state primary schools in tooting, sw london - help!

[Imelda]

dh and I are well enough off but certainly not enough for private education, and to be honest, I would prefer state education at the primary level. does anyone out there in mumsnet land know of any sw17/16 primaries with a decent education - i don't trust ofsted reports, and short of spending afternoons at school gates spying and cross examining parents I am at a loss as to which ones to apply to? also neither dh and i are religious (sadly)
would really be grateful for any advice
Imelda

I'll be interested in the replies you get as we are in Tooting and coming up to school age as well. A lot will depend whether you're in Merton or Wandsworth. We're about 100 yards over the border into Merton and have been to look at the two closest schools: Links and Gorringe Park. We were impressed with them both but have nothing to compare with so that's not necessarily much to go on. Someone at DS1's nursery has sent their daughter to Links and is pleased with it. I've also been told it's good for nursery and reception in particular. Gorringe used to be a middle school so is just now taking really young children. A lot of it has been refurbished and we were amazed by the facilities, in particular the IT.

I can't help you much with Wandsworth but I think the Furzedown schools are meant to be good. I've also heard that Franciscan isn't, but that's really only third hand and not from anyone who sends their child there. DS2's nanny sends her son to Sellincourt and is happy with it.

Hopefully someone else will have some better info.

thanks so much sari nad batters for this info - just to clarify that we are wandsworth borough - does that mean we can still apply for other boroughs? I was under the impression we wouldn't have a hope in hell of getting into another borough's school. also - is there any point at all in applying to CofE schools if neither dh or i attend church (afraid i have hesitation at all in sending ds to a religious school if that means he gets a better education!)
imelda

Don't want to hijack your thread Imelda, but can I ask a quick question Batters? I know you had quite a few offers of places for your DD in the end, and I wondered which schools they were? Did Henry Cavendish come up with something? What about Telferscot? Just interested as I'm just up around the corner.

I checked out the Guardian site and have downloaded the performance tables - as a rule of thumb do you think there is an acceptable %level? also - do you think that it is better to have maths and english on an equal %level, rather than say maths 90% and english 60% or vice versa?
i think our best bet is to apply to as many as possible and then go and see them- i am assuming of course that the schools allow you to do this?
this is such a fantastic web site. how do we spread the word??

We went to look at schools before applying, rather than vice versa. Both schools we saw told us to visit as many as possible so you can certainly do that in Merton.

As for league tables I can't help much with acceptable percentage rates. It's worth bearing in mind that many schools have very high numbers of children who don't speak a lot of English when they get to school and this must affect the results for English more than Maths. Especially if children are coming into different years. Perhaps it's more helpful to see what position in the league table a school is in relation to others in the borough.

I think the best thing to do is go and have a look and see how you feel about each school.

On the strength of Batters' information about applying to other boroughs I'm going to start looking at Wandsworth schools as well.