What are my options apart from Fortismere school?

[Newbeeee88]

We live on Woodside Avenue (not in a fancy house so we’re not rich enough for expensive private!) and the local secondary to us really would be Fortismere.

I’m largely fine with that as I’d like DD to go to school with friends from primary school, but I was chatting to other people who live in other areas, and they’re showing their DDs a few options of schools and then choosing.

How realistic is that we’d have any choice? And what would those other choices be? I don’t just mean straight catchment, but some are taking 11+, some are doing music exams etc.

Depends on how much you are happy to travel and if your child has a realistic chance at other options.

My DD wanted a school that was very strong in music so I went through and worked out which schools in London offered music places based on aptitude rather than on living in catchments. Then worked out which of those we could realistically reach by the school's start time.

Had a massive spreadsheet and a long list of 8 - she sat the scholarships at all of those and then we looked at where she had offers and picked our favourite.

You can do the same for languages, sport etc etc and that ups your choice of schools to beyond what you would qualify for.

I was focused mainly on South of the Thames, and there's no existing list - it literally means working through secondary school websites.

11+ easier to find out about.

You do need to watch that your child won't be the only one not living locally. Our final choice was a school that had a lottery system and so a massive catchment - I didn't want her being the only one not hanging out with friends after school and in the holidays. 3 years in, no regrets.

Open evenings for 2024 applications will mostly be later in September and early October. When dp and I took the boys in year 6 there were also year 5 parents there, so DS2 went to 2 open evenings for DS2. I would have taken them to see more schools but DS1 wasn't interested in looking at a possible 3rd option (we're on the other side of Haringey from you). I took DS1 to see the other local 11-16 secondary school in our area which has had several Outstanding OFSTEDs, similar intake but more oversubscribed, but we were always pretty borderline there on distance, and actually our local school's open evening was better organised, friendlier and had some activities which really caught DS1's interest - visiting the school's chickens with a much friendlier student tour guide as an icebreaker, some really interesting activities to look at and try in the Science department which made it look much more fun than it ever was in my day.

I thought the state grammars did their own academic selection exams, which might be similar to 11+ in types of test but are more school specific.

A lot of places go on distance - not catchment - and if you're close enough to Fortismere for your DD to go there there's a lot to be said for going to school locally. Whether or not your DD's primary school friends end up at the same place - my sons' friends didn't really, DS1 has made lots of new friends who are very locally but went to different primaries. Then there's the amount of time and energy that having to travel to get to different schools takes, that can be spent relaxing before homework, or on studying or on extra activities. DS2 doesn't have the same kind of social life as DS1 but he has a couple of friends he sees outside school sometimes, and he has taken up some interests in music and School Council.

There are other state schools in Muswell Hill, Hornsey, Crouch End etc that you could look at. I don't know what's near to you in Barnet. And there is nothing to stop you taking DD to a couple of other open evenings or more, even if you're not sure they're a likely option, to make comparisons.