Where to move for good schools in London?

[KDP]

My family is returning to London from many years living in America and I have two primary school aged daughters who will need to find a good school. Private school not an option financially and we want to live in London, not the country. Any advice on areas with good overall school standards in which we are likely to be able to transfer our daughters? Looking at Richmond Upon Thames (though wishing Hampstead would seem an option.) Any advice on schools or paths to take? Areas to consider that might not be the obvious choices? Want to be on a tube line and in an area that has overall good schools so SOMETHING will be possible. Help!

Nobody yet has mentioned Redbridge, boys and girls grammar rest are good and some excellent primaries.

Any specific primary schools in Camden that you'd recommend ScottishMummy?

Most areas have a few good primary schools the problem comes when you want a good state secondary. I would start be researching those, find one you like and are keen to live near, then find a feeder primary.

The borough of Redbridge always comes in and around the top three london boroughs for education - very good primary and secondary schools and with 2 (hugely oversubscribed!) grammers.

Ooh lost in France, you forgot St john's and St Clement's!

I disagree, I moved to get my dc's out of Goodrich school and their new school were amazed at how badly they had been taught. I wouldn't send my worst enemy there.

Where did you move them to, Scanner?

I moved out of London, I miss ED very much .

Oh, poor you - I LOVE it here, and cannot think of anyewhere I would move out to.

Did you move long ago - it takes a long time to settle into a new place.

Goodrich has a new head, and so does Dog Kennel - dunno what the effect has been / will be...

Goodrich is a very big school, perhaps that is one of the problems?

Re Henrietta Barnett - it may be state but its really really hard to get into.

Girls only, a London wide catchment area, and exam entry. They get 1000+ applications every year for under 100 places!

Re: Richmond and Kingston, more green space than any other part of Greater London and have the river. Richmond and Wimbledon on district line, but Kingston connections to central London aren't brilliant. (We have them, but they aren't fast).

As with other similarly well heeled parts of London, loads of brilliant primary schools, but every area has less popular schools. Quite a few people move to private schools at 7, so its likely that spaces will open up.

Why is there a flight to private schools? Because of lack of confidence in secondary education. However, both Richmond and Kingston have very good Girl's secondaries. Kingston also has 2 grammar schools, one for girls, one for boys. (Kingston Grammar is confusingly now a Boy's private day school, not a grammar school). Very competitive to get into Grammar schools.

I can only refer to north london, but I would definitely look into an area where there is a good secondary school (in the singular because unusual to find more than one). Decent primary schools are not so difficult to find.

If you're moving to Kingston or Sutton then here's a list of good grammar schools:

Wallington High school for Girls
Nonsuch High school for Girls
Tiffin Girls' school

Newstead woods is good but it's a little further afield.

Practically all the good schools are grammar schools. These require tests to get into. If you go to 11 plus they have a couple of papers available to download for free. I'm going through the same process myself so know the burden.

Can anyone reccomend some good state schools in Putney, Wandsworth, Barnes or Richmond. We are relocation to the UK from the US and cannot afford to put our daughter in private, she will be in year 1. Also, how can you get into a state school, is it about being within a certain proximity to the school? Will we have a problem b/c it's in the middle of the school year?

South Bucks has some excellent schools (and the grammar school system

Katie99 proximity is generally important but sometimes it will count for nothing. There have been occasions when the entire class allocation is siblings. And proximity varies from year to year - so there is no defined "catchment" area - don't let estate agents tell you otherwise!

Virtually all primary schools in the Richmond borough are very good. Spaces for year 1 really will depend on proximity to the school or church attendance if a church school. year 1 should be easier than reception as this current reception year was less oversubscribed than the previous year. The council admissions department are very friendly and can let you know of available places within the borough. Their number is 020 8891 7514. The richmond council website is also very helpful for specific links to each school.

There are a lot of excellent primaries in Wandsworth (borough as a whole, not just Wandsworth itself) - Honeywell and Belleville in Battersea, Beatrix Potter in Earslfield and others, but they are hard to get into. There is also Henry Cavendish which is actually in Lambeth but right on the Wandsworth borders - they seem to have a slightly larger catchment area than some. It all goes a bit wrong at Secondary though, only Tooting Graveney is really excellent although Chestnut Grove in Balham is fab for art and making major progress at the moment. Graveney selects 25 to 30% of its kids from all over Wandsworth though, they can sit a special test, so catchement is not crucial there.

katie99

You will get a place somewhere in Richmond (which covers Barnes)and prob Wandsworth too which covers Putney.

The population is very fluid and spaces occur all the time in all the schools, however popular. And all the primary schools are good. Moving in the middle of a term shouldn't be a problem. You will be fine. Contact Wandsworth and Richmond councils, you can easily google them.

in order to get into Graveney on distance, you need to live very, very close - we are less than 5 mins walk away and are just on the cusp of the catchment area some years depending on the year group. Graveney only selects 25% of pupils from the wandsworth test (which anyone can sit, not just wandsworth pupils - graveney's had pupils commuting from brighton before now!. Graveney can no longer give priority to siblings of out of area children who pass the test which should free up some more places for local children. There are two local primaries, Penwortham (outstanding ofsted) and Furzedown (only 'satisfactory' but I know plenty of parents who're very happy with their dcs' progress) - there's lots of movement in and out of the schools - in common with most London primaries so getting a place halfway through the year shouldn't be too problematic

Well, let me throw religion into the ballcourt.

If you are Catholic or "general" Christian(with a baptized child and can provide a reference from your parish priest) more school choices open up for you.

My son went to a very good lovely Roman Catholic primary school in Richmond when we lived in London.

We are familly of 4 moved from US last year
I would recomend Richmond Vineyard school
my son is very happy there
good luck

Ealing has some very good primary schools that feed into good secondary schools (both Church of England and comprehensive).
We're moving into the borough this summer and the transfer process (DD is currently Yr 4) is going fairly well I think, so there is hope of getting a place at a good school mid-way through your children's education.

Teddington (in the borough of Richmond) has five good primary schools and a good mixed secondary school, with a very good girls secondary school up the road in Twickenham plus close to Kingston grammar schools.

You'll pay a premium to live there, but cheaper than Hampstead.