Kentish town / Tufnell Park / Dartmouth Park / Camden Town

[Trondheim]

We are planning to move to one of the above places very soon and I am hoping someone here will be able to advise on schools. Have been reading previous threads on the areas too.

Dartmouth park is nice as near the heath but seems to be a black hole for schools so we’d have to live either south for Eleanor Palmer or north for Brookfield. We’re quite laid back as parents though so EP might be too intense? And I know we’d have to live very close indeed.

Kentish Town: Torriano seems good? Other side of KT road, how are Carlton, Rhyl and Gospel Oak schools?

Camden Town: Have to go faith, I think?

If I want to get DD into a faith school I need to start going to church next January. (2 years’ attendance seems standard?) Hard to pick the right church to start attending when I don’t know which school we’ll be nearest to. All the faith schools in these areas are pretty good though, right?

Secondaries: Not much choice - William Ellis and Parliament hill seem good. Would love Camden Girls if we can get in.
If we were in Camden itself, CHS for DD but if we have a boy next how are Regent and Haverstock? Or the UCL academy?

I hate all this so much! Thank you for any insight you can give. Also other information about the areas for babies/toddlers would be welcome please!

My friends are a Dartmouth Park family who were worried about the 'black hole' too, but their child is at Hargrave Park now and they say it's been great and they really like the friendly atmosphere.

There was a big article very recently in one of the local papers about further relaxation of entry criteria to C of E schools, you may be able to find some sort of announcement on Camden website or try CNJ or Ham&High. From Chetwynd Riad you might be in catchment for the Abacus which I believe is going toove into the old Hampstead cop shop

@papermover

Take care! Or soon one of the supporters of the Whitehall Park School on Mumsnet (who oddly only seem to post on threads relating to Whitehall Park School) , will be along to accuse you of making "vicious attacks" on the school, and doing so because you support "a rival school" by which they seem to mean the other schools that are not Whitehall Park School...

In fact it has been announced that Whitehall Park School will be in portocabins, for the first year, on the old Ashmount site. They then claim that their "new building" will be ready autumn 2015, to be built on the same site, in a space to be created, it seems, by demolishing the old Ashmount building.

Obviously this means by their own account that the children will be taught in portocabins, on a building site, for the first year. Does this entice?

And I am not the only person to find the delivery date of autumn 2015 for a new building when thay have not even applied for planning permission yet to demolish the old one.......unlikely.

I should have said that Whitehall Park has no nursery provision planned.

Sorry for slight thread tangent OP, I must admit I am a bit of a closet fan of yours, NLondonDad, because although you have a bee in your bonnet about Ashmount and the free school (which I totally support you upon, btw), you are one of the small % of parents who continue to worry about school admissions problems once their children have made it through the process and into Year R. I have seen a few of your threads with detailed admissions stats about the Whitehall Park area and marvel about how you have the time and tenacity to put it all together.

Another thread sticks in my mind, where someone described the parlous state of admissions in Richmond and flagged up that people only tend to worry about it for the year when their first child is applying - then breathe a sigh of relief, get on with life - while the nightmare continues for the next round of parents...

Good luck OP and crossed fingers that you wind up somewhere you are happy with.

You only have to go and hang out in the Open Space behind the Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre on a sunny afternoon to know whether there are any families around here. The fountains were overrun today

@ branchingout:

Buzzz, Buzzz......

Lived on Spencer Rise for 25 years and didn't get into Brookfield despite all of our newer neighbours getting in. We just got unlucky. Hargrave Park is fantastic though and wouldn't leave it for the world. Brilliant head teacher and superb staff. Kids love it.

Interesting article in Tribune regarding Acland Burghley

www.islingtontribune.com/news/2014/sep/unique-‘meet-parents’-initiative-sees-acland-burghley-pupils-given-chance-spill-beans