Garden House School - request for advice

[Boysandalab]

Hello everyone,
I’m looking for a little advice. We are based in Wandsworth, very near Fulham and looking at schools for DS aged 2. Upon viewing the schools locally and further afield, we have applied to some local private schools and also Garden House which is further away. Of all I felt that GH aligned with our values most however I’m concerned that our son will lose the opportunity to have a close community of school friends in his immediate area.
Also perhaps selfishly I am thinking about the fellow mums who will also not live near to us.
I am more than willing to sacrifice the latter, however I’m wondering if DS not having friends in the local area will be extremely detrimental.
Has anyone made the decision to send their child to school not in the local area.
Private schools local to us are also excellent.
We also have a DD who is six months old, I am happy with coed or single sex for DS. For DD I really would prefer single sex. Hence GH seemingly being a good fit offering both.
Thank you so much in advance!

I would definitely be looking at a local school. My DD has been in both independent and state education. All local. The simplicity of being within the same neighborhood as most of her school friends was brilliant. Easier playdates, visits to the park etc.

I would do a great deal to avoid a school run that means crossing the Thames

Have you looked at Broomwood Hall? Its prep boys and girls (after pre-prep)

FWIW, I'm far from convinced that the benefits of single sex are particularly marked at prep school age (much greater at secondary).

Some families do manage to school run to two different preps - do you think you'd be able to manage that? Because it might be better in the long run to choose the school that you think would best benefit your DS, rather than having an awful school run for 3 or more years because of what you think you'll prefer for your DD in several years time.

Remember you could always move your DS at 7+/8+ (there's quite a lot of churn at that point)

This is so true. We are outliers at a private school and do all we can to make sure DS gets his play dates. Even so, those that live closer together enjoy much more social contact with their friends, especially during the holidays.

Thank you all very much for your perspective, it is very kind!

Yes we also thought that Broomwood was wonderful.
GH was actually a school we resonated with before we found out about DD but this is of course also now an added consideration.
If need be we would do two school runs, our priority is very much finding the right schools for the children’s personalities and strengths.

Stray thought - check what the school run is really like.

Wait for a wet morning in termtime, then try to drive to your candidate schools or jam yourself on to public transport (which probably means buses in that part of London) and see how long it really takes, including finding parking and walking the last bit from bus stop or where you've parked. If parking, check the cost - you might be lucky with timing of residents' parking in the mornings, but you'll be paying every afternoon.

If you find you don't get there in time on your first attempt, try again and see what time you'd really need to leave to be sure of arriving on time.

That might mean you are often early - what will you do to fill that time?

(Also, factor in the hidden costs of being on Kings Road twice a day and what you might spend there)

Such a good idea! Thank you!

Our school plays fixtures against GH and the girls (and parents!) are really nice. A very good an nurturing school from what I understand.

We commute into our prep school (distance is longer than your commute) but my daughter has had no issues with settling into the school and making friends. She loves her school as it’s very nurturing and we also chose to commute as the school we have chosen really aligned with our values and is fantastic.

Do check If the commute is not horrible and doable, there are some days I wished we were just local and can walk but when I see my daughter so happy then I know we made the right choice.

I don’t think it’s detrimental not having local school friends, realistically how many play dates would you have after school? They see them at school all day already. After school they are so tired or a lot of them are ushered off to extra curricular or picked up by the nanny (we have never seen some of the mums). It does involve ferrying them around to parties etc on weekends if something is happening so slightly inconvenient in that regard, also many parents are too busy to do play dates on the weekends also especially when they have more than 2 kids (and somehow a high proportion of people do!!)

Pick the school that feels right - the journey can be sorted out later. One of ours got a school coach to Haberdashers aged 5 and that was fine. The school tried to put girls who lived in the same area in the same class at one point. Another went to Kensington Prep (when it was still in Kensington) for a bit when I worked in London and she went on the tube with me on my way to work and our daily nanny collected her after

Have you looked at Eaton House The Manor too? Very similar to Garden House but possibly much nearer? We looked around recently and loved it. As others have said also Broomwood.

Commute isn't an issue if it doesn't bother you. Garden House has a lot of fairly local (and generally extremely wealthy, high net worth) families. So I'd be considering if that is the right fit for my DC too.

Broomwood would be so much easier from Wandsworth- the single sex/coed mix sounds like it would work for you, they have a nursery now so you could have both kids together sooner rather than later, no parking restrictions in that area at drop off/pick up times and the kids would have local friends. Obviously it needs to be the right school, but sounds like you like Broomwood a lot and I don’t know that anything about GH but nothing would convince me it’s worth a traffic choked bridge commute every day, possibly in addition to another school run. But then again I’ve never seen GH because we never considered the other side of the river, so maybe I don’t know what we’re missing!

Still though, I think convenience counts for a lot when it’s there and back every day. It’s not totally unheard of me to go there and back 4 times in 1 day if DC2 has some showcase or something I’m supposed to watch in the middle of the day and DC1 has late club so I can’t pick them up together.

I also hear amazing things about EHTM but IDK if that’s convenient for you and if I was driving there, the parking would stress me out I think! But again a nice mix of single sex and coed, more separate than Broomwood but all the parents I know there seem really happy with it.

We did the opposite - lived in Chelsea and sent DD to Alleyn's and, honestly, I don't really recommend it unless you really can't find anything more local that feels like a good fit. The commute was a nightmare, and N to S is reverse direction to rush hour, so I would guess S to N is worse. Getting to fixtures, evening events and playdates was ridiculously time consuming. I almost cried with happiness when she decided to move to a West London school.

I'm sure your DS will make friends, but you'll definitely have to work harder - convincing yourself to head out to a PA meeting on a chilly Tuesday evening in January is a lot harder when there's an hour+ tacked onto each end.

That said, it does seem like a happy school and they have the nicest uniforms in London!

We have some friends whose children go to Hornsby House and they're extremely happy with it - have you had a look at that?