North London Schools/Devonshire House

[IMissTheSun]

DS1 has a reception place at Dev House - started down the indep school route before DD arrived and now less certain, at least for primary. Kind of hoped he wouldn't get any offers, but obviously Dev H is larger and I gather takes most! Any views on Dev House? I have read a couple of nice things on MN about it, but also lots that seems to be if you have a decent state school, go with that. Our state school is probably Beckford and while I've heard it's ok, I know it's not sought after.

Related issue is secondary school - UCS and Highgate hard to get into, Mill Hill seems a bit easier - but then are we paying a lot when he probably has equally small a chance of getting UCS/Highgate as from a state school, and perhaps a similar, albeit slightly bigger chance of Mill Hill? What other secondary schools should we be thinking about (even if it is very far away!).

Also slightly concerned as his listening is not good if he doesn't want to do something. Realise this will be a problem anywhere, but perhaps more so at Dev House? Hoping the next 6 months bring lots of improvement!

Thanks