Islington/ Finsbury park advice for primary schools

[CarolineGC]

Hi, we're looking to buy a flat in Islington or Finsbury Park hopefully near the Picadilly line. Does anyone have advice on state primaries? Does anyone have any experience with Robert Blair (seems like a big catchment and good ofsted) or Parkwood (also great ofsted)? or others? would love any help you can give! thanks!

I don't have any direct experience with Robert Blair but it's got a good rep for special needs. From what I gather it does very well from a not particularly high starting point (it's value-added is very high).
But, and this is difficult to put in a way that doesn't sound snobby and horrid, the parents of the boy I know who went there (for it's sn provision) said that they were the only middle-class ones in whole school. I personally like a school that reflects the diverse community of Islington so it has a mix of races and classes and from what they say, Robert Blair didn't.
It's also on quite a busy road.

Thanks, that's really helpful. Most of the London community state schools we've read the Ofsted reports for have some comment about "low starting points", though the occasional one says "somewhat low" or "varying" and many say "exceptionally low". I'm really not sure whether to be concerned about it. If it's just that the kids don't speak English (or not yet) and haven't been taught to write letters and hold a pencil by age 3, I'm not bothered! But I totally agree with you, we'd really like a school that has an honest mix. Do the other schools in the neighbourhood have an intake that's more diverse? Any you'd recommend? thanks again x

Well my kids are at Thornhill, which we love for this reason. It really does seem to have a great mix which really works. It used to have a huge catchment (standards fell during previous head's time, a lot of people in immediate vicinity go private, wasn't seen as one of the desired ones), but now the catchment has really narrowed and it's very oversubscribed plus has a lot of siblings. I don't know how near you have to live to get in (before it was pretty much anywhere in Islington!).
Yerbury is the one that everyone wants to go to and houses in catchment are at a premium, although I think they've changed the way distances are measured so you can get in above the railway line. Not very diverse though, incredibly white middle class for islington. William Tyndale is long standing popular. People like Grafton I think but I'm afraid I only really know this south islington area.

Yes, Grafton popular around these parts. Very diverse with outstanding ofsted. When I was looking at schools, I couldn't find any family who had anything negative to say about it. Head is supposed to be fantastic too. It's close to Holloway Tube / Piccadilly Line and has cheaper housing than other side of Holloway Road. Do watch where you buy though. Don't know about this year, but last year, it had a smaller catchment than Yerbury.

The traditionally 'desirable' schools (ie those with significant m/c intake) in Islington are: Yerbury, Tyndale, St John's Highbury Vale, Grafton, Thornhill, Hanover, Prior Weston in the Barbican, Canonbury (used to be anyway, they had a little localised difficulty with the head, shall we say). St Mary Mags feeds into the secondary, which might be an attraction for some.

But there are loads of schools that aren't quite so fashionable and are much more mixed but are really fab schools, perhaps all the better for not being quite so 'in demand'. Tufnell Park primary is great, and I know people who are v. happy with, respectively, Duncombe, Laycock and Hargrave Park.

Thanks everyone, hopefully (assuming the property purchase goes through in the end) we'll be able to get DD1 into Tufnell park or Grafton, those are the closest but of course we can put others on our list. thanks!