Advice on St Albans, MTS and/or Highgate please

[Watermelon]

Hello there
Am looking for good all round school for my DS currently in year 6 at prep school. Does anyone have any experience of St Albans, MTS and/or Highgate which they would like to share? We are in Barnet area and also have DD in year 3. Any insights greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Watermelon

[MrsP]

Hi watermelon,

All great schools! May I suggest you type in the names of the individual schools into the search section. Will bring up various threads and sources of information. Please feel free to pm me if you want any particular info on St Albans. ( We also live in barnet)

[manicmum]

Welcome. We have a DS in year 6 too and are looking at MTS for him. Happy to share details of DH's time at MTS and view of local parents who have boys there now.

Sorry can't add much on the other two schools as not many from our way use either of those schools.

Feel free to PM if you'd like some more info.

MM

[Caroline1852]

Have you been to look at the schools?

[Rob Clark]

I went to MTS in the late 70s/early 80s and loved it, a breath of fresh air after primary education which I hated. It does (or at least did) accommodate quirky elements quite readily and is strong in music, drama and charity work as well as more traditional public school pursuits of sport and CCF.

I don’t have first-hand knowledge of the school now, but parents of the 3 boys I know attend it seem very happy. I suspect it is a much more academic environment than it was in my day…

[Watermelon]

Thanks all, it is really useful to hear from everyone.

We are coming to the independent schools table late as my DS sat the 11+ at two super selectives local to us and we were really hopeful that he might be offered a place, sadly he has just missed out.

It has all been very stressful, but in the back of our minds we knew that there were plenty of excellent indies to apply to in the local area.

Now the in-depth research begins proper!

We already looked around St Albans earlier in the year and really like it, but now feel that we will need more than one option. Is this usual? DSs school seem to recommend having only one, but having heard stories of 'dead-cert' children not getting offers to the independents of their choice, we are erring on the side of caution.

Best wishes to all
Watermelon

[hermanmunster]

I think at this stage you may well need more than one option as quite a few schools will have offered places up to their limits and may have waiting lists. Good idea to ring and ask if scools have places in september for the new year 7 before going to have a look around

[Watermelon]

Sorry I don't think I've expressed myself very clearly, we are now looking at 13+ for DS but it seems that the exams will be during the next academic year for 2014 entry (ie during DS's year 7). Highgate would be this September, St Albans next June and in between for MTS I think.

We will go and look around all 3 schools once or preferably twice and try to rank them on all of the factors which are important to us, then see what we are offered.

At least the wait time between exams and results is infinitely shorter than for the GSs!

Hopefully my DS is better at expressing himself in English than me.......

[Daogroupie]

Hello, I would recommend that you look at Habs as well. I know several boys at St Albans and more going in September. Some of these boys sat the exam as backup for a state selective but who now love it so much they have turned down the selective in favour of St A's.. Is there some reason why you did not sit for St Albans, MTS and Highgate as backups to the state selectives this year? Everyone we know who sat got a place and some with generous scholarships. I know there are places in Y9 but I think it might well be harder to win a place then. Which is your more local school? DG

[NWLondoner]

Highgate I know best of the 3 because several pupils from 2 DDs' prep have gone there in the past and the ones I have spoken to love it and one or two are now going from DD1's class in September for year 7. The school seems to be constantly rising in people's estimation academically and for its drama and sporting high jinks. Daogroupie I would say, only partly in jest, must travel in a rarified gene pool of friends and contacts if almost everybody DG knows has gotten in there because, at 11+ at any rate, Highgate admits less than 20% of pupils who apply and sit the exam. We were focused on South Hampstead for DD1 where she will go in September because we are in Belsize Park but if we had a boy Highgate would be our number one school in London right now, regardless of location, after hearing so many good things from nice, interesting parents and pupils.