Which area of london?

[Ellie2015]

Hello all,

My LO is still less than a year old but we are planning to buy a property (peferrebly a house with a garden). I wonder if any of you are from London and can advise as to which part of London is it best to relocate PURELY from schooling point of view? Ofcourse proximity to a tube station or a good hospital is desirable but not absolute essential.
From my own research I have come up with Finchley as one of the options but again not sure which part of Finchley-east/central/north/west etc. I have also heard about barnet.
At the moment i am only looking for catchment area for ofsted outstanding primary schools. I will cross the bridge when it comes for secondary school. Hopefully my LO will be able to compete in some open competitions for grammer schools and secure a good place, that doesnt depend on catchment area.
Sorry if I look terribly confused..
Any advice would be greatly appreciated xx

Kingston

You hit the nail on the head yourself - Finchley & Barnet, in that order. In the London Borough of Barnet there are 4 grammar schools accessible to Barnet residents - St Michael's Catholic Grammar, Henrietta Barnett School, The Queen Elizabeth's School and though strictly speaking located in Enfield, The Latymer School. In many areas of the UK, there are not a single Grammar school.

All of the above named schools are the nation's super performing schools. The Queen Elizabeth's School for example, is undoubtedly the UK's very top state school in terms of examination results - and I do mean 'very top' as in the apex of the pyramid. It's annual exam performances can seriously embarrass the likes of Eton, Winchester, Harrow, Cheltenham Ladies, Wycombe Abbey - well, you name it. . .

Other than these super performing schools, LB Barnet also has a host of well respected good schools. You cannot go wrong living in Finchley/Barnet if it's a good school you want. East Finch!ey is a bit further from where the action is. By that I mean the village of E Finchley is nearer the boroughs of Camden and Haringey in the south. N Finchley would be ideally located for the above named Grammar schools. St Michael's is right in the heart of it. From here there is a straight bus that goes straight to the front of Queen Elizabeth's ending at the Barnet General Hospital which is directly opposite. Also, the up and coming Wren Academy is in N Finchley as is the very good sixth form college, Woodhouse College, just next door.

Great if your child turns out to be really academic, but what if she isn't?

Grammar schools are a red herring. Find somewhere that offers great schools / great education to all abilities of children. Your child may grow up as not having the temperament or inclination for the stress of tutoring or competition for grammars, nor the top 2-5% ability needed. Or may have an off day on the crucial day.

'Top' selectives get top results because they select kids who will get that result.

There are loads of excellent primaries and secondaries in London: it all depends on your housing budget and transport route to work.

My knowledge is S London, but it sounds as if you are N London inclined?

You have to be very careful about relocating for top grammar schools. Your DC may never get in as entrance is incredibly competitive. That is why their results are so good. Friends of ours bought a house in Kingston with the intention of putting their DCs into Tiffin. Despite intense coaching, neither child got a place.

If you are looking to move house, find a school you like that offers places purely based on proximity to the school. Waldegrave in Twickenham is popular for girls.

Thanks so much for ur responses. I know what you mean jeanne 16 but anyway we have to buy a new house and so we have to consider catchment area schools.
Peteneras very useful info thanks.
Soul account not really i dont have any inclination to north but as i said it was all from my personal reasearch..where would u suggest in south london? Thanks

Kingston is not very accessible so am dropping that option :(

I think it depends hugely on your budget. There are many areas in SW London that have great primary schools but they are also v expensive.

Don't know it but Ladywell was being touted by the Evening Standard as a good place for cheaper housing and schools?

OK, S London:
You could look at Dulwich / East Dulwich - good primaries, Charter or Kingsdale or others for secondary

A bit further East for Fairlawn or Kilmorie primaries, the Sydenham Girls is great or Forest Hill Boys, or Haberdasher's.

Streatham Hill: Hitherfield, Streatham Wells, Dunraven primaries then Dunraven secondary. Or West Norwood: Julian's primary.

Herne Hill: Rosendale Primary then Charter or Kingsdale

None of these are on the tube but all have excellent transport routes / connections on trains.

Brixton: close to Sudbourne School. On the tube.

North London: People talk about Muswell Hill a lot.

Muswell Hill would be a sound choice and is much nicer than Finchley in my opinion. It has 3 outstanding primaries and 2 outstanding secondaries plus you're close enough for the grammars. Live to the East and Bounds Green is easy to access. Live to the west and East Finchley is your closest tube.

For South East London you have the outstanding primary school of Crofton in Petts Wood and then you are in a 'sweet spot' for the grammars, the local ones of St Olaves & Newstead Wood, neighbouring Bexley and also neighbouring Kent. Darrick Wood is the non-selective secondary but you'd need to be at one particular end of the locality of get a place there, closer to Farnborough / Orpington. Petts Wood is a great family area to bring up children - zone 5 on oyster, trains - not tube, but great connections to central London on quick times.

Be careful with Muswell Hill. catchment circles are shrinking and the black holes are getting bigger year on year.

With the Barnet area, it's to be noted that the secondary schools are largely single sex such as St Michaels (girls), Finchley Catholic (boys), Henrietta Barnett (Girls), Queen Elizabeths Boys School and Queen Elizabeths Girls School. Also, be noted that the two Queen Elizabeth Schools are not connected at all and the whilst the Boys is a highly selective school the girls is not.

There are also a lot of faith schools, Finchley Catholic, Bishop Douglas and St Michaels being catholic as well as primary schools St Catherines and Sacred Heart. There are also Church of England schools and a Jewish school. I can't speak for all but I know a few are very strict on this criteria. Whilst there, of course, are still schools that are all inclusive on faith just bear this in mind.

East Finchley is a nice area with good links to London and has some wonderful Ofsted Outstanding Primary schools such as Martins, Brooklands, Manorside and Tudor. There are some good Secondary schools that are non-grammar if you choose to go down this route and if your LO does make it into the surrounding grammar schools then there are great transport links to the ones in barnet and mill hill.

Hoped this helped a little bit and good luck with the move!

This is all catchment areas data viz for the primary schools. The darker shade represents the higher probability.

s9.postimg.org/3qx9l5pq7/Screen_Shot_2017-05-01_at_20.04.31.png

Catchment refers to those schools which actually have a fixed priority admissions area.

It is distinctly unhelpful to use it to refer to the actual (variable) admissions footprint.

As you appear to be spamming a product, perhaps you could make it considerably clearer which you actually mean.

That graph is quite spectacularly unhelpful!

I can't work out what it's actually meant to show.

tina1990 do you actually have a recommendation for Ellie2015 ?

Because you don't seem to offering any recommendations of the type she actually asked for.

Ellie you could try Tooting, as there are several good primaries there, and then you should be near enough to Graveney (or Burntwood if your DC is a DD). On the northern line and close to St George's Hospital. But reputations of secondaries may well have changed by the time you need to start thinking about it.

SquirmOfEels - I provided the map for all areas so yes I do. I am trying my best using analytical techniques. It shows:

• London primary schools
• LSOA map

- Probabilities mapped

• Learning - shows clusters where 90% of children go to good or outstanding schools.

- Legend is missing but it does follow the general map guidance on darker shades having higher concentration.

• Uses - It is an aggregate map that gives a guidance on where you could potentially locate yourself if you care about primary schools which in the sprit of the question Ellie2015 is asking.

meditrina how can you see the product spam when it is just a screenshot of a map of my QGIS screen taken last night? I made it clear that I am a student experimenting with the data with a view to make a tool. How much more should I say? I am not sure what is your personal motivation asking the same question here.

Thanks ladies for a feedback on this map. I understood it has to be more detailed and I will make it more presentable going forward

Tina, I think you would have helped yourself immensely if you had fully explained in your first post that you were a student, and why you had created the map. Your first post came across as if this was a product you were developing commercially that you were trying to get people to use.

I see a little more what you are trying to do now, though realistically it is still a very broad brush, over-engineered approach to a problem taking no account of specific schools and their criteria. For example, I think pretty much 100% of the schools in my borough are good or outstanding; so your tool tells me nothing about where to live here other than the entire borough is good as far as OFSTED are concerned, and nothing about which of the 30+ schools in my borough I might get into. It's no good getting into a good school if it's miles away!

And yes still spam as you promoting your own product (even if not for commercial gain at this point).

I saw this thread before I saw the other, and you did not say on this thread who you are.

Also, you posted on another thread at about the same time, and that is exactly what spammers do, plus starting your own.

There is a NFP topic on MN which is the place for requests for help in refining not-for-profit concepts, and you might have received quite different answers had you posted there.

As it is, what you are achieving here is putting people's backs up because you are derailing a thread by promoting a student product which does not actually answer the question the OP has posed, which is to ask for recommendations of where to live based on the Tube, hospitals and primary schools with a nod to secondaries. Your map does not cover where you might actually have to live (or worship) to secure admission for any particular school. If just shows there are quite a lot of good primaries. And that every DC in London ends up with a school place.

Thank you all for taking time to respond. Lalaland very useful info East finchley. I am now getting more inclined towards north london to be honest- muswell hill/east finchley/barnet and I can see your points about dark hole and the shrinking catchment areas! Its almost like we would have to be next door neighbours to an outstanding school! Eek! Good luck to us!! 😅

Hi OP, I live in the LB of Barnet and my two DC are at schools in the borough- one goes to an SS (super selective) and the other to a PS (partially selective). They went to a 'normal' primary school. I am more than happy with the education they receive.

We love the area; lots of parks, good tube, bus and rail links; Barnet Hospital and Finchley Memorial hospitals both near us. As far as the schools are concerned, yes there is lots of competition for the Grammar places but the comprehensives are very strong too and have an impressive %age of kids going on to Russell Group universities - Wren, Compton, QE Girls, East Barnet and lots of others. There are also several faith schools to cater for those who prefer a more religiously based education.

Muswell Hill is strictly for those who can afford well in excess of £1 - £1.5 million on a house. Barnet is not cheap but not as expensive as that! PM me if you need more info.