Recommendations for private schools near Watford

[2unfair]

whoisfk,

St Margarets
St Hilda's
Habs
St Helens
Northwood College
Royal Masonic

[Daogroupie]

Noonynunu, You need to start preparing now. The problem you face is no English paper for the Herts consortium English is core to all the indys so you cannot afford to wait until you get your Herts marks in October before you start work on English. All the students I know who are strong in English did really well in the indy exams. DG

[whoisfk]

Noonynunu, I think you put a question which is going in many minds .

Thanks DAogroupie, as always brilliant advice.

[whoisfk]

Thanks 2unfair for sharing the school names.

[noonynunu]

Noonynunu, You need to start preparing now. The problem you face is no English paper for the Herts consortium English is core to all the indys so you cannot afford to wait until you get your Herts marks in October before you start work on English. All the students I know who are strong in English did really well in the indy exams. DG

Thanks DG, I thought this might be the case.

My DS is already doing English tuition as well as Maths and VR. Partly because it is he weakest subject area. In his January assessments he got a level 5 in maths but only got 4b in English (he hadn't started any tuition at that point) so I already know that he needs more work on his English.

The other reason I wanted to include the English tuition is because it will enable me to cover as many bases as possible. I know that I will need to do much more focused work with him nearer the time of the tests so I'm trying to work out a schedule that won't result in him living behind a desk studying 24/7. Given that I am considering the Bucks 11 plus, the SW Herts 11 plus and the indie route, I know there is going to be a lot of work to cover.

[2Girlsmum]

Some of the work will cross over though.

DD2 sat St Michael's exam (1st choice) and I prepared her for it reasonably well, considering her stubbornness when it came to doing the work. They give full tests in English, VR, NVR and Maths over a full day, which is a really tough day for any 10/11 year old. Our backup was Latymer, and due to a combination of her stubbornness and our slight mismanagement of time over summer - we 'cleverly' planned a Spanish Road Trip and ferry to Majorca over summer(!) - we crammed the CEM work into what was left after feeling she was ready for the St M's exam. That meant only about 10-15 hours (including 2 hours on the morning of the test!) in total, focusing on style difference and timing. The CEM exam also has Maths, NVR, VR and English elements, but the style and timing are much tougher than standard GL. Consequently her ranking was lower than it might have been, but she came in the top 7%, so would have still comfortably gained a place. Had we not worked for the St Michael's test she would have done much worse.

I think that the results in the various Independent schools will rise over the next few years due to the knock on of rising numbers of children sitting the tests, most of whom have been well prepared for the Grammars schools and are sitting Indies exams as backup, and the rising birthrate making it harder to gain places at the various Grammar schools. I know quite a few children who have not secured a place at a state school and easily passed the exams at Habs, Highgate NLC and Channings.

[Middlesexmum]

St Hilda's is only a prep school and remember that Northwood College is merging with Heathfield.

[noonynunu]

Some of the work will cross over though.

2Girlsmum, thank you for your post. It is very helpful

[ppl3kumar]

Thank you so much Daogroupie. This is such a useful piece of information.
As we were focusing on Herts Consortium didn't do much on English , though she is getting tutored for Creative writtting . As recommended will go through the past papers.

Thanks once again
whoisfk

[ppl3kumar]

Hi

Where did you send your DD to creative writing classes?