Moving to London from Australia

[GroovyOne]

Hubby's company would like us to move to London in 2014.
If we did, we would likely arrive so the kiddies can start the new school year in Sep 2014.

In Sep 2014 or kids will be:
Daughter- 11 years old - going into year 7 (which from what Im reading will make it tough for her to get in somewhere, but we'll do it).
Son1 - 9 - year 6
Son2 - 6 - year 2
Son3 - 4 - prep (or whatever it's called).

The company will pay for schooling and housing.
I understand that the most expensive doesn't always mean the best....
Our kids are quite sporty.

If anyone has an tips on schools and areas to love, that would be fab!! ??
I am researching and researching, but there are so many options!!

Groovy, what is your church affiliation (if you have one)

Lady Margaret is Church of England, London Oratory is Catholic.

You need to prove regular church attendance for either, so you can't really apply to both.

Either way, state applications are closed, so you would only be able to go on a long waiting list.

Correction- whilst just under half of Lady Margaret are taken not based on church attendance, they give priority to looked after children and previously looked after children, and then to siblings.

Following these, admissions are based on geographical distance. There are likely to be only few places left after LACs and siblings, you would have to live almost next door to the school to stand any chance of getting in.

I don't mean to be pessimistic, but you are likely to find it extremely difficult to get into either one of these schools, let alone both.

No worries frogspoon
Am sure will work it out

People would sell their grannies to get into either the Oratory or Lady Margaret. Tony Blair had children in both - so if you hear of his MiL being resold on eBay you know why. In practical terms you wont get allocated a school place till you have a permanent address in the UK. By then popular schools will be full, at least for your 4 yo and 11 yo. You will be pretty high on wait lists if you are careful and rent practically next door to the school of your choice - unless it is a church school in which case different rules will apply - but in the first instance you could find yourself with 4 schools each some distance away and in different directions. If your employer is willing to pay, I would forget state, and focus on Indies where smaller class sizes and experience with expat children should help them integrate. Indies, though not necessarily the very central ones, will offer a lot more sport that state schools.

It is worth approaching the Harrodian, but I suspect your chances at Ibstock are higher. It is popular and each year group is relatively small. You have the bargaining power of four sets of fees which might help if they have some less than full year groups, but set against that is the fact that you only plan to stay for 2 years. At 4 and 11, they might prefer to offer a sought after place to a child who is likely to stay through to 11 or 18.

In short do what you have done and gauge reactions from the more obvious choices. It ought to be OK if you are willing to be flexible. This will probably include being flexible on where you live, and making that decision after you have found the school. (In London terms somewhere like Putney is not considered particularly far out, and has a more villagey feel than Fulham. There again I never really got the appeal of Fulham which always strikes me as hopelessly traffic clogged and impossible to park - each to their own.)

Remember that these are selective schools and that they select, the competition is such that being able to pay the fees does not buy you a place. They are businesses and are likely to be more welcoming to a family of straightforward, reasonably bright, sporty kids who present few problems and whose employer is guaranteeing fees.

If after your first trawl it looks as if it looks like it will be difficult, ask the firm if they can help with a relocation agent. A good one will have good relationships with likely schools and also get a feel for what you are looking for.

Blair's daughter was at Sacred Heart not LMS.

Yes in Lady Margaret and Oratory you have picked two of just about the hardest state schools to get into unless you are prime minister or deputy Oratory are just challenging the government because they dared to try to enforce a rule that says that state schools cannot select according to the parent's ability to provide support to the church, specifically, by cleaning the church and the silver . Parents spend years ensuring their sons have the best chance of meeting the selection criteria, from making sure they are baptised by 6 months to maximising the points given for church attendance, being alter boys and cleaning etc. that then earn you the right to be in the lottery for places.

And No More Sleep is right, even with a house we owned and proof that our tenants were leaving and we were returning we could not apply to state schools until we were back resident. We initially were offered places in state schools somewhere near Heathrow, but three weeks into term a space did come up at the nearest outstanding state school because someone left and the people above us on the waiting list did not want to move their children at that stage (as did not we). However that is a gamble and there was a thread on here recently by an expat who had moved close to two state schools having been told it was likely places would come up but was in a position where three children were travelling long distances in opposite directions. It is a gamble that won't always pay off. It was for that reason that we focused on independent schools for our DDs.

Harrodian used to be a school that was easy to get into but it has become more popular locally and I understand has become more selective. Quite a lot of very rich parents, everyone assumed the Beckhams would be going there. There are threads on here with supporters and detractors though detractors possibly going on outdated reputation. If they are going to entertain your applications, go and look, my Aussie friend had her two children in the Junior School and loved it.

I would also go and look at different areas. For Harrodian for example you could rent in Barnes. Villagey feel and more family orientated than Fulham. The Aussie friend moved there at the same time as another expat friend moved to Fulham and the latter ended up deeply jealous. On the whole families tend to move further out as children get older, and people do not perceive places like Richmond as far out, easy to get into town in 20 mins on overground or slightly longer on underground, plenty of nice pubs, restaurants etc. and lots of open space, river, parks etc. for family walks, bike rides etc. as nomore says TFL can be your friend on this. Most families would make house decisions based on being close to stations with fast services to town rather than distance. That area around Wandsworth used to be known as Nappy Valley but there is now a joke that nappy valley have decamped en masse to Teddington now their children are reaching school age, and indeed the local nappy valley website has now set up new sites for Richmond and Teddington .....

By the way this is all SouthWest London information but there are equally good combinations of schools and nice places to live in other parts of London, DD currently renting near Highgate/ Hampstead and the High Street is spookily similar to Richmond, same restaurants, shops and celebrity count. And of course It is the North London yummy mummy scene Helen Fielding just wrote about........

I totally get what all of you are saying!!
Thank you so much for taking the time to offer your advice and tips!!

The process for us from here will be somewhat left to fate.

I will try to get my butt over there ASAP to investigate everything.

Would you guys say that it would be better to relocate in April or September....?

Also - my son who is currently 4 (turning 5 in Dec 2014).... What schooling options would he have prior to Sep 2014..?

Many LEA Schools have a nursery attached and the government provides 5 x 2.5 hour sessions per week for Nursery aged children. Your only other alternative is private nursery before he starts Reception in Sept.

I would suggest moving in April, that way you will have a chance to sort your schooling (potentially even getting a good state school place for your children) and also be here on time to enjoy the Summer. Moving in September could be tricky as school starts in the first week so it would be a lot to cope with all at once!

In terms of state school applications though, it's no different.

Reception application have to be in by January 15th approx (places allocated around Easter) and secondary/middle/upper applications have to be in 31st October the year before approx (places allocated around Easter).

Good luck.

Preschool takes from 2/3 up to reception age . tbh you are unlikely to find a state school nursery place at short notice for one term but may find one at a stand alone preschool or within a day care setting. It will eb tough finding a space for your 4 yr old and your 11 yr old. If you moved in April your dd would swap school in September unless you moved somewhere with a middle school system or used a private prep school which went to 13+.

If you are interested in living in fulham what about hill house school. If keen on Richmond area what about new land house in twickenham

Worth contacting Newlands if you could cope with the glacial outer wastes of London They are another school that has served expats / returning expats well and since it is to 13 it would meet all your needs for two years, but also prepare your DCs well for selective schools if you stay. It does have an entrance exam once you get to 7 and a long waiting list for places at 4 but having other children might give your 4 year old priority ( I am afraid that 4 is as much of a pressure point for places as 11). You will get more house for your money, this [http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-43215458.html] is a 5 min walk away.

The only thing is that your DDs education would be dominated by the demands of Common Entrance, the selective exams for children at 13, which frankly demand a rather dry breadth of knowledge / skills, whilst the schools that start at 11 can afford to set Years 7 and 8 aside for "education" in the widest sense without working towards externally set exams, and before they have to do so for GCSEs in Years 10 and 11. It was a lovely challenging and stimulating couple of years in my DDs education.

Common entrance is a qualifying, not selective exam. So yes,they taper covering a syllabus not far short of old O levels, but it's not arid unless the school is poor (not common in London).

You could put all your DC into say, Hill House, to minimise the transfer faff whilst you are here. But it's not particularly sporty, and has distictly cramped (though creatively used) accommodation. And you will need to be able to look at rust coloured knickerbockers with a straight face.

Hill House is unlikely to have spaces, they've become far more oversubscribed recently than people on mumsnet realise.

LMS is an outstanding school and easier to get into than Oratory, you can check the "starting secondary school" booklet for exact info, I
think last time I checked the catchment area for open places was around 0.5 miles (it's more complicated than that because there are three ability bands with different catchment areas), so while
small it's a bit of an exaggeration to say you have to live next door. I live about 5-10min walk from LMS and my children would be comfortably in the catchment area, as long as you're in Parsons Green in should be fine (in-year admissions are a separate topic altogether).

Feel free to PM me if you need to know more about schools in Fulham.

Thank you every one!
xx

Do any of you have thoughts re schooling and living in Wimbledon....?

If your DC are clever, then try Wimbledon High for girls and Kings College School for boys. (KCS is like St Peters Adelaide, if that helps you get the idea).

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/education/a1871074-independent-primary-schools-SW-London-esp-Kings-College-Wimbledon-Sorry-long-post#41997464

This thread has some good advice which should be relevant

Feel free to PM me about Wimbledon schools. I hate to say it, but your children will have very little chance of getting into either Wimbledon High or Kings as they are both highly oversubscribed (think around 5 applicants for every place) and selective academically (not sure how Australian and UK curriculum compare in regard to the type of maths/English studied at a comparable age and the y7 test for WHS consists of VR and NVR only) but there are always occasional vacancies which arise. Both schools are very friendly and approachable, so do get in touch with their admissions secretaries - you will potentially be able to organise sitting exams from Australia.
Recommend Wimbledon highly as a place to live. Great transport links, some beautiful homes (depending on your DH's package, you will possibly find the size of houses and gardens much smaller than in Australia, unless you can afford £10,000+ per month to rent a beautiful house in the village). You can be in Central London in around half an hour from Wimbledon and there is always the Common and other parks for outdoor space. Good shopping amenties and restaurants etc...in both Wimbledon and Wimbledon Village...much less 'urban' than Fulham, but not much further from Central London.
Good luck with your decisions. London is a great place to live. We left Australia well over a decade ago and never plan on going back!

Perhaps worth looking at the Hall School?

Its seen as slightly gentler academically that the two, very sought after, schools you mention. However if you are here for two years and your children are having to adjust to a new educational system this should be an advantage.

There are lots of good sports clubs in Wimbledon so not so important to have everything provided at school.

Thanks needsmoresleep. A friend of mine just left London in December and her kiddies went to Hall School. She said they loved it.

At this point, hubby and I like the look of the Harrodian and Ibstock for our big two, as they are similar to the schools they go to now. Only difference is that my daughter is at an all girls school and my son is at all boys here in Australia.

We will try with both Harr and Ibstock first and if we have no joy we shall move to Plan B. Whatever that may be.....

Cross fingers and see how we go!

Plan B could be to send all three to this school.

www.lambrook.berks.sch.uk. It's close enough to London and you'd get a lot more house for your money.

Have you looked at the threads on Ibstock, especially www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/a1691013-Ibstock-Place-vs-Emanuel

It, and especially the Head, are a bit Marmite (Vegemite ) these days. It seems people either love it or hate it. But go and look, I don't think they try to hide anything about their ambitions and strategies and if that is a fit then it is fine.

I will declare a bias though, my girls are dyslexic, and it was a complete shock in the case of one, who had always achieved highly in spite of it, and have had such good support in achieving their potential in more academic schools that I do find the stories coming from refugees from the school, and those who have just been to look round, deeply shocking. In this day and age a good school will have proactive strategies in place to provide support to enable all pupils to achieve their potential.

Have you been in touch with The Harrodian or Ibstock yet? Your eldest would need to be sitting entrance exams this month (in fact Harrodian's first sitting is this Saturday). It is usually possible to sit these exams while you are overseas but you would need to talk to them ASAP. Both schools are heavily oversubscribed and will have long waiting lists once offers are made, so I expect your daughter would need to be assessed before offers go out. In fact, both schools also have exams for occasional places in Year 6 too (for your son).

Have sent you a PM too.

This need not necessarily be a problem. A lot of children sit exams for these schools at 11, and they will sit 3, 4 or more and some children will get offers at all, especially as Harrodian and Ibstock may often be the insurance for bright children who are sitting for more selective schools, who will more than likely have a choice. So each school may have eg 100 places and 400 applicants but in practise the odds are better than they look. Even the most selective schools want the best applicants and really value what an overseas applicant can bring to their communities, so I have even known schools like Lady Eleanor Holles and Godolphin and Latymer allow a late applicant. When we returned the attitudes of schools were all very different, and it probably depends what they are faced with on school numbers. They can't reliably predict how many acceptances they will get, so sometimes end up with an extra class and sometimes with more room to manoeuvre. So the best thing will be to talk to them, if necessary it won't hurt to be a little pushy to show you are a serious applicant.

However do be prepared to be flexible and have plans B, C, D, E, F, G ETC.

And as I said before I would be wary of being pushed into sitting an exam before you have had some chance to prepare your DD if only in practising some timed tests and exam technique. They may say they will take coming from another system into account, and they will, but whether they really understand the implications of the difference in background is another matter.....