best free secondary schools in london or north london

Having put one of mine entirely through the N London state system and coming out the other end I can categorically tell you that their GCSE results were almost identical to the privately educated peers, all 9-7 and they're sitting on the EXACTLY the same RG university offers to the their friends at Habs, Highgate, UCS and the like. They are well behaved, happy, motivated and well rounded and I'm a good £250k better off.

Thank you so much for noticing @mumsRule20
And everyone else that has comment so far

@Rachelico you forgot to tag the OP @bumbleandbumble on your query to her old thread so this bump will hopefully do the trick. I am also curious to know where you decided on in the end bumble and how has your experience been?

My mistake. The catchment is so small I had mentally scrubbed that option out of my mind.

Yes, sorry! You are correct - I just meant re the tube station (and I was actually thinking I was posting in a different thread!)

Henrietta Barnet is in Golders Green, not Hampstead.

Fortismere is an excellent school - really lovely great all round school.

I agree with others though, North London schools are mostly exceptional.

Can they sing? Girls in the choir at Southwark Cathedral seem to do well getting into Greycoat in Pimlico.

2. Even bad North London schools are actually pretty good when you compare to schools elsewhere in the country.

This is so true. I was born in north London and went to school there. I've since moved outside of London. I wish we had local options like Hornsey girls!

True @XelaM. DD1 will probably just miss a place this year, so lucky we have a good state option.

Interesting stats @Bubbletea50, I do think most of the schools round me (east London) seem pretty decent. Think there's a massive gap between the reality and the portrayal in the media of gang-fuelled schools with stabbings on every corner.

@Bubbletea50 Dame Alice Owen accept a small number of pupils on distance, although I think you have to live right next to the school

Latymer, Dame Alice Owen, QEBoys and HenriettaB are grammar schools. You will certainly need a fall back option given these schools are quite selective, if you are dead sure your local comprehensive is bad, you should move.

However, this may ease your mind or confuse things. The progress 8 score measures progress, but has some quirks to it. For example it removes certain outliers who may disproportionately affect the score (I forget exactly the methodology). In addition, it measures from the level achieved at the end of primary school to GCSE. In most areas this is a good metric, however in London/North London, this can create situations where heavily tutored primary school children end up dragging the school score down. This is because they have learned ahead of their level and eventually it averages out when the non tutored children are actually taught the material.

Additionally schools play games and sit children into different subjects with different difficulties.

I.e. the official metrics are very abstract bits of data.

Additionally, I think it's research from the Sutton group which found that parents in London disproportionally push their kids to do well, and that living in London increases your life chances dramatically, typically because your child can avoid rent for a bit when they come to look for a job.

Apologies this post is rushed, but mini summary:

1. comprehensives near grammar schools look worse on paper than they actually are.
2. Even bad North London schools are actually pretty good when you compare to schools elsewhere in the country.
3. Kids in the capital have a huge leg up because they are surrounded by like minded hungry families and typically live in a London home.

And yes, my kids are in the state system, and for even more transparency I'm not even a left wing/big state believer. I really do think the state schools are pretty good.

@Stokey yes but it doesn't accept anyone who hasn't passed the 11+ and competition is so fierce, there is no way to guarantee that the PP's kids will pass. Latymer, although a great school, is not a safe bet

Our old babysitter was at Highgate Wood- she loved it and is now at Bristol.

Latymer covers most of North London too.

Wren Academy (Finchley)
Dame Alice Owen
Fortismere
Alexandra Park School
Mill Hill County High School

Have a look at SMM (they have church places, is co-ed though) and Highbury Fields School. HFS seems to, over a pretty long period now, be doing many things right and its catchment area is, presumably as a result, getting smaller.

Hi I hope its OK I contact you, just reading through munsnet regarding secondary school my daughter is in year 5 and I'm just where you were in 2018, May I ask what decision you made at the end. I'm getting really nervous looking at schools and rental every spare minute...
Thanks have a great weekend,
Rachel

Henrietta Barnett, a super selective girls grammar in Hampstead is a great school with great results. I know many people who have gone there including two who recently left for top unis. It is tough to get in though so you would have to do a lot of preparation before hand imho.

Sorry, please insert the word "are " before "distracted"

it’s just the lack of attention,with large classes of 30, not pushing to do better...

Sorry, but this is not credible for a school that is achieving such high scores for its top students (by, the way, the attainment 8 score for High Achievers is exactly the same (66.9) at Hornsey and Marylebone). Hornsey does not appear to have a specially privileged intake which means it probably is a well-run school. Think this through - how are the bright girls there doing so well if they are not being pushed and distracted by bad behaviour?

I agree that test scores are not the only measure of a school and there may well be other schools that seem a "better fit" for your child. That's fine. But please look at the evidence first - check out the results of your nearest schools, dig out the statistics from the D of E website, read the Ofsted reports, visit the schools with an open mind.

it’s not just the bad behaviour... it’s just the lack of attention,with large classes of 30, not pushing to do better... i see this already in our state primary. My girls are well behaved so when i go to the teacher meetings for their report, all I get is ‘they are doing fine.”
In secondary school is where they need to be challenged and where i worry more about their pier group. I really worry about them being lost in the shuffle and all the bad behaviour.

You're conflating several issues here, and as I said upthread, you need to tease out these issues and work out what you really want, otherwise you risk making a wrong decision.

Class sizes is a red herring, since classes are often larger in state selective schools (St Michael's in Finchley has 32 in a form, for eg), while many comprehensives will try and keep tutor groups to mid-20s because they have a more mixed intake and get greater benefit from reducing group sizes.

If the current school is not differentiating appropriately or providing appropriate challenge, then that is an issue you need to take up with them. You'd be wrong to assume that all schools with a mixed intake cannot challenge high achievers properly - many schools with tough intakes are very aware of having ambitious targets for their high attainers, while some schools with more privileged intakes can be quite complacent about it.

The top GCSE achiever at Hornsey Girls this year got 7 grade 9s plus an A*, which is a good outcome for any school. If others can do this, there's no reason to assume your dc can't.

But if what you are after is a vague sense that small class sizes and privileged intake are somehow 'better', then there are plenty of private schools that will happily take very large quantities of your money to make you feel good about yourself with a veneer of privilege and individual attention, while delivering exam outcomes that are less good than many local comprehensives - see the thread on Mill Hill school for a case in point.

it’s not just the bad behaviour... it’s just the lack of attention,with large classes of 30, not pushing to do better... i see this already in our state primary. My girls are well behaved so when i go to the teacher meetings for their report, all I get is ‘they are doing fine.”
In secondary school is where they need to be challenged and where i worry more about their pier group. I really worry about them being lost in the shuffle and all the bad behaviour.

If you're CofE then definitely have St. Marylebone in the mix. Girls come from all over London and it's a great school. Do you attend regularly (i.e at least once a fortnight)? If you do then you will have a good chance of a church place.