Chelsea/Parsons Green - Help with pre-prep schools please!

[sarjd]

Hello, we are looking to move into the area and have registered dd and ds with a number of pre-prep schools (knightsbridge school, garden house, kensington prep, cameron house etc etc). Our problem is this: Knightsbridge school is my favourite so far (after visiting a few but not all) BUT home location seems to make up a large part of their admissions decision. Basically you need to live within about a mile of the school. We are looking at somewhere to live in chelsea but have also looked in parsons green and just found somewhere we love there. I think it would be too far for KS but the other schools don't seem to base admissions decisions on that. Does anyone have children in these schools? where do you commute from? do you think parsons green to sloane square for example would be too far, especially when they are little? The reason we are moving to the area is for the schools so the last thing we want is to put ourselves outside the reach of many schools that we would love them to get into. I know this is a bit of a luxury problem to have but any help would be great.

Ideally, I think one would avoid Parson's Green to Knightbridge as the traffic is shocking on that axis, but I am sure you wouldn't be the only parent doing that traverse. I can't speak to their policy on geographical admissions. There are great benefits to living near school, in term of logistics and social activities (we walked to our pre-prep (Cam House) and it was lovely to be so close, and to meet up with others as one filtered in.

You have named schools which do the full gamut of exit points for boys eg GHS boys 8+, Cameron House 11+ (although some go at 8+ with relatively light support) and Knightsbridge which potentially could go all the way through. If you have views on what you want for this, this could shape things (although really hard to tell if he is still tiny). Also, how vehemently do you want them at the same school? I notice that you don't have Fulham Prep or Thomas's on your list which you might want to consider if looking for co-ed nearer Parson's Green, but note neither supports 8+ at all.

How old are your children? If they are tinies, so you will be sequentially looking to do 4+ entry you do have to spread your net fairly wide as the whole finding places is a such a lottery - even if you opt for Chelsea and have set your heart on Knightsbridge, for goodness sake don't leave it at that - have at least 3 options.

And do go and see them all!

My daughter is currently attending Knightsbridge School and we love it. The school does promote a walk to school policy, however, many students do live outside the area and take the bus or the parents drive them. The school wants to avoid a traffic jam in front of the school during pick-up/drop-off times to keep neighbors happy. Prior moving to London many people advised us that we should look for places to live around the school our daughter will go to, which is what we did and it has worked out great. But, like I said, many of my daughter's classmates live outside the SW3/SW7 postal code.

Good luck!