4+ Assessments 2025

[KnackeredBunny]

Main thread for 2025 applications. Can’t find the previous thread for 2025 but from memory it has a typo in the title. I’ve only made this one to make sure everyone finds it easily!

Advice from previous assessments gladly taken. This is our first time applying. It’s a little early still so why don’t we start with where everyone is applying?

We’re looking at The Hall, Alleyn’s, Habs, Highgate UCS, and Manor Lodge. Have looked at some prep from previous threads and starting to think we’re seriously under-prepared…

Hey everyone, could I ask if anyone has anecdotes on how summer born children did. Our daughter is Aug and have thought 4+ might be a bit early for her but would love to be wrong !

@QuaintLilacHelper my son august born got into all the schools that we applied to including Highgate, UCS, Habs etc. While there are more older kids (sep-dec) in a lot of schools, classes appear to be be a mix. Good luck!

@angpat @Fairy12456 so today we received letter from habs confirming due to high demand and calibre they had this year during assessment they added one more class in reception . So around 66 students will start in reception rather the 40-44. It felt strange as people have accepted offers and now they are disclosing about this decision. Wanted to check if you guys were aware and how?
or any thoughts if you have received this news?

@Gracefulgreen this is interesting news! Is it for both boys and girls?

My school did the same a couple of years ago. We knew we would be expanding at the start of the school year, but we didn't make it public until around now, once all the places had been accepted. So Habs would have had it in mind since the autumn. There are lots of logistical things that need to be considered such as which classrooms are available, staffing, dining hall space, timetables etc.

There are pros and cons to these types of expansion, the biggest pro is that more parents have the opportunity for a place!! There are more cons though that I wont go into here (message me if you are interested). Just to update, this year, my school announced they are going to be dropping this extra class from September!

@Gracefulgreen I had heard from a friend a few weeks ago already that habs boys had over offered by a lot resulting in 3 reception classes rather than 2. I believe my friend was aware around the time of the offers event.

Interesting! Highgate has 3 reception classes, each with 20 children. Involved a lot of building works a few years ago to accommodate so I reckon it must have been pre-planned

to be clear they over offered deliberately.

Yes they offered deliberately and it was a planned decision it seems. I can recall they mentioned 3 form during offer holders day but i was not very sure. Now it’s all out in mail so it is clear now.
Just to add they will be starting nursery as well this year.

@Gracefulgreen We did receive the letter but I am not so surprised that they did the extra class as the school is really in demand. I do think that they should have sent the letter earlier though. But I don’t think it would have changed our minds either way. It is an excellent school with high calibre pupils.
Hopefully it doesn’t affect the boys learning and experience pathway.

I was aware as my friend told me who has a girl at Habs. Does that mean they would take less students at 7 plus? As I’m assuming this is when it increased from 2 to 3 classes previously but can’t imagine it would increase from 3-4?

Hi all, just going to post here as this was discussed in the last page. Our son's been accepted for Highgate pre-prep and we're looking to move to the area. Not a lot of good family friendly stock near the school so how do most parents actually drop their kids off given that cars are blocked off too? Couple of posters mentioned Hampstead Garden Suburb for example...do you drive from there because otherwise that's a 40 minute walk away? Do carpools exist?

Hi there, my daughter has been accepted at 4+ and we live in Barnsbury. I hear drop offs are very challenging by car due to limited parking. We will likely taxi pool with another nearby family and/or use the nearby tube. I’ll be running home from drop off and to drop off to get some fitness in haha! We want to move to be within walking distance of the school ultimately but have a younger sibling so need to see if he gets in first before doing so. We love Barnsbury and I’d highly recommend it. A lot of my neighbours around Barnsbury and Canonbury have kids at Highgate, hence the taxi pool idea. We recently looked at HGS but it was too suburban for us, we enjoy having things on our doorstep and prefer not to drive. Depends on what you’re looking for though :-) Would recommend visiting a few areas. Muswell Hill is really nice too and nearby

Thanks we are considering Hampstead Garden Suburb or Muswell Hill but concerned about drop offs/pick ups given they block off the entrance to cars. I'm sure there could be taxi pooling but we don't know any parents in those areas right now and we need to move shortly...would love to know from parents in these areas how they take their kids to school. Life gets simpler post Yr 3 when they can take the school coach

We are in Islington and get the 214 bus to Highgate. We have friends in MH who use a cargo bike.