To think buying into a catchment area is false economy?

[Southwest22]

South West London, after some years of fertility treatments earlier this year we finally had our little one. As a result, we have been looking to buy a 3/4 bed terraced house, offered, lost to more aggressive buyers, saw prices continue to go up in 4 different catchment areas with very performing schools. Tens of viewings and a dozen offers.
Our budget expectations has increased to £1.2m and we will soon be priced out of the most expensive area. We will not go for a 2nd child. Most people we know go private. Is the premium worth it or should we just save time and energy and just go private?

12k a year here so 60k per child roughly = £120k for fees alone
We bought our house 20 years ago and so have a small mortgage.
Buying an equivalent house in the catchment for our closest “good” Comp (which I actually don’t rate) would cost mean us adding around £ 200k to our mortgage.
Plus we actually love our house and area.

@98739hkj we have a boy. We ruled out catholic schools (despite being genuinely catholic) because the fertility treatment we had is condemned by the Catholic Church 😕 what school in Raynes park?
@IrisVersicolor my concern is that we may end up doing both!
@Littlemissprosecco which one do you prefer? Why?
@Newgirls i reckon the premium for the catchment area is 1k/sqm so 100/150k for an average house
@Rollercoaster1920 insightful map! Thank you! Actually according to these data we already are in catchment 🧐not what the official data says. We do own but still in a 2 bed (still very comfortable, not sure how long for though!)
@steppon looking at the data I thought that Wimbledon chase was good not great, am I missing a trick?

For primary I can't see it being worth it as there are so many good state primaries, as a parent you have more control at that age and can supplement with extras easier.

It's all about secondary.

Totally disagree. Have had kids through both systems and apart from paying for the bells and whistles would never go private through choice. Child who went state all the way through currently at RG uni with 3 x A* and a nice city internship lined up. Exactly the same as his privately educated contemporaries

I think if you have a boy - something to keep in mind is that part of London is basically all about private/grammar schools for their boys that are all quite hard to get into. My impression is that neither Putney nor southfields have a decent state secondary for a boy (not quite sure about st Cecilia's). Wimbledon has Rutlish for secondary (used to be rubbish - now has better results). Therefore, it might be a case of weighing up state options v chances of getting into a private school which are pretty competitive in that part of London. Alternatively, you could go further out - plenty of families do or go a bit more in - Graveney, Dunraven etc

In fact - I just did a search on locrating for state schools - putting in outstanding schools - boy/co-ed....and there arent many in the area. However, I wouldnt bet on him getting into Kings or the grammars either. Would another area be better?

Lots of boys in Putney go to Fulham Boys - newish but parents happy.

whatever you do don’t rely on the current OFSTED rating - they can be incredibly misleading. We are in the process of moving because a number of the “outstanding” primaries near us are actually pretty poor if you look at recent results. So really check the detail!

Barnes and Putney don’t really have good state secondaries full stop. (I live in Barnes). There’s Richmond Park and Putney Academy. I don’t know about Wimbledon. You’re spoilt for choice for private though. The best around here is Tiffins as I’m sure you know. You might end up giving up and going for the Oratory fertility principles notwithstanding.

Or Wimbledon College.

This.

Depends what you want for secondary school also. I know Barnes. Looking at the kids from Barnes Primary who are not going for state secondary, the majority of them seem to end up at Ibstock, or Harrodian, at best Emmanuel... and that is with some low level (ie not super intensive) tutoring.
If you want higher performing private schools for secondary, you should either go for a prep school, or be prepared to do a LOT more tutoring.
Have you looked at Sheen? Or Kew?

@Southwest22 I'm sure I read about Dundonald not Wim Chase recently.

There's a good catholic secondary school in Kingston if you go down that route.

I went private for Secondary and absolutely loved it.
But I've always been SO grateful that I went to a state primary... There was a huge diversity of kids from all kinds of backgrounds who were my friends and I think private-educated kids miss out on that.
It has made me a more open minded tolerant adult, who can get on with and interact with anybody.
I honestly feel sorry for kids who've only ever known small classes of wealthy well behaved children.

We did private primary and state secondary, for 3 DCs. For the most part it worked well. Private primary definitely instilled a very strong work ethic and confidence which has truly served them well. Then grammars, good schools but poor pastoral care ( a regret I do have). Moved to local state comp for 6 th form, best move ever!! Now studying at unis, Cardiff and York, having achieved AAAs, one DC still in 6th form.
During grammars, we supplemented with private tutoring for two GCSE subjects across the 3DC, one because it was a core subject and there were obvious issues, and the other because the subject was needed for the degree of choice and needed to be a high grade.
I really think education is individual, and schools teach to the masses, so it’s up to the parents to pick up and run with whatever help is needed, whether that’s to get the level 5 or the 9!
But the one thing you can’t do is turn them into what they’re not, or what you want them to be!!
As long as kids are cared for, they really don’t care about the size of house etc….

I agree
We did this for our DC. They were much more streetwise and mature than the majority of their Y7 peers who had been in Prep, plus the few DC that were a bit snobby were always the ones who had been in Private Education since 3 or 4.
Their school has no 6th form and most go to an excellent 6th form college but it’s huge and some of DDs peers who had been big fish in a very small pond all of their school lives found the adjustment very hard

The people I know who went to secondary private were the ones in a bubble & definitely weren't streetwise. Some never used public transport at all.

The OP is in London

I think for me the thing with paying for private over buying into catchment for an highly rated state school is you are guaranteeing yourself choice. There are of course really outstanding, excellent state schools and totally crap private schools so it's never as simple as one being better than the other, and ideologically I slightly would prefer the state option. The difference though is when buying into a specific primary catchment area in London you are (usually) putting all your eggs into a single school's basket, and like others have said schools can change very quickly, not just their Ofsted ratings (which I tend to ignore anyway as what makes a school excellent in my eyes isn't in exact agreement with Ofsted's system) but also more intangible things, the head or key staff members can move on and the whole culture and feel of a place changes. Plus often you have to do it very early, when pregnant or with a baby and you don't know them yet, what are their needs and preferences, do they have any SEN, are they super sporty or musical but struggle with academics or vice versa, are they sociable and value a big busy school or shy and need somewhere more nurturing. Whereas with privates, outside of the super-selectives where they have to go into the system as toddlers, you usually have the choice of several different schools and even moving them around if needed is so not challenging. Plus also I know not relevant to the OP but if you have more than one then both have to go to the same school whereas with private so long as you can make it work logistically they can go to different ones if that suits better.

I do take the point that maybe at primary it doesn't matter so much and the majority of children will thrive at the majority of schools so maybe the compromise is buy a good house in catchment for at least a couple of reasonable state primary schools, but for secondary I do think it's hugely important to get the right fit and if private secondary is going to be a stretch then I think you would need to be prepared to move at 11ish to either get the right state secondary or downsize/move somewhere cheaper so as to be able to pay for private?

I can see this being true outside London but I wouldn't say necessarily so in London, if you take using public transport to get to school as a measure of 'streetwise-ness', if anything I would say it's more likely that in London the private schools are more central and take kids from a much wider catchment area, so the kids are more likely to tube or train in from the suburbs whereas the comps have a more local intake and so the kids walk, bus or are driven in by parents. Obviously a sweeping generalisation there, some of the famous public schools like Habs are more suburban and operate school buses so those kids likely are more sheltered, and some of the grammar schools like Latymer and Tiffin do take kids from all over, but I would hardly call Habs or Tiffin typical in any sense of the word!

I also think in general if being streetwise and independent is a quality you value in your kids you'll cultivate it regardless of where they go to school whereas if you are inclined to wrap them up in cotton wool you'll taxi them everywhere and not let out alone either way TBH...

I think the problem is that neither is guaranteed. Yes, state secondaries change but equally predicting that your child will pass the very selective entrance exams is also not guaranteed. Not sure there are many non-selective private schools left in London and esp. that part of London.

Something else to consider is that kids who go to private schools often end up commuting. With an only child having local friends might end up being quite important. I say that as someone who went to a couple of private, state and Catholic options in your chosen areas.

Selective in the private sector doesn’t necessarily mean highly academic though.

Most private schools are selective in that they test and interview for entrance, but they range in provision from non to super academic. There’s quite a range round here.

Did you seriously say £1.2M for a terrace!! I live in a seriously nice place in the Westcountry and it’s a 4 bed detached with a garage for £400k. You’re bonkers. Move somewhere cheaper and you’ll get somewhere bigger and probably a better school.

Would you look at New Malden? Outstanding schools, plus grammar schools, house prices are insane but not as insane as Wimbledon.

A very quick cursory look through the online private schools directory showed me at least 100 private primaries/preps and 50 secondaries in the greater London area. There's an enormous variation in there from the minority religion schools to SEN schools to international schools to specialist performing arts schools and yes the super-selectives and famous names with all the madness that entails, but there's a good choice of nice all-rounder schools too in most areas (they may be technically selective but children certainly don't need to be way above average academically or tutored intensively to get into the likes of a Fulham School or Marymount in Kingston say, which are still very good schools, or there are nice inclusive, supportive schools like Hall School in Wimbledon which are non selective and still achieve excellent results, not just in exams, especially if they are talented in other areas too).

Of course if OP's child turns out to have very particular needs like being a child prodigy in dance or very severe SEN requiring really specialist education then there's going to be some difficult choices to make and equally if she's got her heart set on Habs or NLCS or Westminster or one of the other really academic ones she needs to understand there's no guarantee it'll happen since her child's in utero (and yes I totally agree people do need to be told this sometimes but Op doesn't sound like one of them!), and it could turn out that a state school is actually the best option for the child in the end after all, but I stand by the point that in most circumstances having the money available to facilitate making the choice will make things easier, if it's a matter of choice of course, not everyone has that luxury?