Notting Hill Junior School or St Benedicts - please advise!

[katherine83]

Dear parents, I am looking for some insights. I have 2 daughters I am trying to choose school for 7+/8+ (currently in state school I am not particularly happy about): choices are Notting Hill and Ealing Junior School and St Benedicts Junior (both accepted). We are looking for academically stronger school, as we are aiming for LH , GL or Tiffin for upper school if we manage so need to prepare. I understand extra-curriculum in both school are pretty good. We are not religious family. Would be grateful for your ideas and advice.

@katherine83 ask to have this moved to primary education and you might get some responses. I note that these are both all through schools so won't prepare for 11+ exams.

i would avoid st benedicts ealing. after the appalling abuse and cover-up they don't deserve any more pupils.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/oct/24/child-abuse-st-benedicts-school-ealing-abbey-iicsa-report

I have girls in the senior school at St Benedict's. They are high achievers and very happy there. They love the fact that while it is academic it is also supportive and not pushy. There were problems in the past at St Benedicts but the current head has been very honest about that and today St benedicts is an extremely caring and safe school.

I would second what Jelly says about St Benedicts. Lots of schools had had well-publicised problems in the past,
but you still see discussions on Mumsnet from parents who want their children to attend there.

My dd left the senior school last summer and thrived both academically and in terms of the huge range of co-curricular activities. It is a completely different school from the past and the head is committed to academic excellence. It is also a popular school in the West London area, so others must think the same.

I am sure that you will be attending open days at both schools and in the end, a lot will come down to your own personal feelings having attended - but I did want to balance the earlier opinion on this thread, with our vey positive experience.

Hi Katherine - as a pp noted, both of these schools you mentioned are “through schools” so they won’t prepare for 11+ for somewhere like LU or G&L in the same way as a prep that ends at Year 6.
The option to stay through to 16/18 is maybe a good thing though? Depends which way you look at it?
What year are the girls in now?
I would be very honest and realistic - ie are they near the top of the class with strong English and Maths? LU and G&L are very competitive at 11 plus because of the sheer numbers that apply. Many people end up with DC in different senior schools as a result. Again, not necessarily a bad thing if you have very different children, but the option to have them in the same place does make life easier in many ways!
If you do decide to go the 11 plus route, Basset House and Orchard House are small 11 plus preps with a good record. One is in Kensington, one Ealing way. I’m sure there are others as well?

Hi katherine83 - I have several friends with daughters at Notting Hill & Ealing and they all love the school and speak very highly of it. Both the junior and senior schools are excellent academically but also very nurturing and with loads of opportunities for sport, music, drama etc. Most of my friends' daughters joined in the junior school and went through to the senior school - they were very relieved to have avoided the very competitive 11+ process (which we had to struggle through!!). As a previous poster has said, would you necessarily want to move them at 11 though? I know for my friends' daughters, one of the real attractions about staying on to the senior school was that they stayed with all their friends, and then made new ones as well.
I have also heard that St B's still has a very 'boys' school' feel to it and if you're not religious, you still have to participate in all the religious stuff that goes on in school.

Thank you all for your comments. We are still undecided. Has anyone have comments on Ravenscourt Park Prep School? It is not all through and the leavers list is quite impressive!

I don’t have children there, but I hear Ravenscourt Park Prep is very well regarded.

I know this goes without saying, but no prep head will write references to any school if they feel the child will not get in. They very much steer you towards realistic senior school options with maybe one as a “banker” and one as a “stretch”. So they won’t “get them in” anywhere, but they will give them the best chance at a realistic option.

Not saying your DC wouldn’t get into LU etc, of course!

There are two schools I know of, Bute House and Faulkner House that, every year, send about half of the cohort to SPGS and many more to G&L or LU, to the extent that some refer to them as SPGS “feeder” preps. But these preps are selective entry

Thanks Mooo, I also heard good things about RPPS. In this thread I got really insightful comments about "all through" schools which do not prepare for 11+ at LU and the likes. This is a real deal-breaker for me. Also, the more I read about single sex schools, the more I think co-ed is the better option for my daughters to prepare them socially for real life world. Omg, such a headache to choose the right school and to get accepted there! I like NHEHS but it being all through and single sex and not too close to where we live, I guess not the right choice. However, staying at state primary I guess leaves even less chances to prepare for LU and the likes....

Katherine - to be honest, I have DC at both LU and G&L and there are pros and cons to both.

At LU, 50% of entry at 11 plus is from state schools. I’m not sure if the stats got G&L, but it won’t be far off. So I think, staying where you are won’t be a disadvantage, as such, but so think a lot of state school applicants do have tutors (more for exam technique and making sure all the curriculum is covered inc more extended maths questions).

This is just my experience of course, but LU is a tougher environment in Years 7/8/9 because of the co-ed and also they tend to take quite articulate types who aren’t afraid to push themselves forward (if I can put it that way) However, they do calm down and by GCSE / A-level they really thrive in the co-ed, diverse environment. There is a campus feel. Teaching and the curriculum are excellent.

G&L seems calmer because of the all girls vibe. They don’t play up to the boys, in other words. It’s very unpretentious and they can be themselves. DD is still in the lower years, but we’re absolutely living the school so far though and she’s settled in much quicker than my elder one did at LU,

Despite all the hullabaloo about getting in, neither of these schools feels pressured at all. Only at GCSE do they feel the pressure, but I’m sure that’s the case in every school.

I’m sure RPP will do a great prep job for either as they’re so nearby.

Thanks Moooo! Very insightful- I’m actually reviewing my whole strategy and thinking of staying in state school - looking for good tutors - perhaps you could recommend someone?

Katherine, what years are your dds in currently and do you live near Hammersmith?

I have a dd at NHEHS and ds went to LUS. Depending on what year your girls are, I would say that you are much better trying to get them in to Latymer Prep School. It is much less competitive at that stage (although still requires preparation) for the girls as not so many apply at that age.

Entry at 11+ for all the schools you listed is extremely competitive and only the top achievers will be offered a place. LUS is particularly difficult as some places are taken by Prep pupils and only 50% of the remaining places are offered to girls, obviously.

Hi - sorry, I don’t know about tutors as mine were in a prep so we didn’t do anything else on top.

Agree with Daft, that you could try for Latymer Prep at 7+? I think the odds are slightly better? Something like 1 in 5 are offered a place, whereas at 11 plus it’s more like 1 in 10. It might also be slightly easier for girls at 7+ because year 2/3 is not an obvious moving point for girls. Many boys will be sitting SPJS, KCS and WUS, so they add Latymer on too. The Latymer Prep pupils no longer have to take the 11 plus to get into the upper school. A few may be asked to “look elsewhere”, but they would know this well in advance. Or you could try the 7 plus for Bute House?
Or just stay where you are and get a tutor for short story writing, comprehension technique and the maths?

Thank you Mooo, that’s exactly my plan.

I would try not to go to the junior schools of either NH&EHS or St Bs. As previously mentioned, they are through schools. Which means that it's much tougher if your child wants to get into a leading London school like G&L. Those schools have feeders which are usually the prep schools. In ealing that would be Harvington as an example. You can ask how many pupils from either of those schools got into the leading London schools. Both St Bs and NH&EHS have their strengths. NH&EHS is far stronger academically and St Bs is perhaps a nicer place. If you want your child to move to a leading school then NH&EHS would be a safer bet than St Bs which is weak academically. The old problems that St Bs had are now distant memories and nothing like that goes on today. However some parents question the decisions made at the school.

I have not read the whole tread. If you want to move schools for secondary I would avoid an all through school. Avenue House School in Ealing is a proper prep school with a very good track record of getting into highly selective secondary schools.

Thank you! I will look into Harvington and Avenue House. Any schools you can recommend Chiswick/Hammersmith- it’s closer for me we are based in Chiswick.

Hi
Good morning .
My daughter was offered for year 7 by Notting Hill and Ealing High School . Any parents who has a daughter in that school please make comment about that this school , it will be really helpful for me because I am still confused about the school .
Kind regards

Same here @Mum0810! Are you going to the Offer Holder event on Monday? NHEHS is my daughter’s favourite school, partly because she got on so brilliantly with the head at interview, but we’re not local and don’t know anybody with children there!

Same @Nellyalice and @Mum0810. We will be at Notting Hill and Ealing senior school on Monday morning. We’re not local either but looked at it as we were told it’s the ‘happiest best school’ in London. We got a great feel for the school but are nervous about the long commute. We live in Bayswater and will be trying to find out if there are any other local families. I hope other parents chime in!

We’ll be there on Monday too @AmericanLondon but at 11am. Have you tried the journey yet? I spotted that the NHEHS school bus goes from Queensway, so that might work for you (although it leaves very early!). We tried the train from Paddington and it only took 8 mins to Ealing Broadway and was way more pleasant than the tube. Also, have you checked out the new Elizabeth Line on Crossrail? It opens in June and goes to Ealing Broadway :-)

@Nellyalice & @Mum0810 I hope you enjoyed the offer holders morning yesterday. Our daughter very much enjoyed it and we were impressed too. We declined her other offers and officially accepted. It does help that the bus goes to and from the bottom of our street - although it is early and takes a long time so might not stay with it too long. Now looking forward to her starting in September. Have you made any decisions yet?

@AmericanLondon and @Mum0810 I’ll send you both a private message.

@Nellyalice great. Look forward to it.

Sorry I wrote a really long message that disappeared! I’ll try again tomorrow for sure.