RC primaries in London - advice please!

[duedec2]

Hello. We are soon moving back to London after a few years overseas, with two small children. I'd like them to go to Catholic primaries (we are RC) and wondered if anyone had a view on which are the best in London (whatever exatcly that means to you). We don't yet have a place to live so I'd love to hear about any particularly good ones unless they are in horribly expensive areas or VERY far out. Also, I don't quite understand how admissions work for faith schools - do they use the catchment area thing? Is it AS crucial to live within 0.2 miles as it is with top-rated secular schools? Many thanks indeed for any insights.

RC schools all set their own rules, so when you find one you fancy you should look online (Local Authority website) and find the rules for that precise school. Most will prioritise religion over distance, but the rules can be very complex. You will probably find it helpful to bring a letter from your local priest in Canada detailing your church attendance over the last few years, and proof of baptism at a young age.

I agree - check out individual schools policies - they are detailed and there are few things you can do in advance.
All depends which part of London are you interested in.

Thnks v much. Interested in north and north-west london primarily ... But I'd love to hear of any great catholic primaries anywhere. Vague, I know, but this will be a bigger factor than any other in choosing where to live.

Our Lady of Victories in SW 15 has a very good reputation. Ofsted outstanding. Great pastoral care. Nice area to live in. It is heavily oversubscribed, so proof of baptism, and attendance record from your priest would be a good idea, along with information of any voluntary work or roles within the parish you have held. This counts a lot. There are people laundering linen for years to get their children into a good school.

Our Lady of Victories typically also only has a very few non-sibling places (there were a total of 17 Reception places available for children without siblings already at the school for September 2009 entrance, for example). If you do live locally then you need several years' worth of signing in at Mass every week (local Catholic church has a big book for parents to sign every week) and to live as close as possible and to hope there aren't too many siblings in your child's admission year. I'm not sure how those moving into the parish from outside are handled regarding the church attendance point.

Is Our Lady of Victories the one that requires your child to be baptised within a very short period of time?

it really is worth looking at each school for their rules one of our local ones requires you to have been worshipping within that parish for at least a year before applicaion date otherwise you are treated as if you worship elsewhere!

Our son got a place in nearby St Mary Magdalens, in the next parish, in Richmond. It is on Worple Way. I think it was a lovely school, but too strict for my son. It is a good school, with a good community.

For north london, the rosary in chalk farm/belsize park is very good, but house prices are v high.

Another very good one is st josephs in highgate, there is cheaper housing if you look towards the bottom of highgate hill rather than the top.

Also you need to make sure there are good RC secondaries near by. It is much easier to find/get into a good primary than secondary.

If you plan to stay in the area check out the criteria for accessing the secondary schools before making the move.

It depends whether you want a good school, or one that is socially smart with lots of middle-class families. Both the OLV schools (Wandsworth and Kensington) have the reputation of being quite posh, which you may find a good thing, or you may not.

There are loads of good catholic schools in north London, including Our Lady of Muswell, St Gilda's/St Peter in Chains in Crouch End, St Joan of Arc in Highbury, St John Evangelist near the Angel Islington, St Joseph's in Highgate. I don't really know about schools on the Hampstead side, but Rosary is meant to be good. Tbh most Catholic schools are pretty good, so I'd decide where you want to live first and work around that.

All of those schools have a very mixed intake though -- they're not like free private schools at all. The very sought-after secular schools will tend to have a more middle-class intake because they select on the basis of proximity, and schools in some areas may be surrounded almost entirely by houses in the £1M+ bracket. Catholic schools in central/north London will tend to have a good proportion of London irish families along with families from all over the world, with a particular predominance from West Africa, Poland, mediterranean Europe, South America and possibly Vietnam and the Philipines.

For catholic schools you don't need to live on the doorstep, it's usually done on priest's reference and whether you live within particular parish boundaries and/or attend a particular church. If your children are already school-age, then tbh it will depend on whether there are spaces in the relevant year groups. If you are applying for nursery/reception places, then download any forms beforehand and get your priest to fill them in and/or write a supporting letter stating that you attended mass in the parish where you live etc.

And yy to checking what the secondary options are like. There are some very good catholic secondaries in north London, but also some black hole areas where there is no particular access to specific good secondaries and children go to loads of different schools according to where they can get in, with all the accompanying angst.

Note that many secondaries are single-sex, so options are different according to whether you're looking for girls or boys.

as others have said the criteria varies by school.
in my DDs school (SW London) it serves 4 parishes, with each parish having a quota, so actually it is easier to get in from a bit further away as it is less popular from that distance. The priest signs your form (no specific criteria but if he hasn't seen you before he may question you...) and the child needs to be baptised. I certainly have never laundered linen and not overly active in the parish apart from going to mass fairly regularly.

It all depends. And this is for a very oversubscribed OFSTED outstanding primary.

Re the distance from school, within those 4 parishes, if the priest signs more forms than he has places (which typically he does, way more) then it goes on distance. So to be on the edge of one parish may mean you are the furthest but if you were in the next one you would be the closest. sorry complicated but hope it makes sense.

you also apply in the usual way through the local council school admissions, effectively you apply twice (in Richmond anyway) directly to the school (with priest referral, baptism cert etc) and by the usual forms by post/online to the council. The results come via the council followed up by confirmation from the school.

Our Lady of Muswell in Muswell Hill, St Gilda's in Crouch End, St Vincents in Mill Hill are all good with significant numbers going on to selective secondary schools.

Thank you all v much ... Will look up those schools mentioned. And amidalwish I hadn't thought how of the parish quota plays into all this - how on earth does one anticipate that one?! Finally, and I know its an irritating q, but anyone tried to get a child into the oratory? Such a bunfight it doesn't sound v catholic in the broader sense ...

The Oratory have been forced to raise proximity in their criteria so going west, richmond is the limit. Not sure about the other directions.
Altar server/active in parish is critical.

re the parish quotas, i guess the best thing is to pick the school and then ask what parishes it serves and the catchment.

The quotas will be laid out in the admissions guidelines for each school, which you should be able to download from the LEA website, if not from the school's website (best to look on both to make sure they're all up to date). The actual numbers will vary from year to year anyway, according to the number of siblings.

Re the Oratory, some people really like it, other people really don't. Like Marmite. I'm in the notsomuch camp, tbh, likewise with CVMS. It felt a bit like a cross between a bootcamp and an outpost of the Vatican's junior education department. But obviously lots of people think it's great, so you have to go and see for yourself.

Aimidaiwish - you are not correct about the Oratory.

in what way?

our school has quite a few go.
i went too. (6th form)

Does anyone happen to have experience of good RC schools in queen's park and thereabouts? Or experience of corpus christi in brixton? Am throwing my net wide ...

Read the ofsted report for St. Winifred's Infant school in Lee (under Blackheath). It is an exceptional school. Don't know about the Junior School though. The area around Manor Park is very family friendly and Hither Green and Lee train stations are around the corner. The catchment is within parish boundary however, so you'd need to check out where this is.

We live very near to Our Lady of Victories (South Ken) which is lovely, and though our DC don't go there it is meant to be very good.

There is also Servite primary on the Fulham Road, don't know anything about it though.

Corpus Christi 0 hear only good things. Seems to get fair number of boys in Oratory and Cardinal Vaughan if you are thinking ahead and of course if their admission arrangments remain the same.

If the school is one form entrance then you do need to be VERY close to the school gate as there will be few non-sibling places..so look out for 2 or 3 form entrance schools. Also if you are coming from abroad ask your priest for a good reference to say you are regular mass attenders and make sure you have all the baptism certificates.