't know enough about this but there is also an unofficial minivan some use (we don't know the details, we just see them disembark). I think tube is better for your location but it is done and there are a number of options.

While it's fresh in the memory of your DS I would try to find out what was done in the second phase and work on that.

As for other schools your location makes schools like Highgate and UCS effectively further away than Westminster...