where to live to get to good state secondary?

Don't want to rain on your parade but have to say I find all these threads very depressing.... what about families that can't afford to move to the areas with the best schools? Somewhere down the line we all need to take a leap of faith and stay put as long as we're not talking sink estate comprehensives.

We live in a fairly grotty area but with highly selective grammars nearby if DCs are bright enough. However, it's by default (where we could afford to buy) that we moved here and naively we didn't even consider potential schooling choices (which is why we then had a big headache getting EC into our preferred choice primary) as DS was only a baby.

Yes, we do all want what's best for our children but all this moving around the country to take advantage of the best school places is what's leading to our very divided society and isn't really fair. As one parent working in education said to us a few weeks ago, if you support your child academically they will be fine whichever school they go to. I know some highly educated academic types who went to pretty mediocre comprehensives but did really well nevertheless.

On a similar note, I was reading an article about Tulisa (from NDubz) and she was saying how rough Haverstock Comp was/is but this is the same school that Ed and David Milliband attended and they both went to Oxford!

What we should all want for our children is a school where they mix with children from all backgrounds and cultures and are educated well.

It would be interesting to know quite why people think it is necessary to go to an area with the best schools - surely this is subjective anyway and is partly subject to fickle attitudes about what constitutes a good school. I can think of at least one school around here that 7 years ago would not be touched with a barge-pole by the Yummy Mummy brigade, but since a turn-around by incoming Head has now become the chichi school in the Borough. It has meant that the former less well-off demographic of pupils (who used to constitute most of the school population) has now been driven out by incoming middle-class families - is that morally right?

creditcrunched What do you think of the state secondaries on the Islington/Haringay border? (friend's girl leaving primary around there soon)

If a child wants to learn they will regardless of what school they are in.

No we are at GS. Can not fault it.

I take it yours are not at the Secondary Modern then?

I like that Grammar malarkey

Hampshire
None of that Grammar malarkey
some excellent comps
good road, rail and air links to other places
nice countryside
nice coast

Kent and Bexley are good if you get into GS, not so great if you don't pass the 11+

If you live in Pinner (NW London suburb)on the Met Line (HA5) you have the chance of applying for Herts Grammar schools as well as having a few excellent comps to choose from. You would need to pick the location of your home carefully and speak to Harrow LEA to get details of catchment areas. I live in the area and I have various friends who also got their children into QE boys, Henrietta Barnet and Watford Grammar from here. Mine go to Nower Hill the local comp which has outstanding results this year, very good extra curricular activities and a very supportive staff.

or Girls perhaps.

Barnet for Q E Boys? Barnet is the end of the Northern Line.

Tunbridge Wells (Kent) has good grammar schools but options are limited if you don't pass 11+, or go to church.

If you move outside of Tunbridge Wells and into East Sussex, then Uplands Community College in Wadhurst is highly regarded but you will need to live in Wadhurst itself (around 65 minutes train journey to London) to be guaranteed a place.

I wouldn't recommend Islington - although you have the option of Dame Alice Owen, its quite far to travel and you have few fall back options as the comps are not great.
I speak from experience as I live right on the islington haringay border...

There are excellent schools you exclude yourself from applying to by living in N10. For eg Dame Alice Owen (selective) - parents in Islington borough/Barnet/Herts are falling over themselves to get dc in there but you can't apply from N10. In (borough of) Barnet you have choice of v high achieving comps/selective.

Not to sound too pessimistic about Tiffin but one child I knew had THREE tutors -so about 4.5 hours tution per week + homework as his parents were soooooo.... desperate to get him in (he got in, luckily for him or it ould have been a thoroughly dreadful 18 months for him, and nailbiting when the allocations came out). Others have no tutor and get in. This year there was big drop out rate of children offered places who also got scholarships at independents and chose those because of the uncertaintiy surrounding the departure of the Headmaster and the hoel in the finances - so a boy I knew waaaay down the waiting list was lucky enough to get in at the last minute.

Danilili - I meant what creditcrunched said ... she explained it a great deal better than me!

Actually, there are quite a few areas like that in London. Because entry criteria for schools very and can be quite quirky, it's not always obvious. Fortismere is the stand-out example, though. All those grammar schools are pretty competitive but fortismere has a very good reputation and struck me as charmingly liberal.

kingston...has tiffin girls school

boyngirl, I think cherryblossom means that if you live in Muswell Hill area, its not too far for your dc to travel to Henrietta Barnet and St Michaels (for girls), Queen Elizabeth for boys, and Latymer for either.
These schools are not on the doorstep but plenty of children from the MH area travel to them everyday.

cherryblossom - what grammar schools are around Fortismere? I have been researching the area but couldn't find grammars if don't get in/decide against it.

Anywhere outside south bucks.

Daniiil - Do you want to move into an area with a good comprehensive (certainty) + grammars? Or just good comprehensives?

I think that one of the reasons the area around Fortismere is sooo popular is because it gives the certainty of a good comprehensive + you can apply to grammar schools too.

Forget oversubscription - i think they are all over subscribed.

Also, do you have dc who are the same sex? Because that will make a difference? And are you religious? Because that can widen your options considerably.

Linslade in bedfordshire? Train station, only 45 mins to Euston and Cedars Upper School has excellent GCSE and A level results. Are several outstanding lower schools and middle schools you would be in catchment for too.

that's not true about Richmond Catherine. We are not far from that borough and I know that both Orleans Park and Teddington are seen as good.