UCS vs Highgate?

[pinkmud80]

DS age 6 will be sitting 7+ this year for UCS, Highgate and poss City (although not that keen on the commute into central London at such a young age)

Can I ask for opinions on the two schools - I've heard that Highgate is stronger academically but less pastoral vs UCS excellent pastoral care but perhaps not as strong in the academics. Is that a fair appraisal or not? UCS is lower down the league tables than Highgate but not sure how much weight you can give to these - easy to compare schools but doesn't give the full picture.

DS is very bright, academic, will happily sit down and go through his workbooks, has a good friendship group, is sociable etc and enjoys playing sports but is not an alpha child - doesn't like drama or speaking in front of the class and is quite a gentle, sensitive child at heart.

Any advice, thoughts welcomed, thank you :-)

anyone?

By the time you have been through the relentless process and received hopefully 1 offer your mind is in a different place. Best to go into the whole process with several options and an open mind, the schools pick the dc who they think will thrive.

UCS is more sporty, the education ethos is slightly different and the biggest thing is single sex vs co-ed.

Think it depends on what’s impt. We’ve just been through 11+ and tried for City/highgate/ucs in mind. We were lucky enough to get all the offers.
Although city was a front runner all the way through, we chose Highgate.
2 main reasons - DS is an only child so we felt he would benefit more from coed and the smartphone policy.
All the schools talk about its importance of smartphone limits but only Highgate had an outright ban on smartphone for year 7 and 8 and seemed to care more about the impacts of phone social media etc.

In reality, everyone has different needs/wants though.
My advice is prep hard and well for 11+. It’s a slog but you’ll get through it.
Also manage your own parental stress and try as much as you can to shield your kid from that stress.
I’ve been both the best and worse extreme of my parenting spectrum during the process!

Then see what offers you have and choose from there.
Offer holders days were super helpful.