St Anthony’s Hereward house, the hall, Trevor Robert’s

[Lalila789]

Would love some feedback on any of the above prep schools please. All feedback welcome

They all go to 13, yet they are all quite different. Ball being the most academic with the best results, closely followed by Hereward House.
Are you looking for Reception entry point, as for Hall you have to be registered before your child’s 1st birthday.
I have also heard decent things about Anthony’s, don’t know much about Trevor Roberts.

@Lalila789 - they are quite different. Have you visited any of these schools yet?
The Hall now accepts applications up to 2 years after your son is born and if you’re past the cut off, you can still apply for an occasional place - they come up often. The Hall offers about 50 spots at Reception. The principal is retiring in September. 1 assessment/play date of around 45 minutes.

Hereward House does not assess the child directly - they receive a report from your son’s nursery and interview the parents. Much smaller school than The Hall - they only accept about 20 boys and siblings automatically get an offer. Great principal.

St Anthony’s is not really selective but they do two play dates.

TR - I personally did not like the school for various reasons or the principal but loads do. It’s co-ed and a very small school. They only accept from 4 yo if your child is born during Autumn, otherwise entry is at 5 yo.

All excellent schools with excellent results but very different sizes, methods. Even St Anthony's which is not that selective has had a pretty good run of results recently, though not as good as the other three.

I've got two boys at St. Anthony’s and have been happy with the school. We think it strikes the right balance between academics and pastoral care. Our eldest is in year 6 and has just been through the 11+ gauntlet on the boarding track. He is sporty and academic and has received offers from Eton, Brighton College, and Harrow. We couldn't have hoped for anything more. Friends of his on the day school track are going to Westminster, Saint Paul's, and Highgate. As noted above, however, the school does not bill itself as “selective” so there are other boys for whom those are not good options. From what we've seen up close, the school really does put an effort into helping each boy find the place that's right for them. I know that can sound like a throw-away line, but having just been through the process, it is really important to find what is best for your individual child, not what will impress the neighbors.

In contrast, we were personally turned off by the “hothouse” vibe and reputation of the Hall. For us, subsequent years have borne that out. If you search, you can find comments on here by Hall parents describing the competitive and sharp-elbowed environment there as well as the types of boys produced by it. With all these schools, to the extent you can, try to understand how much their senior school results are down to the school themselves and how much are due to either tutoring or selection. Anecdotally, we saw a lot of Hall kids on my DS teams vanish from club sports during the first and second terms of year 6 because they were being put through a rigorous tutoring program. We have also heard stories of some elder siblings (ex-Hall) who are now struggling at top day schools they were tutored into. If I were a prospective parent, the recent scandal involving their head of ICT would raise a lot of red flags about the quality of safeguarding and employment screening. That is probably something you will want to look into. Not sure if it's connected to the departure of their headmaster.

We know one boy at Hereward House who is incredibly sporty and frustrated by the school provision in that regard.

Don’t know anything nor have I ever come across anyone from TR.

Bit late but any questions on TR I can help

Apologies if this is too late but just to add my thoughts on The Hall- having had 2 boys that have recently been through there (both went on to Westminster)
We may well be biased from how much our boys loved it, but I really feel that the old ''hothouse'' narrative is very outdated and hasn't been the case since before Chris Godwin took over. They do still get excellent results but there's so much more to school life than their next schools and exam results. The staff are incredibly nurturing and they treat every boy as an individual. I don't think you could say that there is a 'typical' Hall boy these days- even our 2 are very different and the school truly brought out the best in them both.
I agree that some parents can be (very!) competitive but to be fair, the school actively discourages outside tutoring- ours really didn't need it.
Please don't let the reputation of a few pushy parents put you off from applying because you will find 'your people' in your son's year group- the majority are very normal and down to earth- we certainly made friends for life.
The new Head had really big shoes to fill but he seems to have been pretty well received from what we've heard so far.
With regards to the ICT manager- it was very upsetting for all but the school acted quickly and were very open about it, so we couldn't ask for much more.
They're pretty strict on making sure you apply before your son turns 2 so make sure you do that and then just go to one of the Open Evenings and see how you feel!
Good luck! x

@Whatevers are you able to share you experience of Trevor Robert’s?

Sure, we had two go through from Reception to leaving at 11 and 13. One was in the top of the academic range and the other very much the middle so we've seen it from different perspectives. If you don't know, its a family running the school led by Simon Trevor Roberts with two or three more TRs teaching. It has a mixed cohort entering so it is not strongly selecting kids but it is very much a prep focused on getting kids into top schools and it does this pretty successfully. Partly as a result there is a bit of a turnover as some kids that are not keeping up move elsewhere towards the end of their time, before the 11+. Those that stay seem to do as well as they possibly can. Many go on to the top schools or get their mid-tier choices. As far as I know, it is this is a pretty rare thing for a co-ed school to be a feeder for Westminster, St Pauls Girls and Boys and CLSG. Culturally, it is very focused on music. You can see that from their website. They have had some incredible choirs and choir singers. Each year group does two plays per year which get better through the years. It has a strong school gate scene. A lot of the parents become friends.There are some famous and semi-famous faces floating about that integrate with that too. Cost-wise it is pretty reasonable compared to local alternatives. But then, it doesn't have its own cricket ground or buses etc. It doesn't go in for ski trips. School trips are kept to England and very traditional Famous Five style. Overall, it's not flashy. It just pushes the kids very much progressively through the years to be as sharp as they can be in the November of year 6.

@Whatevers thanks so much for your reply! Do you know much about the selection process? Are siblings automatically given places for example? Are there many sports clubs and teams?

One thing to note is they have curious system of entry based on calendar year rather than school year. Some kids will have had a reception year already elsewhere, others not. Eventually, the kids end up in the right years but the school can promote some or hold some back until it's completely necessary. It also is a school where every kid knows every other kid in the whole school, up and down the years. That's a nice thing, I think. Back to your question - selection is an interview with the head of the junior school. I am not sure there is a real test. They just speak to the parents for a hour and then the child by him/her self. There is preference for siblings, frankly. Not many kids with siblings don't have them all go through there. I think they need to get at least a balance of sexes and since the class is only 18 kids, and considering siblings, they might need more girls or more boys in a particular year. Also, a lot of kids do join further up the school due to turnover. Also, some join from less academic schools as the parents get to know what they are being offered elsewhere and what they want for their child. However, as I have said, it is definitely a mixed ability school. Some kids have SEN. I am not an expert on that.
Clubs, yes, drama, french, debating, rock band, jazz band, hobby, sporting clubs like netball, football, choir, Monday to Thursday they have clubs. Sporting teams, yes, they play netball and football friendly fixtures against local independent schools. Some years are better than others. Usually the teams need to draw on multiple years because the numbers are not there for a full team. But there is no proper school teams like a first 11 football or cricket team. That goes against the ethos a bit. If anything, the choir is the school's first 11 team! They put a big effort into it.

@Whatevers thanks so much for responding that’s really helpful

Bump