primary schools and where to live in good parts of barnet? 2012

[hellothere2011]

Hi everyone.... looking for advice on whrich part of barnet to move to, would love some pointers so being as specific as possible:

We have a 1.5yr old and looking to move to a green safe part of north London, hoping for a 3-4 bed house in the 400 - 500k max bracket, near a primary school thats rated outstanding or good and has good SATs scores,

.... if we can also have it near a grammar/private secondary school and the tube! Would be a bonus but not as important as the other stuff above..

Is it possible??? What do u think of high barnet, hadley highstone, monken hadley, edgware, east barnet, arkley... or out of borough eg stanmore, cockfosters?? I dont know barnet at all!

Thanks alot for your help and experienced advice!

I don't know about private schools but most of the primary schools around Barnet are rated either good or outstanding. For grammar you will need to have a boy or aim for the few places at Dame Alice Owens in Potters Bar. Henrietta Barnetts (the girls grammar) is a pig to get to from here. I know the bigger private secondaries (Habs, St Albans, etc) all have transport that you can catch from outside the Odeon and probably up on the high street.

High Barnet is the central part and means you can easily walk to the areas around the High Street - the houses up there are more Victorian and Edwardian terraces whilst the ones as you go down the hill are more 1930s semis.

Hadley is rather expensive and you won't get much for your money around there.

The birth rates in Barnet have been high in recent years and so catchment areas for the schools have become rather tight - if you want a particular school you will need to make sure you move close. There are a couple of faith schools and you seem to need to be a regular attendee to get a place at them.

East Barnet has some nice areas too - good schools and a mix of housing - Victorian/Edwardian/early 1900s. It has more a village feel to it. It isn't as handy for the tube but the overground from Oakleigh Park into Finsbury Park/Moorgate/Kings Cross is a fast link during rush hour and 3 trains per hour outside of that.

Thanks Caurnie! That's really helpful... :)
Any parts/roads of high Barnet to avoid or particular areas to go for? I think it's going to be HB or Oakleigh park -hadn't realised the trains were so good! :) haven't explored totteridge, any good?
I've heard the area around QE boys/ foulds is nice, but that around QE girls/ tube(eg down the hill) is really rough! Any truth in this?
Not particularly of any practising faith, so I guess I won't get my hopes up on any of those?! A shame cos there's a lot of them around with great ratings :$
Thanks so much for your time! :)

The so called magic area are the streets to the left of Stapylton Road - they are the Foulds catchment. Parking is difficult as very little off street parking and you need resident permits. But very convenient for tube and shops (there is a Waitrose in the Spires shopping centre).

There are what some people would class as "rougher" areas down the hill - ie along Mays Lane, the Dollis Valley Estate and around Barnet General but I can assure you that the houses/roads south of Wood Street and High Street, down to Mays Lane are not in anyway rough - they just might lack the "gentile" Edwardian/Victorian charm of High Barnet!

I live a bit further down from there in the 30s triangular estate comprising of Fairfield/Sherrards/Grasvenor/Western (I don't like Fairfield/Sherrards so much as they backs onto the tube line). There is a wonderful infant school on Grasvenor Avenue which DD attended (it is the smallest school in London). This feeds into Underhill which DD now attends and so far, so good (it was classed as good on its last Ofsted).

I usually drive to Oakleigh Park and park on the roads around the station as this gives me a faster link into London (and I need faster due to having to get into Central London for 0930 hrs after doing the school run with DD), however DH walks up to High Barnet tube in the morning and then we pick him up from New Barnet mainline station at the end of the day.

I don't know about the housing around Totteridge, apart from the fact it is quite pricey - lots of very big houses (eg Arsene Wenger the Arsenal manager lives there).

For Oakleigh Park you would want to be on the streets between the Station and East Barnet village - again, the catchment areas are small and friends only got into Church Hill Primary after being on the waiting list (they live closer to the village than the school). St Mary's CofE, again, is hard to get into without being a regular church attendee. East Barnet secondary has good reviews.

You need to come and visit and have a drive around the areas or have a good scan using Street View. But you really need to visit to see what the hill is like (they don't call it High for nothing!).

thanks Caurnie- ur local knowledge is exactly what I was looking for - cheers!!