which area in London has good schools AND affordable housing??

[tostaky]

because we'd like to have a 3 bed flat with garden and a good school to send the DSs

currently living in wood green and crouch end/muswell hill a bit too expensive...

[SE13Mummy]

How do you define 'good'?

[SydneyB]

Walthamstow Village? That's where we're headed (from Hackney).

[HarrietTheSpy]

The borough of Redbridge. Woodford, South Woodford, Wanstead, Snaresbrook. But it depends how much you mind being within spitting distance of Essex!

[HarrietTheSpy]

SydneyB - you're near me it seems!

OP: Great transport links too - 25 min to Liverpool Street on the Central Line - Victoria line also accessible and mainline BR from Highams Park. Which is another reasonable choice too.

[tostaky]

good for us = grade 1 according to Ofsted

Harriet - i shall investigate walthamstow then...

[Thandeka]

tostaky there are a few grade 1 schools near you already. I live near you, and I think most primary schools in the area are great (I now work for the LEA's in both Haringey and Enfield). Secondary is an entirely different ballgame but if we weren't moving to Somerset I would happily send my DD to a primary school here.

Enfield has some fine secondary schools but to be honest I wouldn't send my DD to a secondary school in London - because the peer pressure makes em all precocious! I trained in rural cambridgeshire and the y9's there were the equivalent of Y7 in the London secondary schools I have worked in! it honestly scares me!

Would you be moving again for secondary schools?

We spent a year looking for houses in Walthamstow- in the end we gave up and decided to move nearer family. I much prefer north Haringey (bowes park, palmers green, bounds green) to E17 but the village is lovely albeit overpriced!

[Octavia09]

Richmond upon Thames, most of the schools are very good.

[omnishambles]

Affordable housing Octavia?

[tostaky]

thandeka - the grade 1 schools are all in crouch end/hornsey/muswell hill...
in my ctachement area: grade 3 is closest and grade 2 is second closest...

i agree North harinegy is great, but....

[Octavia09]

Ok, maybe near Richmond? No? Probably very expensive.

[singersgirl]

Not sure what your definition of affordable is, as obviously it's pretty subjective. Bromley seems to have good primary and secondary schools and bits of it seem pretty reasonable.

[Thandeka]

How long do you have until your DC reach primary age? A lot can happen in schools in a few years and TBH OFSTED reports can be very subjective and don't necessarily reflect how a school actually is. The difference between a 1 and 2 school is probably marginal, and look closer at the reports- a school may get a 1 in certain areas- eg. personal wellbeing but a 2 for attainment because of a high EAL catchment, but with a 1 for personal wellbeing I would happily send my kids there. There are definitely some outstanding primaries up my way- think Bowes park primary and Tottenhall infants but probably out of your catchment area.

[PollyParanoia]

I agree with Thandeka - our school is 1 on wellbeing and leadership but 2 in other areas and overall - in my own experience it is outstanding. If you go for one that is already graded outstanding, the only way is down (esp now that they've changed the ofsted criteria).

[sugarcandymonster]

"I trained in rural cambridgeshire and the y9's there were the equivalent of Y7 in the London secondary schools I have worked in"

Thandeka Can you expand on this? I'm curious as I grew up in London and have a child going into secondary here soon. I'm presuming you don't mean academically equivalent?

[Thandeka]

I mean their forwardness and "teenageness" ie. stroppiness and obviously no longer children- they were plenty of little lolita's etc. and it worries me because if that's your peer group then a young person in that group is almost forced to be older than they are. Honestly the rural kids were WAY behind developmentally (although they could still be naughty they still had their childlike innocence too).

Oh and these were "good" schools (with high middle class intake) so I dread to think what the bad schools are like!

[SE13Mummy]

I wouldn't choose a school based on its Ofsted grade so my recommendation would be to move to Lewisham where transport links are good, it's easy to get out of London and where there are lots of schools which are good at different things.

[MammyT]

Barnet has good primary schools and some areas are very reasonable despite being very nice and pretty. Gardens are pretty much the norm.

Secondary schools are good but highly selective and scary!

[GuntherMcKilocodie]

Second SE13Mummy . Lewisham has excellent primaries and many 3/4 bed house for under £400k (which I do incidentally think is extortionate, but hey that's London!)

[TheReturnoftheSmartArse]

Wimbledon? Great primary schools but disappointing secondaries, to be fair.