Advice on schools in Woodford Green East London

[Confused4313]

Can anyone please advise me. As you can tell from the time I’m posting this I’m having yet another sleepless night worried about DD school. I suffer from extreme anxiety so please be kind.

DD is in a state primary and plan was always to do state till year 2 then at year 3 move to independent school based on her 7+ results. We don’t live in Woodford green but plan was to now start looking to move there which we are doing.

Even tho I had a plan I’m second guessing myself and doubting everything. Just for context I have no emotional support in RL. DH just goes along with my decisions, he will provide the finances but zero input or even tell me his opinions. He takes no interest in kids lives as his work is very time and energy consuming. He gets paid well but we rarely see him.

I’m weighed down by all the decisions such as:

1. Woodford green seems to have very good state primaries so should I consider these alongside independent? We will be moving to the area so worth looking into. Anyone have experience of states in Woodford?

2. am I really making right decision to move DD out of current school? I think I am. Her current school has teachers leaving practically every week due to stress and pressures (not normal as I have worked in schools before I had kids and very rare for teachers to leave mid term). School seems to be strapped for cash as it’s relatively new (5/6 years) they have zero playground equipment and nothing in sports hall. Things seem to be last minute snd no communication from teachers. Books were sent home end of last year and very little marking. It’s an academy.

3. is it worth sending to private now or wait till secondary?

4. the private school we have our eye on has around 25 kids in class - doesn’t this seem too much? It’s Woodford green prep

Thank you in advance for any replies I get.

Woodford Green does have some very good state primaries, my daughter is at the nursery for one and we’ve only heard good things about the school and our experience so far is it is lovely. It has a tiny catchment and we moved with the sole aim of being within ‘catchment’ .
That being said if we could afford private we would go down that route. Woodford Green Prep is extremely popular and for 3+ it used to be you’d need to register very shortly after baby was born or you wouldn’t get in. They do admit more children at 7+ but I would make sure you have a back up like Chigwell or St Aubyns.
What is your plan for secondary? Bancrofts is a very academic private secondary. The private primaries spend a lot of time prepping for the entrance exams of Bancrofts and other local private secondaries. If you use state for primary you’d need to do this at home and is obviously much harder. We are planning on attempting this (depending on fee inflation levels by the time we get there!)
How many children do you have? I think it’s important you make sure you can afford it all the way through, you won’t want to take them out of private once they’ve already started. I’d factor in 3% fee inflation per year in your calculations. I hope that helps! It is a lovely area

@Californiadreaming82 thank you!

I’d echo asking about plans for secondary? It’s pretty unusual for the prep department not to feed in the the main school fairly seamlessly. So is that something to consider?
There are several good secondary schools: the grammar schools, Bancrofts, Forest, Chigwell…. I’d ask where your preferred prep feeds into.
I went to Bancrofts and was pushed to achieve and warmly welcomed back when I asked for help applying to Cambridge for post-grad studies. If I lived in the area I’d have been keen to look at it for DS.