Habs vs Highgate

[Examprepmum]

DS got offers from all 5 schools we applied with a few scholarships, top choices are Highgate (walking distance) and Habs (40 min coach journey). He also got 15% scholarship from Habs. He loved Habs on open day but almost equally is excited for Highgate. Any advice from people with experience would be appreciated. Trying to understand the real differences beyond league tables and open days.

Are you going to the offer holders’ day for both? Maybe take your little one to have a look 😊

Slightly bemused at the inference that HG parents didn’t tutor! All these schools have parents that tutor to pass the exams.

I would go for local as it gives more time in the day. They’re both excellent schools so there’s no bad decision.

@Twilightstarbright - none of my kids at Highgate were/are tutored. Have made various close friends through the school and I can confidently say none of those families use external tutors either.

Obviously I can’t say in a school of close to 1000 pupils that it never goes on, but it just hasn’t been a thing amongst the fair few families I know well. The school is very keen to emphasise that an education is about more than results - it’s not a hot house grades machine vibe there at all. What I will say is that the teaching is excellent, so they do get very good results…

@pollykettleon my cousins DC go to Highgate and were tutored! It’s not a judgement, my DC has a maths tutor as they are finding it challenging at school at the moment.

My general experience is that people aren’t always honest about tutoring. I don’t lie about it when asked but I certainly don’t volunteer it to other parents at school mainly because I don’t think it will do my DC much good to publicly talk about things they struggle with; and frankly no one else needs to know about it.

I know people with children at both Highgate and Habs and are in general very happy with them. Different circumstances around why you’d pick each one of course but they’re both very good schools.

If we thrown in the mix Ucs? Btwn Ucs/ highgate both short commute and Habs longer commute

I'd go with highgate. Ulless you prefer single sex to 16. Again, better results than UCS, better grounds onsite.

What about City? If you had the City/Habs and Highgate for a boy - which would you go for? Academics, music, sport and social aspects matter to us. Commute seems reasonable for all - though Highgate is closer

The only school I'd consider over Highgate personally would be Westminster but we didn't fancy the commute. It marries everything: great facilities, excellent and continuously improving academics, nice grounds, coed, tons of opportunities for the kids, lots and lots of clubs, etc. We'd never go for SPS or KCS - they're just too far so not even in our family equation.

We have city waitlist but I assume waitlist do move . We like city as well 🤣🙈. We are going to holder offer day next week for Ucs highgate Habs and I hope we ll get more clarity

Yeah - when I looked at the data - City academics is much higher than I thought. Westminster is obviously higher and has the reputation etc but we had discounted due to wanting a more countryside education for our son - coach to school rather than navigating the tube, more rounded rather than excessive focus on intellectualism. So Habs was our first choice but since getting offers in and doing the research, City - which we hadnt researched at all before the process is looking really good in terms of academics (higher than Highgate in grades and proportion to oxbridge I believe), access to US unis (more than Habs), music opportunities, facilities for a school in the middle of the city. I still cant get my head around an 11 year going to school by tube in London though!

I think highgate seems to have the highest academics of all these - but not how how much it is due to girls hard work! Haven’t come across any boys from highgate. They are all amazing schools - and each day we seem to change our mind. Hopefully it will be clear once we go back next week onsite

From what I am seeing at GCSE, Westminster tops out, then City before Highgate and Habs. At Alevels, they seem to be all within a 2-5% margin except Westminster. But good point re being co-ed. I have a girl but keen to find what works for her when we come to that. https://www.londonpreprep.com/2025/08/gcse-results-2025-top-100-london-secondary-schools/

Check the results directly on the school site - more accurate generally than Londonpreprep

Habs pulled out of the league tables so that data will be inaccurate

It is just comparing their GCSE results with the other schools using publically available data. ChatGPT also useful to collate. Academics is only one metric anyway - fit is most important. But the data is as thus

City will arrange a school buddy for your child. An older pupil will pop by your home, pick up your DS, and they’ll go to school together.

Thanks everyone for sharing your thoughts and experiences. We’ve been discussing with DS the pros and cons of both schools and he decided to go for Highgate for which I’m super happy.
We will turn down Habs, MTS (both with scholarships), UCS and Belmont. Hopefully this will make some movement for people waiting in reserve list.

We have a son in Highgate and he is the happiest. He is a non sporty kid but clicked in very soon and has made great friends, his results are amazing and has been really stretched to find new/unknown talents and try new things. It has helped him become a well rounded young man. We have another son at a different independent school and he will try to move to Highgate for sixth form, and a daughter in Y5 that will try to get a place in Highgate next year. I cant speak for Habs, but, as you can see, big fans of Highgate.

Walking distance wins every time.