Lochinver House merging with Haberdashers - My Honest Views.

Lochinver House has now merged with Habs (boys and girls). But what does this even mean and why is there so much confusion about it?

First of all, there is so much confusion about it because neither schools are really giving much away about it. Even after their meeting with our current clients, we haven’t really been told much about what this merge truly means for our students.

Second of all, there is a huge misunderstanding from parents that I speak with that if their child gets into Lochinver that they will somehow have an ‘easier’ shot at getting into Habs at 4+/7+ or 11+.

I do not believe this to be the case.

They talk about the join being as a means to ‘improve their financial stability’ but to be honest, I’ve seen no changes in the popularity of Habs (boys and girls) since the new VAT imposition on school fees. In fact, I’ve only seen it become more popular! Perhaps they are referring to the ‘financial stability’ of Lochinver.

I firmly believe that the merge is more of a benefit to the schools than it is of any benefit to the parents.

Lochinver House now has a ‘priority pathway’ into Habs for their current pupils. This will be very alluring and very appealing to prospective new parents of Lochinver House. I encourage you to not just assume that because the two schools have merged that your child will somehow have a massive advantage over other students who do not attend Lochinver. They will still need to pass the assessment - whichever one that may be. Let’s see how many more places truly will go to students currently studying at Lochinver in 2026/2027.