Do tell about 6th forms: Mill Hill County, st M, Woodhou

[silverysea]

Not only having wobbles about risk of not getting an 8 in maths-hence not being allowed to take Maths A level at current school, but NOW she tells me she wants to look outside the box of current school. And is cross we didn’t try for a top rank Indy like so,e of her friends. But, there was no interest when I tried to sort some open days in sept/Oct, so I gave up,with a big sigh of relief.

Possible A levels in some sort of preferred order is Maths, Economics, Physics, French, DT, Politics, the rank is still in development and obviosuly she will only take 3 I expect and hope. Actually I hope she doesn’t change schools, I am too tired and the current place is fab in many ways. But if she wants maths and won’t get it, she walks! I’m in agreement with that.

She will get the headline grades to get into these schools (and just about any other) and we haven’t missed the application deadlines yet.

Another stressor is she doesn’t have mocks done yet and doesn’t know what to put on forms asking what grades she has-nothing I say (as in, no one else has them either, Hun) has any weight of course. We have an informal report with grades that she was told should go up by one grade in the real thing. But that is not spelled out on the report. So the grades provided, while meeting the minimum, aren’t anything to wow a new prospective school with! And I’ll eat my hat if she doesn’t easily exceed these low expectations. I feel it’s just a ploy to make them panic and keep working.

[piggys]

I know students at all of these schools; Woodhouse and MH offer a v wide curriculum because they are large - St M's not so much. Woodhouse I would say has more of a college like ethos (obv!) and self starters flourish there, whereas at MH you have the same support systems in place for 6th form that you do in Ys 7 - 11. Both are very relaxed about uniform whereas St M's insists on pretty smart attire which some students (and parents) find annoying. My dd, now in Y12 at HBS, very nearly went to MH - in some ways I wish she had but in the end she decided better the devil she knew. I know a lot of staff at MH, plus my Y9 dd2 is very happy there. The music and drama etc is top notch.

I know a fair few at Woodhouse -some find it a bit too big and feel a bit unanchored there, so you would want to consider what type of person your dd is. They do very well on results / university entrants .

[Tinkers]

I’d expect other sixth forms to ask the current school for a reference and that they might mention predicted grades.

I don’t know about the schools mentioned though so can’t help with those.

[loobylou]

I have a friend whose ds is at Woodhouse and very happy. He was offered a place at Mill Hill and DAO as well and chose Woodhouse as more of a halfway house before university (been at a fairly sheltered indie, with door to door coach service prior to this year). He's liking it. He's doing Maths, Physics and History.
I have friends whose children were at Mill Hill (County) for sixth form and were really unhappy with the experience and the results - but I can't say whether the school was responsible or whether the jump from GCSE to A level was the problem (same child has also really struggled at uni and had to resit a year there too). I know other people with children there now (moved from the Wren and other local schools) who seem happy - however they are all doing drama and music type A levels, not the ones your dd is interested in.

[silverysea]

Thanks all, that is really interesting. She met a St M student today at a Barnet event that happened to be at MHCS and they chatted, st m student wasn’t very complimentary about it! The smart dress is definitely a downer too. and was shown round MHC as well by some nice boys so that’s still on the table. We will apply anyway and see what happens. She’s got a 7 even in the “low aspirations” maths report card, so good enough for almost anywhere. I expect her school will be reasonably fair if asked and she tends to test well and is working hard and consistently. I’m not very keen on Woodhouse, I think it sounds really boring and not a “school” experience. She likes school, and why go 100% into the dull adult world at 16. But she can fill in the form if she wants to.

[fairyelephant]

I went to the Woodhouse open day with DS and was impressed. There’s a lot of extra curricular activities and they try hard to plug the pastoral bit too despite being a college rather than a school. The teachers all seemed very impressive and current pupils were great too. Slightly alarmed by the metal detector at the entrance .

[MrsP]

Have you visited Woodhouse? What makes you think it is 'really boring'?

My daughter attended this hugely over-subscribed establishment and loved every minute of it. (Whereas my ds who attended a high ranking indie, couldn't wait to leave)

Boring it certainly isn't!

[silverysea]

This is the last few days to apply to MHCHS, I’ve left the ball in her court on that one. It’ll do if all else fails! She’s wangled an interview at an Indy that DH really likes (must do, as he will be paying for it if she goes there) and will be attending by herself, despite having missed the deadline. I’m very torn, the school she is at offers all the subjects she wants to take (probably) and is easy to get to, it’s the devil we know and has some great sides to it. Very disappointed in the teaching in one subject, though. She was put on the waitlist for StM and withdrew.

It’s all a far cry from when we did this with dd1, and went with, looked at everything, consulted and discussed. A mix of, this is really getting old hat, more independent child, and more relaxed /lax second time around parents! And we know we need to save some energy for uni choices for this one, it’s all much more up in the air about what subjects.