I went to Henrietta Barnett School, ask me anything

[exhbsgirl]

I went to HBS from year 7, then left in year 11 (before GCSEs) around 5 years ago as my family moved away. Unfortunately as it was a pretty long time ago I don't have much proof other than some old messages that would identify me, but I'm willing to show those to a moderator if anyone is skeptical.
Ask away!

This might be interesting for those who live nearby who are parents to girls but I agree with others- I’ve never heard of it so no interest.

Was your new comprehensive co-es? Did you prefer that?

How did your parents get you into a great comprehensive in year 11?

Sorry for typo, meant to say co-educational. If so, did you prefer that and why?

Honestly no, teaching wise they operated on the mindset of "all these kids are doing loads and loads of work at home and many of them are taught topics before we even start on them, so why bother trying to properly teach them the stuff when we can just get through the curriculum as quickly as possible to leave them the most study time?" meaning the teaching was bad even if the teachers themselves weren't, and facilities-wise it was very underfunded as the types of students who get extra funding (such as those with learning disabilities or refugees) are very underrepresented in HBS. The school's performance hinged entirely on the fact that only exceptional students got in there.

The workload was fine, the school trusted that students revised a lot so set a pretty normal amount of homework, or in fact maybe a bit less than normal given what I'd heard from some friends from other schools.

And yeah some of the parents were really obsessed, many students lived far and I heard of a girl who lived in the north and had a ~4 hour commute but I think she left quite early in because it was too stressful for her.

I took some time off because of some difficult personal circumstances so I'm actually just applying to university now, but I have pretty good career prospects as do the vast majority of my former classmates

The school's performance hinged entirely on the fact that only exceptional students got in there.

That’s most (not All), well performing schools. They get out what they put in..

Interesting. My daughter will be going to CLSG which is also very selective. We were gutted not to apply for HB as it is very far from us. You make me feel better

How terribly lovely for you OP, but I’ve never heard of it, should I? British born and bred.

4 hour commute @exhbsgirl - that’s just crazy - glad it didn’t last for the poor student.

Sorry to hear things have been tough. Good luck for the future!
My mum wouldn't let me apply for any grammar schools, even though my primary school thought id get in.

No, it was still a girls' school, but it seemed to me like HBS students were generally pretty happy to be at a girls' school, and there's QE boys which is basically the boys' equivalent so the students of the two mixed a lot, a LOT of the girls with boyfriends had a QEB boyfriend.
I moved within catchment for this school and there was an absence there, I believe I was allowed to jump the queue as I had some exceptional circumstances at the time, and my dad reckons that me having gone to HBS probably helped me get ahead too.

ehhh kinda, the well-performing school that I moved to next had good quality of teaching as the area had quite a high concentration of academically gifted people due to being near to multiple very good unis

I clicked on this out of curiosity as I didn't know the school and thought maybe it was in the news or something. But I realize now why it's relevant to MN and I think it was kind of the OP to do an AMA for potential parents.

But what I'm really curious about though is why so many adult mothers are being outwardly hostile and bitchy to a young woman who has posted after presumably a difficult time in her life purely to be helpful!🥴 It's embarrassing. And to click on it and say "I'm not interested" is ridiculous. There are thousands of threads on MN, do you post on all of them to say that you're not interested!?

Is it a jealousy thing? The OP got into a super selective grammar and your children didn't?

Would you say QE boys’ teaching is similar too, expecting students already know and rush through?
Thanks for sharing your experiences! Very interesting indeed!

“ehhh kinda, the well-performing school that I moved to next had good quality of teaching as the area had quite a high concentration of academically gifted people due to being near to multiple very good unis”

Do you think the parents being more balanced is what makes the difference?

Were you happier in your new school?

I honestly would move heaven and earth before moving one of my DC in year 11, but it sounds like your family went through some difficulties. All the best with your uni applications.

Do you know what career you would like to pursue?

I don't know about the teaching quality specifically as I never actually had a friend from QEBs, however I know that it's much harsher on the students than HBS is and the students are generally less happy there so I would not prefer to go there if it allowed girls.

HBS doesn't really directly put pressure on the students the way QEBs does as it knows that the students already have that pressure from within and from their families, however I will say that when a student's grades slip and stay down despite HBS trying to intervene more gently, they do switch up and start directly pressuring the student more.

Tbh it sounds very like a local school to me. They are selective, as it is in Northern Ireland. They take the credit for all the skills the pupils already have eg music, sports, drama. My kids went there. I wish I’d been strong enough to stand up to ex husband and send them to a nicer school. Kids without a strong background in e.g. rugby or hockey were rejected really.

Eh?

I think it's more to do with the quality of teaching itself, the teachers take time to explain the subjects in detail in my new school (plus there are a lot of well qualified prospective teachers in my area as I mentioned, so QOT would be much better than a random comp.) You also don't feel as inadequate compared to all of your peers in the way you do at HBS.
And I'd say I was definitely happier but it's really hard to compare objectively when the wider environment also contributed to my mental health, I hated living in London (hate city living in general) and loved the smallish town I moved to. The environment of the new school was more chill but there was also more bullying and nastiness (not specific to my next school, HBS just has extremely low rates of those in general) so it was a pretty mixed bag for me.
Thank you! And yes, I'd like to go into software engineering.

Will be gone for a while but I will come back to this

I have no idea why you’re getting some dickish responses OP. I’m sorry to hear you’ve had a hard time of it.
I think it’s kind of you to post on here, so thank you. Your old school does get a lot of discussion on here.

That’s really interesting what you say about the teaching not being too intense because the girls do so much work out of school. That’s really surprising- I had imagined it was all down to be selective and then the super amazing teaching at the school.

But doesn’t this teaching approach by the school create a big financial divide in people’s results and experiences at the school?
If some pupils have tutors to help them but some don’t and so they are covering the work on their own, I mean?

Good on you OP. I hope you enjoy your time at uni and I'm sure you'll do brilliantly in your career.

I used to tutor 11+, including girls whose parents wanted them to sit for HBS. I used to spend all of Saturday and Sunday cycling up and down Neasden, Harrow, Wembley, Stonebridge Park etc tutoring predominantly South Asian young girls (I think this is reflected in the demographics of the school?), and gosh there was a lot of pressure/expectation from the parents. My main feeling at the end of it and subsequently is that I wouldn't put my own children through the process - too much pressure, too much of a narrow focus, to get into an environment that seemed to have considerable downsides. I now have a child, 8, who is a bit of an academic outlier and probably could get through the 11+ process nearer home, and I don't see myself doing it.

Also (hard to compare I know) but do you think there are advantages to having been an all-girls school environment, if you talk to friends from mixed schools about how they found it?

Also did your peers feel that going to a very well-known stellar results type state school helped them with university admissions?

Wishing you the best of luck for your future plans.

I had s 17 yr old HB student do work experience with me about 4-5yrs. She was brighter than some of the actual students we get through for the course. Had never heard of the school prior to that. Left me with the impression that the school is a 'hot house'. From what the OP is saying though maybe I read this wrong.

Yes my eldest so I guess that blows that theory. For what it’s worth it was absolutely rubbish- all about appearances, nothing but superficial care for the children and the majority of teaching and management would have been labeled as inadequate in an inner city comp. Acted like a private school- constant 3.5-4K trips offered with 3 months notice to pay etc 🤣 the one cost accessible camping trip gave a roughly £500 essential kit list 3 weeks before it happened. The winning feature of the school was being surrounded by other bright and usually lovely kids. I still think it’s an odd thread to start and it’s assuming that we all across the UK give a toss about some random school in London. The vast majority won’t have an interest, it’s not jealousy more bemusement that going to this school as a pupil would warrant lots of questions. I think it has its place as a thread for those in that catchment area but surely it’s better placed on local boards etc, it would be very helpful there.