St Albans Boys v Berkhamsted

[Maus117ski]

We are fortunate to have offers from St Albans and Berkhamsted for 13+ and finding it tricky to choose between the two. DS loves his sport and I know Berko has that reputation but is it fair to say St Albans is also strong in that area? St Albans perhaps stronger academically on paper but is logistically trickier for us. Welcome your views, also on the schools more generally, wise ones!

In Bucks, Berko just over the border into Herts, takes Dc who don’t make it into the Bucks grammars. Not way below the 121 required but you don’t have to be that bright to get into Berko. I think StABs is more academic. Is it about sport though? Or more than that?

St Albans is a lot more academic- they take only the brightest boys (most of whom would have Berkhamsted as a backup choice).

Sport at Berkhamsted is excellent BUT the majority of the first teams are full of boys on professional youth academy programmes - particularly rugby and football. They do have B and C teams but if your son is used to being in the A team then they could struggle to all of a sudden be second best. Sports teams at Berkhamsted are rather hero worshipped. Whilst sport at St Albans is great, it is far less elitest.

Berkhamsted does mixed activities with the girls school which I actually think is a massive plus - CCF, orchestra, school plays etc. St Albans does nothing with STAHS.

Berkhamsted boys tend to be a bit more monied and flash cash. St Albans boys a little more grounded. Very sweeping statements, but there’s a definite vibe.

St Albans has more quirky boys with unique personalities. Berkhamsted boys generally fit a certain mould.

Both are great schools. I really wouldn’t dismiss the convenience of a better commute though. If all other things feel equal then I would choose the one with the shorter and more straightforward commute.

Berkhamsted is not known for its academic prowess at all. It's the back up choice for those who can afford it, but whose kids aren't bright enough for grammar. Great sport though.

Really helpful, feedback all - thank you. I guess I like the allure of “the academic” school (assuming DS would cope with it!) but need to justify the hassle of the trickier logistics. It really would be a long day for him. Can’t quite work out when after school clubs finish (he always likes to do lots of clubs - but perhaps that just isn’t feasible if lots of homework).

I had the sense that Berko was upping its game quite a bit on the academics over the past couple of years but perhaps that’s not really the case then?

DS not sure which to choose either and keeps asking about sport. But v interesting observation about Berko’s A Teams. DS would certainly have to get used to life in B or Cs there so ironically perhaps St Albans might suit him better (assuming they have the range of sports, incl football (hard to tell from the website).

To be fair their A level grades are now pretty good. I would look at subjects studied and uni destinations too. Of course every other school got better grades too! Whether the results can be sustained is another matter.

To be fair to Berkhamsted, they are trying to boost their academic reputation and recent results support this. A couple of things to point out though:

1. Children are frequently asked to leave the school if they are not meeting the grades. This has included previously mid way through A-levels.

2. The sixth form has a large Chinese contingent with the boarding houses being mainly Asian. These students help inflate the grades.

3. They are increasingly limiting the number of places available to new entrants and the focus is very much on getting children to start in the prep and pre-prep and continue to 18. With the tie in with Heatherton the number of places for external girls at 11+ is reduced and the boys 13+ is now pretest. The school is increasingly working with “known quantities” as a result.

4. It is commonly used as a backup school for STABS, Habs and Merchant Taylors as well as the Bucks grammars. There are plenty of very bright boys there who just missed out on a place at the more academic schools. If you look at the results in the context of the children being bright but probably only average intelligence and above then their results are VERY good.

We had slightly different choices for my DS. SA vs MTs, decided for SA. My DS, is academic, sporty and quite social. It's more local school to us, logistics were easier (have two younger DD). My DS has not settled well into SA, missing sport (it's not in any top teams, which means he doesn't do many matches, plus does not have time for after school clubs) and most importantly (to him) had not made many friends (weirdly, he just does not fit in "his" words), his previous prep schools friends went to MTs, Habs, Mill Hill, Aldenham, Berkhamsted or other boarding schools (Haileybury etc..). We are sticking to SA for the GCSE, then will move to Berkhamsted for 6th form, to be fair to Berkhamsted some of my DS friends went in YR 9, and they are academic, through his prep school were all in same sets, SA (his year) many seems to be tutored a lot!
Berkhamsted sport is also very competitive, again just gathered information from friends. Both great schools, though overall!