North London Pre and Primary School- HELP!

[qsack]

Hi
we're moving to north london, next summer and looking to around Islington, Higbury, N.Camden, Hampstead, Highgate and anywhere in between. Firstly can anyone recommend a good family friendly area to live and where are the good state schools. any thoughts welcome... don't know this area at all!

meant to say, ds2 will be 3 when we get there so looking for pre-school ideally attached to a primary if possible

All these areas have good primary schools, and good pre-schools. They all have terrible ones, too. Check out Ofsted reports for more info. Popular non-religious primaries in Islington are: Canonbury (close to parts of Highbury), William Tyndale (Upper Street), Hanover (near Angel Tube) and Prior Weston in the Barbican, which is actually v. family friendly. Not obvious family houses, but goodsized flats and lots of communal playing areas. Don't know Hampstead or Highgate that well, but Camden borough has good schools (good secondaries as well, all with v. tight catchment areas).

Isn't New End in Hampstead the one everyone tries for? (I'm nowhere near, but I wandered past it at the weekend and it rang a bell.)

In Highgate, you might want to look at Brookfield or Gospel Oak schools. Both are Camden borough and both have school nurseries. They are near to four of those popular secondary schools that frogs mentions. St Michael's CofE school is also popular. It is within Haringey borough.

brilliant thanks, it's somewhere to start in what feels like searching in the dark at the moment!