Recommendations for DD accessible to North London

[KateB]

Looking for a prep and secondary school for my DD (year 3) - she reads well but has a slow processing speed and a poor memory. Can anyone suggest good prep and secondary schools in North London or Herts/Bucks, would consider moving.
Have to keep in mind that her older sister who is v academic and will sit for the likes of South Hampstead/Highgate/Channing etc next year and I don't want to secure her a place in a North London school to find that we may need to move to find a suitable school for her younger sister. We realise they will need to go to different schools.
Any advice appreciated.

[NLMum27]

How about St Margaret's Bushey? It has a full range of academic ability and is such a lovely, lovely school. Every time I visit I notice how nice and happy the girls seem, and the class sizes are very small. Given their intake is not super, super selective their results are also v good.

[fairyelephant]

I hear good things all the time about Aldenham School, and also a school called St Christopher's.

[Daogroupie]

If her sister is academic she should aim higher and go for Habs and NLCS and DAO and HBS. For your younger one, is she sporty or musical. St Helenas is lovely and also Aldenham and ditto St M's. I am not a fan of St Christophers in Letchworth, no uniform, call teachers by first name and no focus. We know someone who got no GCSEs at all and another family put all four sons in and pulled them out a couple of years later and they had gone backwards. DG

[loobylou]

I know several families who go to/have gone to St Margaret's Bushey and have been really happy with it (mostly children with some dyslexia or similar). Aldenham is supposed to be sporty and not too academic but is much bigger - I don't know if it's as pastoral... Queenswood seems to have a good reputation amongst the people I know who go there too.
There is also St Martha's in Barnet but I don't know much about that....

[Daogroupie]

St Marthas is lovely, a new Head who seems really good. Queenswood is twenty thousand a year, sporty and musical with lots of overseas students as it is primarily a boarding school. DG

[highwater]

My children went to North Bridge House prep school and there was quite a wide spread of abilities there, plus they have a (very separate) secondary school. It may be worth talking to them to see if it would be a good fit for your daughter. Certainly my children were very happy there. The good thing about it is that, although they cater for all abilities, if she suddenly hits her stride academically, it's a school that has a great record at 11+ for getting children into the league-table-topping schools too. It's co-ed, I don't know if that's good or bad in your opinion, and is spread across two different sites in Hampstead and Camden - again, don't know how that works for you.

Also, I wouldn't totally rule out both of them ending up at Channing. It may be changing now, but in the past it's been a school to which North Bridge has sent a lot of girls who are not necessarily the academic high-flyers, but it also has been a successful choice for some very academic girls too. Perhaps it might be a compromise school that would offer something for both of your daughters at secondary level?