Dallington School -- Advice

[RonWeasley]

Hi, I am an expat, and am struggling to figure out where to send my child to primary school. He is now 4 years old. We have not gotten into the state school we were intereste in, and were late getting onto the lists for private schools, but I have visited the Dallington School. Can anyone give me some sense of this schooll? I have seen earlier posts on this website on Dallington, but wanted to have an updated sense of the place, particularly its academics. Is this a place that a child will get a great foundation for a great secondary school? I can see that the school has a focus on arts which is very important to me, and a less structured system which I can appreciate, but I am less certain about the academic results of this school and would be grateful for views.

PS -- I am referring to the Dallington School in London, Islington.

How low are you on the waiting list of the state school you were interested in? Is it very oversubscribed? Have you looked at the one you have got into? Our local state, on paper, was pretty rubbish, but we visited it and loved it (we also visited Dallington and various other privates) and since then it's improved radically by external measures.
London and esp Islington has so much movement due to people moving out of London or going private. I wouldn't give up hope of state yet.
But I see no bad thing to have a back-up. I've heard very good things about Dallington in the very early years. Seems like a great introduction to education. I have heard of kids growing out it. Also less academic than lots of private, in fact less than our state school, so it depends how quickly you want them to progress (sure this laid back approach works in the long term).

Thank you very much for taking the time to reply. We are number 5 on the state school we were focusing on, which is the Lauriston School in Victoria Park. My sense is that we are probably too far down the wait list to have hope, which is unfortunate for us because we bought a house in Victoria Park expressly to be close to this school. We have visited other state schools in the vicinity and are just not comfortable with them for different reasons (most do not have good ratings, they seem under-funded and under-staffed, and we sensed little enthusiasm).

I don't mind the laid back approach of a place like Dallington, provided that my son will still have all of the opportunities available to him later in his education. I hear these horror stories about secondary school entrance exams, etc., which I understand very little about because I come from an entirely different educational system (in the USA), and there is remarkably little out there to help an expat parent understand the English system. The Dallington School seemed like a very nice and encouraging place, but I have no basis to understand whether kids who go there are well-prepared for the next level from an academic standpoint. Maybe the academic part doesn't matter yet for us because my son is too young, and the best environment is a place like Dallington. But this talk of secondary school exams gives me considerable pause when evaluating a primary school that seems to de-emphasize academics.

I appreciate that I probably sound like an insane, paranoid and over-protective parent, but I am really a fish out of water here and just trying to make the best decision without any experience.

lauriston is 2 form entry isn't it? i would be very surprised if you didn't get a place before september, as pollyparanoia says there is always lots of movement in london. can you bear to hold your nerve until september? if your son is still 4 you have more time as he doesn't legally need to be in school until the term after he's 5. how close do you live to lauriston?

I really sympathise as I felt the same, that somehow decisions I was making for my teeny child were going to have huge lifetime ramifications. Once my child actually entered school, I realised that it's much less stressful than I had thought, plus you can always move them ( a process they find way less stressful than you do). Even the most sought after private schools have places that come up, nothing is set in stone.
It's not because you're expat! I'm born and bred in this country and all seemed beyond me, while everyone seemed scarily sussed.

Ps I'd put money on you getting a place at lauriston if its two form entry

Thanks again for both of your advice. Lauriston is a 2-form entry, and despite the fact that we are only a couple of blocks from the school, we didn't get in and are 5th on the waiting list. We have filed an appeal, but don't really have any basis to appeal other than that it seems unfair to not get into the school in your neighborhood. . . . .

My local school two form entry and I personally know of four parents who accepted places yet were always intending to go private. They just didn't turn up on day1
It's not really worth appealing unless you can show that they made a mistake in processing your application

That's what I figured. I guess I'm a bit pessimistic about people giving up spots in Lauriston, as it has such a good reputation, but we will see. But I am happy with Dallington as long as my son is going to be prepared and get the education he needs. My takeaway from what I have read is that it is a very good school for young children, and there is some skepticism about how older kids handle the lack of structure.

You can stay on the waiting list at Lauriston and move him when there's a spot available. There is also St E's across the park which does quite well, although it's Catholic.