Private schools north london/city

[childofthe80s]

DD is 7 months old. Ideally we would like to send her to private school.

Tell me your terrible stories about organisational/admissions issues so that I can persuade DH that I am not mad for worrying about this already.

Are there any particularly lunatic admissions policies?

I would be interested in hearing about this too - ours is 8 months - we are in fulham. when do we need to start registering?

Check the websites of the schools you are interested in but generally register sooner rather than later as applications are often considered in order of registration (after siblings of current pupils).

Some require registration before 1st birthday and certainly I know of a few that require registration between 1st and 2nd birthday.

So you are neither mad nor paranoid to be checking now as you might miss some deadlines if you leave it for another few months.

I would suggest registering for more than one school unless the school you have chosen is not oversubscribed and/or does not select.

Saw this earlier but now I can post. DD is at Lyceum (EC2, off City Road). She was put down at 1yr8mth and was in reserve then - they are now massively more popular and are not an assessed entry, so first on list = first in. I have noted on other threads how happy I am with them - do a search on Lyceum - but you need to register pretty soon. Sorry!

Can I ask you why you'd ideally like your dd to go private? Not getting into a private v state debate, but if you'd asked me at the same stage I think I might have assumed that ds would go private and certainly made appts to go look at a few schools in the city (not Lyceum I must add). I have to say I was horrified by them, they had no outside space and the heads were v uninspiring. I then looked round our local state and the head was great and they had ten times the amount of space. Unless you're going for a v well established school like Highgate, you may find that the facilities in private schools are shocking while state schools always have at least some outside space. Ours had a huge disused building in playground that is now being turned into an arts centre, something that would unlikely to happen in a privately owned space.
Please don't assume that all inner city state schools are sinks but go visit your local one with an open mind. You might be pleasantly surprised (and save the money to pay for vast university tuition fees in the future...)

Thanks! This has been useful.

In answer to PP, basically the ideal is to go private because I did and feel that I had a great education from it. Also, I feel the actual decision is some way away but, if in two/three/four years time, I feel dd would benefit from that kind of education and we can fund it, I would kick myself if she had lost out becuase we hadn't registered in time. Obviously if the answer is good state primary vs poor private school, I'd go for good state school. Apparently our local primary schools are very good but I think we'll be moving in the next few years anyway and I don't want to be at the mercy of a catchment area lottery.

Thank you for all your responses - it's good to hear people's experiences.

Indeed there is a huge variation between schools; and whether they be private or state is only part of that.

However if you want a private as back up you do need to get in touch with the ones you are interested in as private schools are completely free in what system they use for admissions. Its part of being private...