How much preparation is "typical" for entry to London Secondary Indies?

[obelisk89]

We are looking to move to London and have been investigating secondary schools for DS for year 7 in 2022. He is middle of the road academically so we are not looking at the top academic schools.

Am I right in thinking that London indies are perhaps even more competitive than out of London? From a quick look at some threads it seems that a lot of students get extra tuition etc. to prepare? Where we live that does happen but it's not that common.

I'm really curious what help did you give your DC for London secondary entrance? Tuition? Interview practice? Anything else? I'm thinking we need to up our game!

Also does it matter that DS is not sporty and doesn't do any extra-curricular activities? We've encouraged him, he is just not interested.

What schools are you thinking of?

Places like North Bridge House etc are non selective

I've heard of North Bridge House and that is one of the schools that has come up in our preliminary investigations. My knowledge of London schools is very poor but, from what I hear, North Bridge House is probably the sort of school that we would be looking at.

Just to add that, whilst North Bridge House is non-selective, we will likely apply to some selective indies, just not the super academic ones.

@obelisk89, North Bridge Hampstead is selective, just not as selective as other north London schools, plenty of kids get rejected or waitlisted. I think their Canonbury site is non selective.

NBH is a good school and I know children thriving there. However, if it is selective, it has to do with the size of the parents' wallets or the child's personality, not the academic side.

Thanks for the info, that's very helpful to know about NBH's criteria.

I'm wondering if the confusion about it being selective vs non-selective is the way they market themselves.

I used to go to an indie which markets itself as "non-selective" when in fact its fairly selective academically (including entrance exam). The school then gets to say that they get fabulous GCSE results for a "non-selective" school!