Primary Schools in Harrow

[Leah4]

Hello, I will be moving to Harrow by this December, and I have to choose a school for my DD within the next couple of months.

The schools which will be the closest to our house, and within the catchment areas, are St Anslems, Marlborough, Norbury and Vaughn. It's always nice to have a school recommended and I wonderd if any other Mumsnetters live near(ish) me and have any experience of or know any further details about these schools. I quite like Vaughn but last year they took children who lived up to 0.39 miles from the school and we live just over 0.70 miles away!!

Thanks

My dd goes to St Joseph's RC school in Harrow Weald (belmont) which is very good but over subscribed. St Anslems is a also a good school but also over subscribed. Norbury has had it's problems in the past with attainment and attendance etc but has recently received an excellent ofsted report (new head I think). Not sure about Vaughn, however, my friends dd starts Marlborough in Sept and has only good things to say in general about the school. HTH.....

PS

I don't know your religion but if you can get dd into St Josephs or St Anselms the feeder sch0ool is Sacred Heart Language College for girls which has just received an excellent ofsted report and has the highest GSCE results for harrow high schools 2004.

Thanks for the quick response lucykins. I have also heard good things about Sacred Heart. We are Church of England, in terms of religion, so may be quite a long way down in their selection criteria. May still apply to St Anslems. Do you think I have some chance of getting a place, in view of our religion and catchment area? Our new house would be very close to that school.

I am glad Marlborough has been recommended to you, and have noticed their league table results have improved. I will also visit this school.

Thanks

Based on your criteria you have a fair a chance of getting dd in. As far as I know there isn't really a catchment/boundary area as such, just who lives the closest plus the other usual criteria for religious schools.

When I initially applied to St Josephs dd did not automatically get in (we matched all the criteria except other families lived a tad closer to the school). However, I half heartedly put dds name down on their waiting list not expecting to hear from them and just managed to get her into another undersubscribed RC school but realistically it was a bit too far from home. Surprisingly, in September St Josephs called me to say there was the usual reshuffle of places before start of term and that there was a place available for dd due to families moving out of the area or accepting places elsewhere . So IMO it would be worth making an application even if there is a chance of dd not being automatically accepted.

Just remembered, in the meantime I think you should apply to other non-catholic schools separately but application rules may have changed since I applied two yrs ago.

Thanks for all the info. I think I will apply to St Anslems, as well as Vaughn and Marlborough. I am arranging visits this month as the application form has to be in by November. I am also looking for a good nurrsery but I have not had much response on the postings I have made. Do you happen to know of any good ones in the central Harrow area? I am worried that I will miss getting a place if private nurseries have a small number of places. Many thanks.