Sooooo, I’ve spent the last several weeks re-stressing about where to send Mini-AG to Prep School even though it is 3 1/2 years away! I’ve toured a handful…. Loved Some. Hated Some.
A friend recommended I pick up the Tatler Good Schools Guide to give me a general idea of the top-ranking schools out there.
Here are the prep schools Tatler listed in London……
Arnold House
Broomwood Hall
Bute House
Colet Court
Dulwich College Prep
Eaton House The Manor
Eaton Square School
L’Ecole De Battersea
Falkner Huse
Garden House School
Glendower Prep School
The Hall School
Hill House
Hornsby House
Kensington Prep School
Knightsbridge School
Newton Prep School
Norland Place School
Northcote Lodge
Notting Hill Preparatory School
Orchard House School
Pembridge Hall
Prospect House School
Ravenscourt Park Prep
Redcliffe School
Saint Christina’s School
St Christopher’s School
Sussex House School
Thomas’s Battersea, Clapham, Fulham, Kensington
Trevor-Roberts School
Westminster Cathedral Choir School
Westminster Under School
Wetherby Preparatory School
Dulwich is an absolutely beautiful part of London. If you never wanted to move out of Chelsea (not likely ha!). I have a friend that lives there and works in the city. Apparently it has a big baby boom at the moment so schools are hard to get into but are quite good.
Hi A. Thanks for the tip. I actually recently heard that from another friend! Cheers! xx AG
Ohhh I'm interested to know what you thought of the ones you toured. Hill House is in my neighborhood, and has such a lovely location.
Hi DM! I personally am a big fan of Garden House thus far. More tours to come soon.
I thought Hill House was a little dark, and I hate the uniforms!
Cheers! xx AG
Orchard House is brilliant! My friend took her boys there and a couple of times during pick up we saw Colin Firth….bonus! The teachers are fabulous though! Good luck!
Garden House is amazing and love it to death – both boys and girls schools. Your children's future is sorted out once they are in to GHS!
Hi Anonymous…. I toured GH and I cried when I saw the little ballerinas! Too cute. Cheers. xx AG
GARDEN HOUSE is the BEST. Both academically and socially, it is the place to be. Princess Margaret's granddaughter, Margarita Armstrong-Jones, goes there. Also, Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece sent her daughters there. Sending your daughters to Garden House will give them very useful future connections in life. After GH, you should send them to either “St Mary's Ascot”, “Heathfield” (in Ascot), “Downe House”, “Marlborough”, or “Stowe” (in Buckinghamshire). As you can see, I'm the best person to ask about English private schools 🙂 hehe. I hope that helped! x
Hi Anonymous, you are hilarious.
Eaton Square school is doing an excellent job with my girls, has a new and dynamic head and a stellar PTA.
The intake is dominated by the kids of the moneymen, hedgies, lawyers and entreprenurial classes. Academic achievement is first rate.
Oh and Anonymous – don't bother with minor royals.. they are unlikely to get your darlings an internship at daddie's hedge fund.
Queen's Gate is doing a wonderful job with my daughter. Don't overlook them just because they're not on a trendy magazine's list. Go to an open day and you'll be impressed by the intelligence, poise, and grace of the girls.
Thanks for the recent comments ladies. All opinions are helpful when it comes to this stuff….
I attended Garden House over 15 years ago, however, my memories are incredible and I had the most amazing start to life.
Plus points:
– excellent teaching
– the best sport training (I went on to represent my county at 3 sports)
– the kindest staff
– great contacts
– great uniform
Hope this helps!
Which schools did you end up going for? I personally love Knightsbridge school, but you can't argue about Garden House having the most stylish uniform!
I set up this website to help intl parents in Central London with private school choices at the pre-prep level, you might find it helpful:
londonpreprep.wordpress.com
good luck!
my daughter is registered with Hill House, Glendower, Falkner House and Knightsbridge.
Garden House came very highly recommended to us, but every time I spoke to them they were rude. We have since enrolled our daughter at Knightsbridge and have been very happy.
Kensington prep is unreal–all the girls are soooo clever until you realise the bottom 2 in each class get filtered out each year,and the rest are tutored privately after school–no pastoral care or bullying policy,and a significant minority–like their parents have no manners.
Garden House seems nice–it helps the parents socially if you are minor royal or a multi-millionare
Hurlingham in Putney is excellent with caring and interested teachers and real parents
wow, that's a very worrying comment on Kensington Prep. Where did you hear this? A lot of families in my neighbourhood have their daughters there and seem to love it, never heard anything like that about it! I didn't register my daughter there though, it seemed slightly less diverse to me than other pre-preps in the area.
also heard great things about new head at Eaton Square as someone else mentioned up here.
AG, tell us where you enrolled your daughter? Garden House after all?
LondonPrePrep, We just decided on Tadpoles! I'll let you know what happens, thankfully we're still a few years away from the madness!
Thanks for sharing! I had never heard of Tadpoles, just looked at their website, it looks lovely!! Must be a fantastic place to start! I am having a look at Falkner House this week, I've heard so many good things about it!
I am facing a dilemma and need help to choose between two schools. My son is in year two, and I narrowed my choices to two schools: Wetherby prep or Eaton Square. He will be going there for year 3. Any thoughts to which is better?
Wetherby prep is relatively new and less known than its junior school Wetherby pre-prep (age 4-7). However recently there has been a big push for boys at the pre-prep school to head over to Marylebone to the older school instead of leave for Colet Court, Westminster Under and Sussex House (which are generally considered best boys prep schools in the area). It seems to be a little bit less academically stressful than the above and if the reputation of the pre prep is anything to go by I am sure your son would have an excellent experience there. I can also imagine with the alpha plus group behind it, it will only climb in the rankings.
Anonymous, I think both are fantastic schools but very different. One big difference is of course that Eaton Square is co-educational and Wetherby is boys only. Then Eaton Square is probably more international in its students intake as well. It looks like a school that has a very wide offering in terms of extracurriculars and activities. Wetherby might be slightly more academic, if their reputation is anything to go by. Would your son be able to spend a trial day in each school and see where he likes the atmosphere better? I think you can't go wrong with either, it might really come down to the mixed vs. boys only question.
Thanks guys for the comments. My son is having a sit-in day at Eaton Square tomorrow…lets see how that goes. As to Weatherby prep, they start at year 3, so a sit-in day is not going to be applicable.
I was in Knightsbridge school today and had a tour of the school and listened to the head talk about the school. I really liked the school, but was wondering if anyone has any advise on Knightsbridge school? So my choices are Eaton Square, Knightsbridge school, or Weatherbys….(i dont mind co-ed or boys only)
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I have 2 boys, 4 and 6. Our youngest went to Eaton Sq Schools for nursery and loved it. It's an excellent student to teacher ratio and very international. From reception on – both boys are/will be attending Hill House. Having toured most of the prep schools in London – I was really impressed with the children I met there. They were amazingly bright, courteous and well spoken. Since having my kids enrolled there and met other parents – it's very international, but also very laid back. There is no PTA and that's ok – however you can't be a helicopter parent and be cool with it. But we've found they really work with each child on developing them as individuals. There is a small class size and the kids find the uniform warm and comfortable for both school and sports (although the colors are not my fav). Moving our kids from the US system to UK has been very interesting – but we are truly delighted with Hill House and highly recommend it to others. I saw a really well written review on it recently by another American mum in London http://americanhousewifeinlondon.blogspot.com/2011/11/parent-review-of-hill-house.html
Thank you. Glad the review was helpful.
I still miss that school. The things I have to do in order to recreate the foundation my son got–and that’s before considering the insanity that is being a mom in the States. (I might have ranted about that once or twice.) Anyway, having done a full school year cycle at home, I’m drafting a post comparing the US and UK school calendars, i.e. the year round of many mini breaks v. the nine months with one giant break. If anyone has a strong opinion, email me, please.
And good luck with the school hunting.
I can only say positive things about the Eaton Square School. My partner went to the school and he has only the best memories about it. My friend has both her children there and it is my No.1 choice at the moment.
My girls are both at Knightsbridge School. Magoo believes that a happy child learns better and my girls are thriving because of this ethos.
A young school but they are getting incredible results now.
Also will be eventually teaching until your child is 18.
Fanatastic positive school……..
Hi Mum to Two, Thanks for the feedback! Love hearing the comments on Knightsbridge- it gets such a mixed reaction!
Eaton Square School is fabulous — a fantastic headmaster and a really amazing PTA. A wonderful coed day school right in Central London and the kids are all happy and thriving!
Hi, Does anyone know anything about Redcliff school?
I highly recommend Redcliffe! I moved my daughter into Redcliffe last year and it has been transformational for her. She had lost confidence completely in her terrible last school (Gems Hampshire – don’t touch it!) and this year she is thriving and completely enthusiastic about every academic subject she was frightened of last year. The ofsted report says it all.
Pre 11, most private schools are a waste of money. They are more about indicating social status or combination of parental fear and excess cash. Just get a tutor for your child, so they can ace the 11 plus at the one of the top London day schools. Do plan in advance though!
I withdrew my child from a very known London prep, because it was socially toxic. It was a bit like entering a feudal society. I did not think it was a good preparation for 21st century life. Seemed fine for the 19th century though.
Any thoughts about Kings House School? Is it so good as Eaton Square, Garden House &/or Wetherby?
Hi Diana, I haven’t heard anything about that but if I do I will shoot you an email! x