Entering primary school

[nygoesuk]

Hello

Does anyone have information on how far in advance you need to register your primary school aged children in a public school in and around London? I am moving to London come this fall - Sept. and have three small children to enroll. While I am on the subject - any suggestions on what are the best public schools - someone told me that CofE schools are very good??? Are they public?

Thanks

AFAIK You will not be able to register your children at a state school until you have a local address. Then you will need to find which primary schools in the area (which, I understand, can be rather large in London) have spaces - this might be particularly important if you plan on having all three of your children in the same school.

As for which schools are best - I am sure someone will be along to offer suggestions. It might be worth looking at Ofsted reports if you have some idea of where you are looking but Ofsted reports are just one aspect to consider.

Good Luck

varies hugely by area so no single answer to your question. Our closest primary which luckily DS got into for next Sept is a small school (30 intake every year) and is graded as outstanding and isn't a church school. But this year 17 of the 30 places went to siblings and to get one of the remaining 13 places you really need to live less than 700 metres from the school.

Applications for Sept admission for 5 yr olds tend to close around Nov/Dec the year before but I'm not sure how it works if you join outside that - it depends on whether they have spaces.

and they are called "state" schools in the UK = "public" schools are a very elite tier of private schools (just to confuse you!)

which area of london are you moving to? dulwich / east dulwich in south east london has some very good schools

Thanks all

Thinking of Wimbledon or the Richmond area - I was told these are nice. In the states - or should I say NY - if you live within the school zone you are guaranteed admission. Of course private or what you call public depends on admission. Are CofE schools public (pay)? Do you have to be religious?

CofE schools are normal state schools, so they are free, but you do have to be religious to get in. In London, to get into a good CofE school you would normally have to be a church-going CofE (that's Episcopalian to you )family. You would be better off identifying some primary schools in areas you like the look of and then targeting houses in their catchment areas - the closer the better.

I'm in Richmond borough and some very good state primry schools but very oversubscribed. Living in teh borough gives you a guarantee of a school but not a school of your choice. he closer you live to a school th emore likely you will get a place but arriving outside of normal admission times does mean you are dependent on who has spaces. How old are your DC's?

Our local CofE school generally takes regular church goers but this year becasue of much lower than normal sibling places has taken many people just based on location.

AGree with first lady - find a school first and house second. You can CAT me privately about Richmond if you like.