Hanwell Primary schools - St Joseph's/Mayfield/Our Lady of the Visitation

[MamaL86]

Morning all,

We moved to the area close to a year ago. My son is still attending a school in the borough we used to live in as I work there and he's very happy.

Although he's happy where he is I feel it's a very long day for him and he's not really putting down roots in the local area. Playdates are tricky with his current school friends because of the distance involved (a good 30 mins drive to get him there, so can result in 2 hours driving).

As he'll have to move in Year 7 anyway, I'm increasingly wondering if it wouldn't make sense to move him sooner rather than later? Obviously I'm reluctant to move him from somewhere he's happy but socially I think there would be benefits. We've also found out recently that although he's bright he has SEN (dyslexia and possible Aspergers/ADHD) so that's a consideration when finding a suitable school and would need to be somewhere where pastoral support is strong.

Anyway, I wondered if anyone has any recent experience of Mayfield Primary or St Joseph's/Our Lady of the Visitation? I think we're probably more likely to be offered a place at Mayfield but St Joseph's/Our Lady would be ideal as we're hoping to send him to Cardinal Wiseman for secondary and would mean he'd then know some of the children in his class in Year 7. Any thoughts/advice very gratefully received :)

If you're on Facebook then a search of the Hanwell Friends group - you'll have to join first as it's a private group - will give you great advice as this type of question is often asked and loads of people with direct experience reply. Or you could ask the question yourself. I personally have great experience of Mayfield but no experience of SEN

What year is your son? If you look here you'll see all of the current in-year vacancies in Ealing schools. You'll only be offered a place if there is a vacancy.

FWIW all three are good schools. Mayfield has some heavy duty building work at the moment. OLOV and OLSJ are both feeder schools for Wiseman.

Thank you both for your replies - very helpful. I am a member of the Hanwell Friends group so will post on there. I did look a while back to see if anyone had posted anything relating to those schools but couldn't find anything.

Thanks for the link to the vacancies. I know that there are no vacancies in his year group at present but will keep an eye out and see if anything comes up - presumably there's likely to be some movement over the course of the year.

You need to submit your in-year application to the council so you are on the waiting list for your preferred school. That way you'll be offered a place when it comes up.

Ah ok, thank you. Sorry, I've only just begun to look into this seriously. So you submit the form and then hope that you'll get a place as and when one available (presumably according to where you fall on their admissions criteria)? Is it best to just list one preferred school then do you think?

I've just realised I was looking at Hanwell Friends on my phone which was why it was difficult to search - as you said 'toomanytolist', there seems to be a lot now that I'm searching properly on my laptop.

Call the councils in year admissions team for advice. You will end up on a waiting list. How high up depends on how closely you meet the admission criteria compared to other people waiting for a place at that school, if that makes sense. I.e. you might not be first in line...or you might. It depends. You definitely won't be in line at all if they don't know that you want a place.

Good luck. I hope it all works out for the best for you. 😊

If you're in Hanwell have you looked at St. John Fishers in Perivale?