Henrietta Barnett/South Hampstead intake

[mrsb77]

Does anyone know roughly what percentage of the year 7 intake at Henrietta Barnet or South Hampstead High are from state schools? My dd is bright and attends a very good local state school but I'm told that she will struggle to get into the competitive girl's schools in North London if she hasn't been heavily prepped at private school. Is this true? Should I consider moving her?

Rubbish ... mine got into Habs, St Albans, NLC and City Girls from a mediocre state primary and with minimal tutoring for two months before from my sister. Don't believe the scare stories!

I think that you could get the information from the schools very quickly. It is a fairly common question for any secondary school. Typically a superselective such as HBS will have girls coming from over 70 different primary schools, both private and state. Just in terms of numbers I would expect state pupils to outnumber private by some way.

The competition for places is huge (I think now over 10 girls for each space, possibly even more), and places tend to go to the brightest and well prepared. The relative advantage of going private in a suitable school (eg not a 13+ school) for years 4 and 5 is that:-
a) they will have covered all of KS2 by end of year 5 with 11+ in mind.
b) they will do plenty of past papers at the right time.
c) they will cover VR and NVR is class
d) they will move round the curriculum to fit in with exam timetables (eg most of ds's science and humanities will take place int he latter half of year 6, and as in the first half they have concentrated on 11 plus and junior entrance exams.
e) all of the children in the class will be taking these exams, not just one or two who may resent the "extra work" they are being asked to do.

It is perfectly possible to cover all the work at home, possibly with the aid of a tutor if necessary. But given that I know some children going for up to 3 tutor sessions per week, I wonder whether it might not have been easier going down the private school route for a couple of years. It can be hard for tutors and parents to gauge how much of the syllabus will be covered in the state primary school, and by when, which also seems to lead to a huge duplication in work.

But, private school is still no "guarantee" as it all comes down to performance on one day.