Mill Hill(Belmont) vs Forest School E17

[BauBau]

Hi all
Child has an offer for both (11plus) entering at year 7. Any views? Hard to gauge by the new head of Mill Hill’s hard sell. Can’t seem to find any stats re value added metrics for both .
How happy are staff/ retention and specialism ? And also what is the SEN support/feedback for dyslexics and liaison with parents ?
thanks, much appreciated.

My first thought is the journey. They're not particularly close so I'd go for which ever is closero or the easier journey. Also which one would be better for meeting up with friends outside of school, if they're all the other side of school as it were they could be an hour + away.
Saying this from experience as mine go to school a drive from home and it can get quite tedious bit we knew the commitment when we chose the school.

I’m afraid I can’t answer your questions but came on to empathise as we are in a similar position, deciding between Forest and another school. We’re leaning towards Forest because it’s a much easier journey for DD. It’s been our first choice from the start but our heads were turned by the other school which we loved everything about apart from the location! We’ve set a deadline for this Friday to decide as there’s only so much procrastinating that one can do.

Looking at the positives of Forest, it’s a beautiful school, with brilliant facilities and I love the ethos of a rounded education. I think their holistic approach is refreshing. There is so much to do and huge range of subjects to choose from. Academically it doesn’t compete with the top cohort schools but the results are more than good enough for us and for a mixed ability cohort I think the value added is very strong indeed. It also has a more London / diverse feel to it which I like.

I don’t know a lot about Belmont / Mill Hill but I’m sure it’s also a great school. Has your child done any taster days and do they have a preference?

Thanks to both respondents.

I don’t have first hand experience as a parent of a student but we didn’t go for Forest based on the advice from our Prep and our discussions with them in respect of support for Dyslexia.

Speaking directly to the head of SEN re support the first comment was ‘well the child needs to keep up’ (child in question has v strong CAT score). The when asking about dyslexic pupils successes they said, ‘well a lot leave at GCSE or after for A level as it’s too much for them.’

There was nothing at all that gave me comfort that appropriate support would be given or that even my child would be able to engage with the school proactively on what support they may need.

There was also a poster on here who received the exam letter with accommodations, and the message on the exam letter was - your kid needs to be able to keep up.

As lovely as the school appears to be (it ticked almost every other box we had) we kept well away from it, and ended up with a nice supportive school, higher on the Times school tables with an academic scholarship offered.

Id really suggest if the Dyslexic support is important in your decision making to reach out and speak the the head of SEN. Maybe with an offer in hand they will be more positive about the support they can give based on the fact the academic standard of your child is known.

I am not sure about Forest school. But Mill hill is very close to where we live. Heard from someone before that the school made a pupil leave because they have been diganosed with AD/ADHD. This was some years ago. Hopefully they are more accomodating towards neurodivergent kids now.

Hi
This is so insightful and helpful! Thank you for taking the time to share. It is both concerning and distressing to hear that even in the independent sector an entire cohort of children with SEN are being overlooked in terms of their abilities, potential and contribution….and thats after they’ve “proved” themselves at the 11plus hurdles and obstacles they had to get past.
all the best to you all

I have a child at Mill Hill. Overall a warm, nurturing but academic school. I would never have sent him to Forest following an admissions interview with the most patronising Geography teacher who asked a 10 year old the most stupid and irrelevant questions I have ever heard.