Secondary Schools for Yr 9 Girl in/near London

[OneAmpleBiscuit]

Hello!
My family will be moving from the US to London in August or September. We have a daughter who will join Year 9 and would like to know more the school and real estate search.

• commute 2-3x a week to Liverpool St station (Leadenhall St), 1-1.5 hours max
• budget around 2500-2800 per month for a 3 bedroom residence
• what are good areas to look in with those criteria?
• given the tight timeline for starting school in September, does it make sense to focus on independent schools vs. state schools?

Thank you in advance for any advice you can offer! This is incredibly exciting but also overwhelming!

If you’re budget is £2.5k for in and around London, I’m surprised you’re considering independent schools

have you looked at fees for secondary? My DD’s is day and £8.5k a term

my DS weekly boarding and £14.5k a term

This is in a good location close to Gidea Park Station (on the new Elizabeth Line, under half hour to Liverpool St on new, air conditioned trains) and Frances Bardsley Academy for Girls, a really popular and well regarded school.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/163394069#/?channel=RES_LET

We’ve factored in 27,000 per year for independent school fees.

In that case, given we are talking 3 months basically until she’ll be starting…. I’d build everything around a good private school with a vacancy!!!

Hoddesdon / Broxbourne for towns?

Haileybury for school? (But £41k pa)

Potters Bar (town), Dame Alice Owen school (state, but you would be lucky to get a place)

Enfield, Latymer school

For crime stats check out:

https://www.met.police.uk/area/your-area/

Most areas are pretty safe but there are hotspots you want to avoid.

Also: https://www.goodschoolsguide.co.uk/

Agree with @Hardtum to pick the school first.

For Leadenhall Street you could commute into Cannon Street station (Kent and SE London), it's about 15min walk. Or DLR to Bank station. Rather than just looking for Liverpool Street station commutes which limits to north and east.

Independent girls schools in SE London include Blackheath Girls and James Alleyn Girls (JAGS). For co-ed there's Alleyn's or Colfe's.

There's also lots of independent schools around Tunbridge Wells and Sevenoaks.

We're at state schools so can't comment on the schools, other than knowing Alleyn's has a lovely theatre as it's used for ballet shows 😀

Are you set on a private school? Woodford and Wanstead are green and leafy and an easy commute to Leadenhall on the Central line. Woodford County girls school is excellent. It's not private but it's selective so it would only work if your daughter is quite academic.

Not at all, but I thought our timeline might be too short, given the need to find a rental and then a spot at the school. I’ll look up the school and see what the options are. Thanks!

Bluntly, it’s not going to be easy to find a good school place at such short notice.

State: the council will have to find your DD a place somewhere, but not until you have actually moved, and it will be whichever school in the borough has space (aka the least popular school in the borough, usually for good reason).

Private: you will need to find a school that is not full, or has an occasional place coming up, ie someone is leaving. Tbh occasional places at the more popular schools will likely have been taken by now, as the pupils leaving will have had to give notice at Easter and those schools have lists of people waiting for openings so probably went to the list first. But worth phoning around. You could also ask schools that have a 13+ entry (eg Kingston Grammar, Epsom), the exams for 13+ entry have long passed but they might just have had someone who was holding a 13+ place but decided not to come.

Private schools that are not full: I would suggest looking at some of the more recently opened/rebranded private senior schools. For example the new Thomas’s senior school in Richmond, or the London Park Schools.

Sorry I am less familiar with N London schools but same general principles would apply.

There are school entrance consultants who can help you with all this, for a fee. They are mostly focused on private. They will do the ringing round for you and will have a more comprehensive knowledge of what schools are out there and likely to have space.

Be careful, if a private school has lots of space, it may be in trouble financially.

Also, I would factor in more like £30k, with 3-5% increase each year. Sorry 😬

I agree that looking out in the Essex/Suffolk direction may work better if you’re not wedded to London. Good London secondary schools are ridiculously oversubscribed right now.

I agree with @minipie that the school space will be the hard part

Chelmsford, New Hall school ? (£28k pa)

I think that you won’t have the luxury of much choice op when it comes to schooling, whether state or private

There is not much point in people suggesting specific areas/specific schools.

The schools mentioned above are very popular and very unlikely to have a last minute space.

You need to do a lot of ringing around or
employ someone to do this for you.

You basically have 4-8 weeks to move country, find a home and find a school for your teenager.

This sounds… stressful and a massive upheaval for your teenager.

I am afraid that pretty much any decent school at this point will be operating on a waiting list only op.
and as for some of the private schools mentioned? Those children would have been through assessments, interviews, shortlisting… ages ago.