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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Original poster

Year 7 - St Albans high school

6 replies

butterfliesandtrees · 20/11/2023 12:22

Hello! Wondering if anyone has a daughter at stahs. If so, what's been your experience?

Has anyone had their daughter start and leave? mine is in year 7 and so far it's been 11 weeks but she doesn't seem very happy at all.

I'm waiting to the end of the term and seeing how it feels then but i am starting to feel it's a bit bland - like an exam factory.

Maybe im out of touch with secondary schools! the other major issue of course has been friendships.

She's always had lots of friends but here it's been really tough. I wonder if it's. year 7 thing?

Sorry it's not a clear ask - i just needed to share !

OP posts:
Jill23 · 15/12/2023 10:08

My friend does - her DD is in year 7 at STAHS. She’s had an utterly miserable time.

BarqsHasBite · 15/12/2023 23:40

I’m sorry to hear this.
My insight is minimal but we did the open day in September and met a few Y7s. I appreciate they may have been hand-picked but we were struck with how happy and genuinely enthusiastic they were.

Have you tried talking to the school?

Pes0penguin · 16/12/2023 11:05

No direct experience but I’ve heard from open days that the school day has changed (not sure how recently) - v little daily time with form, different cohorts for most classes (so you’re rarely with the same people), short lunch break with no dedicated social space? I worried that would impact on ability to make new friends/deepen friendships especially in year 7

FloraDT · 17/01/2024 08:16

Hi @butterfliesandtrees appreciate it’s been a while since someone posted on this thread but we are considering STAHS for my daughter from Year 7 in September. Did you decide to keep your daughter in?

i know you said friendships were an issue, was that because of the culture you think (competitive etc) or something else?

it’s so hard to know what to do!

Mamaof2cuties · 17/01/2024 10:58

Hi. I have DDs in stahs in older years and friends' DDs in y7.

I have very different DDs. One made firm friends the 1st day, the other struggled a bit but had made friends by the 2nd/3rd week or so. Has your DD made friends? It makes it so much fun when they do. Encourage her to talk to someone else that may be by themselves at lunch or whoever is sat by them in class etc if she hasn't. Talk to her form tutor, they really are helpful.

One of my DDs friend's left a few weeks into y7. She had been homeschooled and was struggling with so many people. Another left at start of y8 as parents didn't think independent was worth the extra fees. People leave for various reasons.

I wouldn't say it's an exam factory. My DDs don't feel there's competition. I actually couldn't see how they got great results based on the work my DDs were doing in y7 & y8. Coming from the madness of 11+! They don't have excessive homework and the teachers are not breathing down our necks re academics. The pastoral care in our experience is great.

Unfortunately mine dropped all their extra curricular as they got into older years. It would have been great if the school encouraged/made at least one extra curricular/club compulsory for the girls. There are opportunities but they are not required to participate. Also, if your child is not an academic scholar, they don't get to go on university visits (don't know about 6th form yet) which is disappointing.

Stahs is def not an exam factory. Mine are happy as are my friends' y7 DDs though they knew others when they started. Mine were the only ones from their school.

@BarqsHasBite y7s are not normally allowed to help on Open Days except a teacher asks them to help in class. Probably a handful but they won't be amongst those touring. The girls are not given any coaching on what to say except they should not answer anything personal or intrusive.

@Pes0penguin the lunch break (1hr 10 mins) is not all that short but my understanding is the need to finish lessons in good time to allow for clubs after school though they manage to fit in clubs and other activities into lunch break too.

BarqsHasBite · 17/01/2024 15:13

Mamaof2cuties · 17/01/2024 10:58

Hi. I have DDs in stahs in older years and friends' DDs in y7.

I have very different DDs. One made firm friends the 1st day, the other struggled a bit but had made friends by the 2nd/3rd week or so. Has your DD made friends? It makes it so much fun when they do. Encourage her to talk to someone else that may be by themselves at lunch or whoever is sat by them in class etc if she hasn't. Talk to her form tutor, they really are helpful.

One of my DDs friend's left a few weeks into y7. She had been homeschooled and was struggling with so many people. Another left at start of y8 as parents didn't think independent was worth the extra fees. People leave for various reasons.

I wouldn't say it's an exam factory. My DDs don't feel there's competition. I actually couldn't see how they got great results based on the work my DDs were doing in y7 & y8. Coming from the madness of 11+! They don't have excessive homework and the teachers are not breathing down our necks re academics. The pastoral care in our experience is great.

Unfortunately mine dropped all their extra curricular as they got into older years. It would have been great if the school encouraged/made at least one extra curricular/club compulsory for the girls. There are opportunities but they are not required to participate. Also, if your child is not an academic scholar, they don't get to go on university visits (don't know about 6th form yet) which is disappointing.

Stahs is def not an exam factory. Mine are happy as are my friends' y7 DDs though they knew others when they started. Mine were the only ones from their school.

@BarqsHasBite y7s are not normally allowed to help on Open Days except a teacher asks them to help in class. Probably a handful but they won't be amongst those touring. The girls are not given any coaching on what to say except they should not answer anything personal or intrusive.

@Pes0penguin the lunch break (1hr 10 mins) is not all that short but my understanding is the need to finish lessons in good time to allow for clubs after school though they manage to fit in clubs and other activities into lunch break too.

Thanks for the insights @Mamaof2cuties , we are keen on the school for our daughter so it’s encouraging your feedback is largely positive.

The Y7s we met were in the home ec classroom offering tasters of things they had made. They’d been there only a few weeks but were literally brimming with excitement about the school and how they had made lots of friends, it was lovely.

Our older tour guide was in contrast a bit sullen but hey ho!

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