North London Prep Schools

[HouseHunting02]

Hi! We are thinking of moving to Totteridge and wondered if anyone has any thoughts on good prep schools to register the kids for. If I register them for example at Highgate, Habs etc and IF they get in, will we be living too far away from their friends? Or do people commute in? Thank you :)

Lots commute to Habs. Others to look at, which aren't far from Totteridge, are:
Home - Goodwyn School
WELCOME TO ST. JOHN’S | St John’s Prep & Senior School (all through school)
Norfolk House School | Private School in North London
Welcome to Manor Lodge | Private Education for Girls & Boys

You absolute superstar! What I am worried about is that their classmates may be all very local to the school, and we may be the only ones further away. Do you happen to know anything about how close the children are to schools around there? Where we are currently, in west, all of our neighbours etc all go to local schools and no one really commutes!

Lots live Barnet way for Manor Lodge and St Johns. You'd be pretty local to Goodwyn. The only one I'm not sure about is Norfolk House, but it's worth going to have a look around if you like the look of the school from the website and asking the question in person

Thank you x

Once you are in a private school there is no immediate catchment area and children come from all over. You just have to be prepared to chauffeur them about.

I reckon def go see Manor Lodge, Goodwyn and in Radlett maybe go see Edgegrove?

I’m more than happy to but was worried perhaps for ease many parents live nearby and we’d be far!

Thank you! Googling them now. I read some (slightly sad) posts about kids being v upset at the Manor Grkve assessment which put me off!

Manor Lodge is no different to others! They all expect the child to walk away with a teacher. I guess the different with ML is it’s one teacher per child in a group setting whereas the others are small groups with just a couple of teachers. But not sure why children would be more upset at ML!

Definitely go and see it, it’s a great school!

We live in Mill Hill, is it too much to send my 4 year old to Habs? It’s over 30’mins in the car during the rash hour each way :(

Nobody lives that close to Manor Lodge or Habs, for example. If you send your child to private school in North London you have to be prepared to be a chauffeur for years to come. DS was at UCS and gradually all socials centred on one boy’s home as he was in the ‘middle’ but they all took their own food and drink! My grand daughter is at Habs, lives north of London and one of her friends lives in Ealing.

My grand daughter lives at least 40 minutes by car from Habs, sometimes more. From the age of 7 she has been using the coach. When I used to pick her up from school, I used to get there very early and it was always a slow journey home down the A41. But it’s a wonderful school. If she can get a place at 4 then go for it - so much easier than later on.

Do you actually want a prep school or an all-through? If prep specifically then remember that all-through schools won't prepare them for common entrance.