Boys secondary schools in the UK near London

[Wendyxoxo]

Hi luvs, we have been looking at a lot of schools nearby. We live in North West London. My DS has shortlisted three schools that he loved, but I am not sure if its the right choice because of how hard the exams are. He liked (in order):

1. Harrow
2. St Albans
3. Westminster

1. Habs (Liked it compared to the other options)

I am worried about if he is going to get in. I don’t want to lower his morale and therefore am utterly perplexed by his three choices. We have heard that Harrow is not too hard as long as you have money and perform decent in the exam and quite good in the interview. However, St Albans and Westminster seem a bit of a stretch. For St Albans, I have heard you need a glowing reference and need to perform amazing in the interview. (my best friend’s son goes to habs because he couldn’t get into St Albans). My son is academically able - set 1 in Maths and English, but his reference is weak. So we don’t think he is able to get into St Albans. Can some of you give me some advice on some other schools (I am thinking MTS) and how to convince him.

Thank you guys xxxxx

I didn’t know MTS was academic. Well anyways thank you so so much for your help! Fingers crossed!!

@WhiteXmas99 how many applicants are there for Harrow and how many get in? Thank you for spending so much of your time!

Does he already have a conditional offer from Harrow?

As he attends a prep that feeds Yarrow, and the head is advising applications elsewhere, then I think you need to be realistic

Name change as I'm an MTS parent and have friends with boys at the other schools you mention. In terms of difficulty of getting in, Westminster would be the hardest, possibly followed by Harrow. The boys at our prep school had additional one to one sessions with teachers to prepare for these school's entrance exams.

I wouldn't say St Albans is harder to get into than Habs or MTS. If anything, I'd say Habs was the harder of the three although (meant as a benchmark not a stealth boast) my younger son was offered a scholarship at both Habs and MTS so I don't think the exams were that different in terms of difficulty. Difficult to say which it's harder in terms of MTS v St A, I'd say they're not dissimilar. Both place some store on references from heads.

It used to be the case that Habs had more 11 plus entry and MTS 13 plus for prep schools entrants. Some of the local prep schools have agreements with the secondary schools that they won't take private school pupils at 11. The 13 plus exams my older son sat took more preparation as he sat exams in every subject including French, Latin and Greek. Personally I found it easier for the 11 plus exams which were usually Maths and English. However, many schools (including MTS and St Albans have moved to Year 6 testing for entry in Year 9.

If you have any specific questions on Habs v MTS v St A in terms of facilities, types of kids and overall feel of the school, I'll do my best to answer them.

@plm456, thank you so much! What would you say your experience as an MTS parent is. Pastoral Care? Facilities? Overall feel of the school? I think everything is very subjective. Some may feel that MTS has better facilities than Westminster. Some may feel John Lyon is better than Habs. It’s all based on your preferences. What are your DS’ major likes in terms of subjects and hobbies, and do you think that MTS has suited it. MTS is good but I think they enforce a lot of sport (not a bad thing). However, DS is anti-sport, doesn’t really enjoy sports apart from racket sports like ping pong and tennis. I have heard that MTS really boost Rugby and Football. Two sports my DS hates.

I think each school has its own selling point. For Merchant Taylors, its their sport and DT. For St Pauls, its practically the same but a more enhanced version of it, with more academic pressure. For St Albans, its their Science, Maths, Music and Drama facilities as well as its great reputation, history and tradition. Harrow, for its extraordinary facilities for practically everything and great reputation, honour, history and tradition. Finally, Westminster, their tradition, history and academic drive and excellence.

Really there is no one school that is the best. It’s all subjective.

My sons have loved it. Pastoral care good and they have a tutor assigned to them throughout their time at the school, with vertical tutor groups (different year groups so the older pupils are encouraged to support the younger ones). Facilities are excellent for music, drama (joint productions with St Helens), DT and sport.

My sons are both sports mad so love it. Football is not played at MTS, although there is a football team for sixth formers. The main sports are rugby, hockey and cricket (or athletics). After the first year, pupils are allowed to pick from a wide range of alternative sports, such as water sports on the lake, tennis, squash, swimming; there's loads of choice. I haven't heard any complaints from kids who don't like sports on that front. Habs isn't especially strong on sports. St Albans is strong at rugby, less so for the other sports. A friend whose son is there has mentioned that the need to bus pupils to the Woollams playing fields (which are lovely and Saracens train there) sometimes limits extra sports training in terms of logistics.

Personally tradition isn't really a big deal for me. If it was, I'd pick Westminster and Harrow (though MTS has some slightly odd traditions too). I don't think St A's has a particular reputation locally for the traditions you mention. I think the main difference is the more campus style schools (Habs and MTS) v a city centre school (St A). St A's is very much part and parcel of the town and the cathedral.

I picked MTS over Habs for the sports and also Habs felt a bit more of a pressure cooker. But it gets outstanding results academically. And it's had a change of head since we last visited.

OP, you do have 1 or 2 misconceptions about MTS. For a start re. history and tradition, MTS is older than Harrow (though not of course as old as Westminster). The main difference between the two schools is that Harrow is boarding and MTS is a day school.

Academically, MTS is superior to St Albans in every metric at both GCSE and A level so anyone who is telling you St Albans is more academic than MTS is mistaken. I don't know specifically about science at MTS, but the number of leavers who go on to Cambridge, Imperial, Warwick and other universities for engineering and STEM degrees suggests provision must be reasonable.

And finally, there is no football at MTS (no compulsory football at least). They are also strong in racket sports so in addition to the ones your DS already plays, he could also try his hand at squash and fives. HTH.

This thread makes no sense. Why are you asking for advice on westminster if you haven't applied for Westminster? Why are you asking for suggestions for other schools (eg mts) when you know it's one of the four you've applied to?
Why are you asking these questions at all in christmas of yr 8 when the pre tests were all taken in yr 6?
I think someone's telling porkies and wasting the time of nice people trying to help you! Am I right, 'luv'??

Hello everyone thank you for your help. My DS got a Merchant Taylors scholarship but didn’t get into Habs and St Albans sadly. He was quite sad as he had his hopes on St Albans, but its alright. Also, we applied for John Lyon just to be safe. He got STEAM, music and academic scholarship. Super happy!

@coviduality you’re right my son was supposed to take the pre tests in year 6. But for merchant taylors, the academic head of DS’ current school asked merchant taylors if they were able to give him an exam as he was considered perfect for the school. Thank you!

Congratulations to your son.

My sons have scholarships at MTS but haven't heard it called STEAM before. Maybe it's a new one?