Anyone tell me about hampton court house school

[After8itsgrownuptime]

Hey all, just that really. Does anyone have any experience of the prep and senior school? Am considering for my DD who is arty but not particularly sporty

@meredusoleil i graduated from there 8 years ago, and while the education i received was stellar and set me up for a good degree and my current career, it was at the cost of my mental health for many years.

Obscene amount of pressure
Little to no real pastoral care
Complete and utter refusal to do anything about bullying, even when the girl in question admitted she was targetting me
Zero understanding or help given to mental health problems
Systemic bullying

Plenty of my peers had a fine time there, but more of them didn't. I would never recommend it to anyone who had another option for their daughter.

Oh wow! Thank you so much for sharing that. I had no idea. The new head seems to be very with it and thing smay have changed/improved on the pastoral front since you were there, as it was 8 years ago. However, our Dd1 doesn't have a place there yet, so perhaps a moot point anyway!

The new LEH head is not so new anymore. I think the culture has shifted quite a bit over the last 6 years since she joined.

I hope it's changed, although reports i heard from family friends with daughters still there suggest otherwise. They made a great deal of noise about pastoral care when i was there and it was all very impressive sounding and completely fictional. I really wouldn't recommend it, unless your daughter is incredibly robust, which is rare in an 11yr old girl.

I guess if you looked at Radnor, you also looked at St Catherine’s OP? What did you think?

We liked St. Catherine’s as the local option. Like the pastoral and hear good things about the new head. Not keen on religious slant but not a deal breaker and not sure they will push DD. She is smarter than average not LEH material (thank goodness). Has a tendency to coast so I need a school that will push her to her best and support her too. I want a happy confident child who has reached her potential

Thanks again... All useful info and makes the fact Dd1 hasn't got a place all that easier to accept!

@meredusoleil - is this a place for your DD at primary in LEH or Secondary?

It's for the senior school. She's on the waiting list at the moment.

@Meredusoleil she is at private prep at the moment but I want to try and find a school for her now that goes all the way through so we don’t have to do the 11+. I honestly had no idea how much pressure is put on these kids round here.
How did you find the 11+ pressure and process?
And what are your daughters other options?

We didn't put too much pressure on Dd1 tbh, compared to other parents/families we have heard from. She had 1 hr/week tuition at home for about 9 months in Year 5. That's it. Oh and 2 paid for practice mock exams. She sat exams for 3 grammar schools and passed 2. We were just recently offered a place at one of the two schools but have declined as the commute would be too long for her (we were planning on moving house closer to the school, but obviously can't now).

In hindsight, I'm not sure it was all worth it tbh as the grammars near us are single sex anyway and I now think all girls may not suit Dd1 (after having thought it would be better than co-ed). Let's put it this way, as we have now accepted a mixed state school (can't afford indy school fees), we are grateful for the sibling link so we won't have to go through all this again with Dd2!

@Meredusoleil so if you could have your time again, would you put DD through 11+? Essentially this is my dilemma. Our DD is bright enough to do well but I’m not sure we want the pressure of it . Although someone did tell me it’s worse for the parents than the child!

@after8itsgrownuptime With 11+ pressure I think its all about choosing the right schools to go for. My DS2 did his in January and while it was stressful for me, he sailed through it and had little pressure. I choose schools carefully that I knew he would get places in, one stretch, one certainty and two (yes two) backups. He even then he only got two places (the certainty and one backup).

Another parent I met recently was upset that her son hadn't got any places, when I talked to her - genuinely trying to help, it turned out she had gone for what I would describe as 3 super stretch schools and one stretch for her child...."He's a bright boy and I thought he'd get one of them". When I started suggesting other schools, I got lots of "oh I couldn't send him there" and no realism at all!! Her current plan is back to prep for 2 more years to try it all again as "he's not quite ready..."

The moral of this story is to not try to overthink the 11+, and basically put her in for every exam she's likely to get - Girls schools I know less well, but I think you are looking at St Catherine's, HCH, Radnor + one stretch.

I'd get her into a good local prep and take the schools/heads advice on where to sit her.... and really do put in at least 2 backups!!

I think if she's not super bright and you want her in private you may have to forget about "choosing" a school - Independents in this area are not a buyers market - there are too few places for pupils, and you may have to accept that some schools while they may not appear perfect may be ultimately right for your dc.

I also think it's a bit of a myth looking "to avoid the 11+" most schools will select to a degree at any entry point, Radnor currently are less selective at y5, and miss the 11+ but that will change very soon as they are getting very popular at 11+... Claremont for example, although they are a 3-18 school, select at 11, and its not a certainty to progress from the prep to the senior school.

I hope you get what I'm saying here! I started this journey in much the same way as you looking for the "perfect" school for my DS1, it was a bit of a shock to realise you don't really have a choice, only a minority of super bright kids get to properly "choose" their school.

(sorry that was a bit of an essay....!!)

Yes I think we probably would do it again as we had to give Dd1 the opportunity to try and pass. But we probably would have a different tutor knowing what we know now in hindsight!

Your dd is in a different situation though being at a private prep school. If I could have avoided the exams and still get Dd1 into the same level of school then of course I would have done that! We didn't have the alternative option of paying for a prep school though 😐

OP did you look at Ibstock Place? Middle of the road and I know they keep academics on check and push when necessary.

@coronareality2020 ibstock place was on my must of schools to look at actually, but obviously that’s all on hold for now. Fees are a lot more than some local school but would be good to get your thoughts and feedback on it please

Hi all great post and some interesting points to take note of. My DD is now year 6 and sitting for a few private’s in Jan. Like someone on here says, there’s not really a choice anymore, it’s more about which one she gets into. She’s an average to bright kid with mild dyslexia, sporty but not overly so, a little quirky but think she would thrive in somewhere like SHS, and it’s on our doorstep. BUT coming from state promotes impossible to know really which schools she has a chance of. Especially post Covid, what will the benchmark be? We don’t want her to travel too far so have KGS as a, ‘well you just never know’, SHS as a ‘that would be bloody amazing’ and Claremont and Notre Dame Cobham as our, ‘great schools’, let’s do it. We are reluctant to push her too hard but are prepping her as best and as gently as we can, especially post Covid having missed so much school. I’m just worried that after all this she’ll end up with nothing. Any thoughts out there..... thanks xx