N London 'Plan B' private schools.

[luceeannjay]

Hi All
We currently live in N5. Closest state schools are Stoke Newington and Highbury Grove, which we would prefer our son did not go to. He is bright, but doesn't like being pushed too hard. He does have tutoring in preparation for Private / 11+.
Our current shortlist is NBH Canonbury (really like the small classes), Forest and Highgate. But we are really worried that if neither of these options come off he will end up in one of the state schools above.
2 questions -

• Any views on how easy it will be to get into one of the three above? Particularly Canonbury - we know the others are v popular
• Any suggestions of Private plan B options for other schools that we could shoot for if these three don't come off?

Big thanks

Highgate is in a different league to NBH. I would say NBH would be your back up school choice.

If you're having doubts about getting into NBH Canonbury than there's no chance with the others. That school is people's plan D! Usually only chosen if the kid hasn't even got a state space like SNS. The more sought after NBH is Hampstead and even that's for the people who have money but don't want state and won't get in anywhere else. I heard a lot of NBH parents are also worried due to the cognita money worries and are moving their kids. I wouldn't pay NBH money to avoid a school like SNS. Forest you're more likely to get than Highgate but try Mill Hill/ Belmont as well. It's more academic than NBH but not as much as Highgate. They have tons of coaches. If you're in LB Islington you can also try for the handful of places Dame Alice Owens reserves for Islington kids. The commute from Finsbury Park is fairy simple but it is an academic test and the school is a lot more academic than SNS.

Thanks both. Yes in terms of academics we are aware that NBH Canonbury is much lower than Forest and Highgate is highest. DS is bright - but he's our only kid - its hard to tell how he compares to everyone else.

Re NBH Canonbury - since it is non academically selective we are not clear how they will select (anyone know?) and are presuming that they too are over subscribed and getting in might be hard. Perhaps we are wrong in assuming they are over subscribed but we don't see any data points to guide us.

@luceeannjay NBH Canonbury is always under subscribed and usually have a fair number of SEN pupils that wouldn't cope in a large school/ need support. I would strongly recommend you try to talk to some current parents.

Have you done any atom tests op? That should give you a good idea of where he is and what schools to aim for
.

Highgate is a regarded as a super indie and is very hard to get into. You could try Mill Hill/Belmont/Merchant Taylor’s or have look just outside of London eg Aldenham/Habs
I don’t think I would choose NBH tho, seems to have a reputation for being full of rich thick kids

NBH should be very easy to get into. Forest has a large intake compared to many private schools. It is a popular school but is not an academic super selective so the benchmark will be very different compared to Highgate which is tough.

DD got a place at Forest and just started in Year 7. I recommend Atom for practice as this really helped her in the few weeks before and she much preferred it to paper based prep. In all honesty we were totally panicking she wouldn’t get in as it was our number one but it was all good. She’s bright and determined but defo not a boffin. Keep the faith!

@luceeannjay I don’t know the schools (so I am not much help really) but I notice that you have said more than once that Canonbury will be oversubscribed/you might not get in; but more than one PP has said it is undersubscribed and easy to get into.

Surely the thing to do is to find out which is the case? Can you not contact the school and ask about admissions for the relevant year?

Btw - is your DS currently in year 6? If so you need to make any state school application by the end of this month – as I am sure you know – but my point was really that it’s wise to apply to state schools I would think, even if you don’t intend to take the place in the end.

@clary Can't speak for the OP but I'm not surprised by NBH at all. They've got quite a few frightened parents due to the whole cognita financial situation and canonbury is already the least popular of the NBH schools so their marketing dept will be working overtime. I don't believe they'd give accurate intake figures. Their classes are tiny because they're so unsubscribed.

I agree with everyone else - unless something has massively changed in recent years, Canonbury can be your plan “D” back up school.

I also agree that Highgate is now super difficult to get into. It’s a very popular school. It’s also full of very wealthy children. How about trying out for city boys as well?

Everyone gets into NBH Canonbury, so don’t worry about that. It is the very definition of a backup option.

Is he going to try for one of the Governors’ places at St Mary Magdalene Academy (SMMA)? Well worth sitting for that, I would think. But you don’t say what stage he is at currently - Y5 or Y6? If still in Y5 then keep an eye out for the SMMA registration deadline for selective places, which tends to catch people out by being very early.

Is there a reason why UCS Hampstead isn’t on your list? Very accessible on the Overground from Canonbury or H&I stations. Also City, as already mentioned by a PP. Neither is a backup school, but being single-sex they do have more places for boys than Highgate does. Also bear in mind that so many Highgate places are now filled at 4+ or 7+ that there are precious few left for either sex at 11+.

NBH Hampstead is being taken over by Alleyns School from Sept 2026. I don't know whether the Canonbury site is planned to follow suit. Anyone know?
(Alleyns is the South London equivalent of Highgate - a very strong and desirable mixed indie school)

@Rhond24The Canonbury site isn’t included in the Alleyn’s tie-up. In fact it isn’t a take-over by Alleyn’s, as I understand it, but more of a licensing deal which will permit NBH Hampstead to use the Alleyn’s name, logos and other intellectual property of theirs.

I guess Alleyn's will have to be involved more than just licensing to improve the standards, otherwise they're risking their brand reputation?

You would think, yes. It seems clear that they are not taking over ownership. But what the arrangements are regarding control of hiring and firing leaders and staff, selection of students, curriculum and other “standards” matters are commercially sensitive and not in the public domain. I haven’t looked at it recently but there’s a whole thread on this somewhere on here. Certainly friends of ours with DC at NBH Hampstead were given the impression that it would be a new name and uniform but not much else would really change (they did not regard this as good news!).

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/private-school/5283287-alleyns-taking-over-bits-of-north-bridge-house?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=app_share

This is the thread about the NBH-Alleyn’s tie-up.

Thank you, that's good to know! I was looking at this "new Alleyn's" but if it's just a superficial rebranding it doesn't make much sense.

So much helpful information thanks everyone.

Will look at Atom (that's new to me).

DS is in Y5 currently so we have a bit of time.

Will check out City of London boy and UCS (given Overground links).

We're also considering the Governors places at Mary mags...and will look at the registration deadline.

The under subscription on Canonbury is interesting...just went to open day and it was packed. And some good exam results which doesn't chime with the 'thick rich kids' point above. Though I do recognise that the small nature of the school would really benefit some kids.

Re Allyn's / NBH - I understand it is moving towards academically selective, and therefore I wonder if this will impact Canonbury intake.

Any more ideas / thoughts really appreciated. Thanks!

@luceeannjay I don't think many of the Canonbury kids are there Y7-11. It is the school you reach out to when there's no space anywhere else so many will be coming in mid way and you do need to accept that most will be getting tutoring in all these schools.
NBH Hampstead was always more selective and popular than Canonbury, so the Alleyn's thing won't really effect it that much. You usually go to Canonbury if you have money and no other options. Most school open evenings are packed plus their site is tiny and wouldn't be difficult to pack. They are also owned by a for profit company that's in financial trouble so even if it was a super sought after school, do bear that in mind. I am not trying to slate NBH, I'm sure they do an excellent job and try hard but go with your eyes open, it is a lot of money.
Moving a kid whilst they're in a private is an expensive undertaking and when things go wrong, you have a LOT less protections than you do in a state school, we learnt this the hard way. If you need to move, even if not quickly, anything but Y7 entry is an in year application. If you're lucky to get offered a space, you're expected to accept it usually within 2 weeks. If your kid is in a private school that can cost you 2 terms of fees depending on when you're offered a space as you may have just paid for that term, and need to give a terms notice on top, which you won't be able to and instead will need to pay for another term your child won't even be attending.

Kids come to St Chris here in Hertfordshire from N London for Year 7, a lot as a first choice, and I guess some may well use it as a Plan B as well because it is not academically selective (there’s an entrance process but only VR/NVR so nothing like some of the other exams). We also get people coming a year or two into secondary when it’s become clear the N London day school they are at isn’t the right fit. As you say @Foxesandsquirrels it’s not always easy to move them mid way through so it’s better to be somewhere that’s right from the start.

Highgate is purely on academic merit at 11+ with at least half places filled by existing mixed ability students moving up. Forest is far out and very suburban. NBH is a good choice for a local school which is not a hot house and adopts an holistic approach to the individual- hard to find elsewhere!

@AB1899 - you wouldn't really call the cohort at Highgate who have come up from the lower school 'mixed ability'. Those kids would have been assessed at 4 or at 7 to have high academic potential - of course this isn't always an absolute given when they're so young, but still...it is broadly very academic.

Kids who will struggle with the pace at senior school might be advised to look elsewhere at the 11+ stage, but this happens quite rarely as far as I know - and part of that is because of the decisions made with admissions early on.

If OP is considering NBH I am not sure why some of the schools on here are being suggested. UCS, City, Highgate, Merchant Taylor are VERY hard to get into! You need to be scoring 80%+ in the 11+ practice papers to stand a chance and more like 95% for City and Highgate.

OP, I was in your position 5 years ago. We are 10 minutes up the road and faced with not great state options. We chose NBH over the not great state option and then moved later to Mill Hill in Year 10. If I could do it again, I would absolutely not spend 10k a term on either of these schools, especially not NBH unless it has changed significantly in the last few years. Highgate is near impossible to get into (1 kid in my DS's year 6 of 120 got an offer) even if you're a genius. My experience with private schools has put me off private education massively. The quality of teaching will be the same at Stokkie, you are just paying to filter out the badly behaved kids although there were still plenty of those at NBH when my son was there only we were paying 10k a term for the privilege, plus all the extras they add on such as £300 laptop repair charges on ageing laptops etc. Mill Hill is also really far from where you are and they start at 8.20 which means a very early start. For my youngest, I did think briefly about NBH but decided against it. We will either move house or take our chances with the rubbish state school, or possibly even move abroad. Such a shame that we have such variance in the state schools.

Hi Everyone.

Thought I would post an update, given lots has changed in case it helps anyone else in a similar situation.
We moved our DS in January to Alleyn's Regent's Park. The main aim was to be confident that we had a non selective but decent secondary that took the pressure off our DS if he didn't want to do the 11+.
The upsides have been unexpected, essentially our DS is completely changed. Despite getting up much earlier, working harder and having homework M-Th he is much happier. The smaller class sizes, higher ambition levels, more mature learning is all really making a difference to his overall happiness.
Alleyn's have been wonderful, they have worked so hard to help him settle in - 1:1s with form tutor and head of year and ask to be a founding member of the leopard Gecko club!
Since joining he has played in 2 hockey matches and enjoyed it, which given he is not a sporty kid is a major achievement. Plus he's represented the school at chess...and lost badly but had fun :).
I could not speak more highly about the school overall. I have much clearer picture of his performance levels, they are guiding us through secondary choices based on capability and what would suit him best.
The curriculum including AIQ, proper science lessons and specialist teachers are all excellent. This makes me really interested in what they may be able to do with Alleyn's Hampstead as it becomes more selective over time.

Thanks