North London primaries and secondaries

[goteam]

We need to move next year, mainly for more space bit also we have kids in primary school and we aren't particularly close to any secondaries (0.8 miles from two but neither are amazing)

We are thinking Alexandra Palace, Southgate or north Finchley. The latter two are aremore affordablebut the two really good secondaries seem to be 'all through' schools so the worry is if we dont get into the primary will we get into the secondary (Wren and Ashmole academies). Also, looks like the nice houses in southgate are nowhere near Ashmole!!

Alexandra park school looks great but houses while cheaper than where we are (in a flat) are pricier than southgate and finchley.

Does anyone know these schools and how oversubscribed they are? We saw an affordable house 0.3 miles from Wren Academybut presumably if the kudscant get in wren primary that doesn't matter.

I mean Alexandra Park! We don't want to move into Ally Pally!!

APS is extremely popular in recent years and you'd have to move on the doorstep. This year 7 was also a huge bulge year and the last admitted child lived 0.4 miles away. Someone living on Grasmere Rd didn't get it. I don't think this will go up much with the buldge year getting older as lots of people favour it over fortismere and move accordingly. They have the most appeals in Haringey. If you don't get into APS living that end it's tricky because Heartlands is 0.9 on average and fortismere is about 0.6 so you're left in a bit of a pickle.
Sorry I don't know anything about the other two.

Ah thanks. The houses we have had a look at are around 0.3 miles away so hopefully that would be ok. It does seem like a bit of a lottery though.

Yeap, primary places that end can be tricky too if you're an in year transfer. Schools are great but places are an absolute nightmare.

I think it depends on the amount of siblings in that year and ehcp children. APS and Heartlands accept a lot (roughly 12-16) EHCP children a year which can skew the admissions too. Haringey has quite an in-depth breakdown of allocations which in October also include distance of last admitted child as of 1/09 so this includes any movement over summer.

Oh no, Malmontar that doesn't sound good. We won't be able to ferry them back and forth. We had friends who had to do a term ferrying kids back and forth between new home in East Finchley and Hackney waiting for school places and it looked awful. Very stressed kids. I guess we should have thought about schools and needing a bigger house before but we have lots of friends and a nice life here in zone 2 so have put it off.

Hackney and East Finchley is very far that sounds like madness. You may not have to but that is a possibility. The schools around here are not very far from each other so it wouldn't be as drastic as your example. I wouldn't let that hold you back though. There is a great community of families who help each other out and lots of childcare where they offer school pickups etc. The positive is you also have the Piccadilly line which is much nicer than the northern line imo.
The other thing to think about is that a lot of people move once they get a space at APS to either crouch end or more towards Muswell Hill as the side of bounds green it's on is a bit grotty going towards the tube station.

We're N22 ally pally, primarys are fine but secondary schools less good unless you're Catholic and TBH we will either move to better catchment or go private when they're older.

@mehygged really? We've had the opposite experience.
I wouldn't send my kids to st Thomas Moore if that's the Catholic you're looking at. APS and Heartlands are great schools and have a really good reputation, especially in the last couple of years.