Agony over N London/N10 secondary schools

you can get good rental deals if you are shrewd/hardnosed.

isgrassgreener -useful info.

boyngirl- don't be so scared to rent. Missing a 5pc increase in houseprice would not be as bad as getting stuck in the wrong house. Some pessimists still see scenarios where house price falls resume so the risk is still symmetric. Remember that int rates increasing could easily put a lid on prices.

Can your buyers wait?

In my area mixed schools are not as great as single sex ones so we will have to compromise for DS. Not necessarily bad thing for DD though as girls are meant to outperform in single sex school. They are currently at mixed pre school.

Why don't you try the objective exercise of writing down your priorities and weighting them and the scoring your options accordingly. It may help you to prioritise.

Enjoy your holiday.

boyngirl, some info on Fortismere seeing as that was the school you first asked about. Takes in 243 a year, about half of the places go to siblings, the rest on distance, for the past few years the catchment for non siblings has been about 0.5 of a mile.
Next year they will admit 24 children on music selection criteria, this will mean 24 places lost to distance children, so the catchment will shrink, these childrens siblings will also be able to get in in future years, so it will make the catchment shrink even more.
If you are thinking of moving to MH for Fortismere, be very careful about where you move to, the estate agents often say a house is in catchment when it is not. Quite a lot of renting to get in goes on, although they are trying to catch people out by asking for additional proof of address once you have been given a place.
On the plus side, lots of people move here in yr 4/5 planning to go to Fortismere, many of the children going to the local primary schools go on to Fortismere and they all walk to school, and have lots of local friends.
They set in almost every subject, the setting takes place after the first half term holiday. The head has a real drive for success and is now very hot on bad behaviour and detentions are given frequently.
They get lots of homework and are expected to work hard, but the children are of a type, as you said earlier. No uniform so they look a mess, but most of the people I know are happy. Very strong on music, maths and art, doesn't seem to be as sport as it looks.
MH is a lovely place to live with a very strong sense of community.

Congrats on the offer. I think you should focus on area with high concentration of diff school options? Or are you very confident of DS and DD getting in to a single school. May be I am just trying to encourage like minded people to stay in the area

QEB seems to be a real love it or hate it experience. Some people think it's the holy grail, others find it oppressive and bootcampy. But I know people with boys there who are v. happy.

My ds is desperate to go there, mainly for the sport I think. But we have other good nonselective schools available to us, so I'm not panicking about whether he gets in or not.

Latymer is much more liberal and laid back than QE, probably more similar to DAO except fully selective, of course. There is a lot of competition for places, as the catchment includes areas like Islington, Hackney and Walthamstow which don't have lots of good other schools. It's out of our area, so not really on our list.

hth

I visited QE boys and hated it. Ds was also all high 5s in year 6. He's now at our local comp - extremely mixed ability- high proportion free school meals english as second language etc but I still expect mainly As at Gcse's as he's bright and academic- regardless of school. At QE he would perhaps be more certain of all A stars but in my mind there is really more to life. Please dont get drawn into the utter madness that happens around secondary schools in this country.

Mill Hill take 10% on selection 10% on music and 5% on dance the rest on siblings and catchment.

you guys are spolit for choice. Watford Grammar and QE are the only state ones that I think are within range and doing well enough from my bit of NW london. But i must explore further

Mill Hill County High is another excellent option. mixed comprehensive.

Also need to be careful that you don't move for one DC and then find that get stuck with few options for second DC. North/North West London has good options for both sexes

All the stress of moving on all of the family can't be very good either.

boyngirl- just noticed that you want more space. Is an extension out of the question? Given youyr location it could pay off in the long term

good way of doing it. I spent most of my adolescence/teenage years think about the girls at my school so i feel terrible denying my DS that joy

TDiddyIsaMan- Wren is a mixed school but with maths and english split into single sex groups.

thanks Frogs- what is Latymer like? I wished more of the independent schools were mixed; atleast for my son's sake as i know girls do better without boys

Think i'll keep away from that website my favourite is Wren with QE as a possibility. Still not convinced ds needs to be in an army camp to achieve.

DAO is a mixed school as is Latymer, QE is boys only.

Check out the 11+ exams website forums if you want the lowdown on Herts/Barnet selective schools, but be warned there are some keraazy obsessive people on there.

Okay missile- will have a look. I will be working quite late tonight so will be tmmrrw. If your son is in say top 5 in his class then i would guess that he has a good shout. If it is a very comeptitive school/class then top 10 and some prep should stand a chance. Just guessing here.

TDiddy - The tests are from the year 5 QCA optional test papers that they do in school. My ds goes to a state primary, i'm not sure if it is the same for independant. The writing has been taken by looking at his writing during the year. He might have got an even higher mark if they would have given him a writing test at the end of the year. The school does not set homework but we are supposed to do the times tables, children should read for 10 mins per night and they have about 10 spellings a week to learn. Not too concerned about homework as he has been going to a tutor for the last few months as he was starting to get a little bored at school.

Isn't DA Owen for girls? If I am not paying school fees and send my DS to QE, then I would be happy to invest time and money in making sure that his activities etc outside school give him the whole package. It is when I pay that i look for more perfection. From experience and talking to teachers you should have a fairly reliable indication of if your son will do well academically. Actually, the nursery carers were on to it since my son was one year old. And he is not a genius. Things like his concenrtation span, interest and curiosity in how things in the world work. It is also scary that that the children who were doing well in reception are the same ones shining now. Part of that is due to the powerful effect of positive feedback esp on a child with reasonable ability. It is scary how we don't realise that we are moulding our children with all our interactio, setting expectations.

I will find out exactly and post when i get back home. Are you talking about SATs or the school's in house exams? I have never heard any mention of the SATs as they seem to focus on the in-house exams.

When I visited QE the head boy showed me round and I got the impression that there were quite a few that travelled but quite a few local as well. Lots of after school clubs as well. Same for any good school like St Pauls

The other concern I have with QE is that most of the children attending do not live that near to the school, so socially outside of school there is not much contact between new friendships.

TDiddy what end of year marks did your son get (if you don't mind me asking). Just trying to see what sort of levels I would need to be applying for QE if we decide we want to go down that road, my son got maths 5b reading 5+ and writing 4c