Northbridge House Senior & Royal School Hampstead- to merge sept 2012

[sparklerach]

Any other parents at NBH/Royal School Hampstead on Mumsnet? We received a letter today from head of Cognita(who own NBH schools) saying they've bought the Royal School and are moving the Senior school from the current site at Gloucester Gate(Camden) to the soon to be ex Royal School site at Rosslyn Hill Hampstead.

I'm a parent of a child starting yr 7 at NBH and live North East of the current site and are quite upset. The timing also feels rather off, having just made our 1st of the Month payment for fees - now we discover that at least for us the school we carefully chose for our child will change considerably(double in size, vastly more girls as it absorbs a single sex girls school) and be twice as far away in 1 year's time.

Can't tell you how annoyed I am having turned away offers from closer more 'academic' schools because I particularly wanted my child to attend a mixed smaller school with good results but not a hot house and most crucially - a short commute from home. Truly annoying as of course there are many options school wise in the Hampstead area - none of which we investigated as the commute is tricky from where we live.

I am also not reassured by the promise of extensive remodelling of the very grim looking Royal School site to provide 'state of the art facilities'. This building work would need to be undertaken next summer, since I think the Royal School is continuing as usual this academic year(nothing on their website indicates otherwise) - which means a short schedule & not likely to be truly transformative in scope, as there simply isn't time to do much in 6 weeks and they will have to do a great deal of mundane stuff to convert to mixed gender and create more classrooms.

Not thrilled....

as an aside- is it just me that thinks the Royal School Hampstead website is rather twee? www.royalschoolhampstead.net/
not to mention hardly indicative when you see the actual school site on street view (click on the school on the map to view)...
maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=embed&hl=en&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=46.630055,87.1875&ie=UTF8&t=h&layer=c&cbll=41.890062,12.492549&panoid=07gbqMWIg_HId5m7W94qHg&cbp=12,301.45,,0,-4.23&ll=41.889579,12.49307&spn=0.002692,0.005322&z=18&utm_campaign=en&utm_medium=et&utm_source=en-et-na-us-gns-svn

I don't mean to offend any parents at RSH...I am aware it is likely to be better than my impressions just feeling rather wary and bruised..

Thanks mrs, just look up Thomas's, it is owned by a very rich family.

She did not even move her daughters to the royal, which I think she should have done to show commitment to the school.

The trustees were a joke, but I think she was also attributing all the issues to them.

The teachers were good, the girls lovely and the parents not snobbish at all. My daughter had a really good time there.

OK I may have been wrongly informed- things were a bit insane in September when we all got the news, someone told me she had "feathered her own nest" by getting a Cognita job, but OK I can't see it on the list so....
Yes RSH was special, but the senior school had a lot of problems for years. The Junior school was always the jewel in the crown, so to speak. All due respect- her daughters are at Norht London Collegiate and you can't get any better than that, I resent the fact she couldn't get RSH to that standard.....

MrsRumpole, I do hope everything works out for your daughter and my DC. I have every confidence it will as you say, we may have little choice!

I'm not sure if its of any help but we have moved both our dcs from NBH. Following the takeover - of what had been a family run and nuturing school - by the Cognita Group the school changed dramatically. Experienced and long serving teachers were given 'offers they couldnt refuse' and left to be replaced by much cheaper alternatives and extra charges started to spring up everywhere. At the prep in Gloucester Avenue it seemed to us that the focus had shifted from nuturing the individual child towards a focus on exam results and 'destination' schools at the expense of a more rounded education. The school is now run as a - very profitable - business and it is impossible to imagine with the Royal School merger that this will change at all. Private schools need to balance their books but - having taken our kids out - we can see that at schools such as NBH value this above everything else and realise just how bad things had become.

Wow, what an unsettling situation for parents at all schools - I hope the merger works out well. I just found this thread as I was looking for information on the head of The Royal School Hampstead, who has just been announced as head of a new free primary school opening in September that I'm looking into. I don't know anything about The Royal School but worrying to see some of the comments on here about the head. Is the head of the junior school different to the head of the senior school? And was the old junior school any good?

Hi Goldysmum, the head of the junior school was good, she came from The Hall school. I think the junior school was much better than the senior, so you can relax on that front.

The Headmistress of RSH has failed the school dreadfully. So have the trustees for bizzarely trusting her over several years when she was obviously incapable of leading the school and providing vision or plans for the future. She never showed interest in improving the school and amongst parents there was a feeling she was far more interested in her own career than the survival of the school. Poor St Thomas'

I'm numb- or at least I was until tonight. She's arranging some kind of farewell on the last day of term. I'm just thinking (along with others) just GO- no-one cares anymore.
I've been naive in the extreme. You want a good school for your daughter, because the local state school has mounted police outside. Every day. So you try private school, but she fails to get in to the good ones because she can't speak fluent mandarin or play Rachmaninov on her day off. So, we get her in to the Royal School. It's not academic, but it's nice. There are kids there with special needs. Your daughter is helping them. There are girls who are written off for being dyslexsic, having disabilities. But they find the talent inherent in every girl! Is this bad? No! It's real life! My own girl was crippled with shyness until a teacher found her talent for drama.South Hampstead girls, Channing girls, they don't have that sense of caring for others less academic. Money doesn't necessarily breed academic excelllence.....But the Trustees could never see what they had. And if we had a more insightful and caring Head, she would have pushed our lovely school further. We didn't and I'm very sad tonight at what we will lose. I have to put my faith in NBH.

Why don't you let her know how you feel? I was too coward to do it and I regret it. I think she failed the school, not the trustees. Please boycott her farewell party, who cares? I know a few people at Thomas and I have already told them how bad she is. Please please don't let her get away thinking she did a good job. That is one of my big regrets. When my daughter went for an "assessment" at 3+, I wanted to keep her at the other nursery for an additional year but she said that there was a waiting list. She is also a liar in addition to useless.

What about St Margarets as a nuturing alternative to Cognita's NBH or Queensgate or even Francis Holland depending on where you live ? It may be worth going onto waiting lists at least.

I do not understand what all this desperation is about. NBH Senior School is a good school and my DC is very happy there. The only thing I am unsure of is the school moving to Hampstead. I will not be taking my DC out of the school unless the journey becomes too difficult or the standard of teaching changes. The facilities and opportunities at the new merged school are set to get better. We should not allow others that were unhappy with the old RSH influence us as they made their decision to leave, based on what was right for their children at the time. Nor should your feelings towards the soon to leave Head Teacher at RSH do so. Mrs Rumpole, This is different, be positive and give it a try.

Actually, I'm fine with it! Looking forward to the new school. I am, however, deeply upset and annoyed at the way this year has been a total write-off. The Head should have had some integrity left to have steered the girls through this time

Hi, am not sure people are still discussing this, but I've just joined and was wondering if anyone else feeling uneasy about the NBH / Royal School merger? The NBH head is going on maternity leave, and Cognita is not actually replacing her, but asking an existing head to do double duty. I don't think this is tenable for a year that will be so fraught, especially given that the school already seems to be pretty chaotic and disorganised, am wondering if the move is going to result in a real wasted year? The teachers at NBH seem to have lost interest already, although I understand most of them will be kept on -- which is a shame, as the best ones have all left in the last few years, and most of the new ones are foreign and inexperienced, without much understanding of the English system. It is a very different school from five years ago. My child is doing GCSEs and I don't think the unsettled environment will help. I've also heard from other parents that the Royal School was not very academic, and am worried that NBH's standards are going to be further undermined? Is anyone else concerned? Has anyone else found an alternative school? Does anyone know anything about the International School in north London?

GospelOak,

I am indeed worried. I was wondering when someone was going to raise this. I do feel uneasy about the head of the Prep School doing double duty especially as it will be at two different sites. I don't think it will be a wasted year though. Not really sure what to do as we have limited options. The other school we could move to is not as academic as NBH. The only other option for us would be boarding school. After so many positive posts from me, I am starting to feel apprehensive. Sorry, I don't know anything about the International School.

Hello,

As someone who use to work there, all I can say that the former headmistress was by far the worst headmistress I've ever come across! Very lazy, disorganized, precious, she never had anything positive to say to teachers, no matter how hard we worked. In fact, the patronizing and terrible, unprofessional comments (to the point of teachers being bullied) is what she was only good at! I totally agree with the 'movie star' comments! It is very sad what has happened with the school but I'm not surprised at all. I'm so glad to have left before the merging took place as i've heard that all sorts of bad things took place during the last academic year. I truly feel sorry for Thomas's teachers - I'm sure many will leave. I have absolutely NO IDEA how she managed to fool everyone at Thomas's and gain the job as the new headmistress - good luck to them!!