Primary schools in Haringey

[Mum123456]

My daughter is three years old and I'm already feeling sick with dread as my turn to apply for primary school places slowly approaches. The problem is, I live in Wood Green, and, quite frankly, the majority of primary schools near me are crap. The few decent ones have crazy tight catchment areas. My nearest primary school is literally over the road, yet I refuse to send my daughter there. Any advice? I'm sure to lose my mind over this soon! Please help!!

This academic year. Staff turnover can be an indicator.

Catchments for schools along Green Lanes - North Harringay, South Harringay and Chesnuts very tiny this year so research well. Faith schools which have excellent reputations (St John Vianney, St Mary's RC, for example) are over-subscribed and need excellent priest's reference (weekly Church attendance) and you still won't get a place if you don't live close enough (siblings etc notwithstanding).

I think you're all right about checking them out for myself first.
Does anyone have experience with Lordship Lane Primary? I think I may be within catchment area there.

I know someone whose child is there and is happy with it and a friend of mine just got a job there and thought it seemed like a very nice school. Earlham is also up that way, isn't it, and well regarded?

It is easy to get caught up in Ofsted reports and local gossip. If the school over the road from you is Noel Park, then it's worth noting that in 2008 it was judged to be 'Good with Outstanding Features' - there's still the same Head etc. It is being forced to become a sponsored academy from Sept '12, though, although AET (the sponsor) claim that they won't be changing much (which rather begs the question "what are you doing then?" but that's another discussion).

With regards to North Harringay, I happened to visit there for another reason and got a strong whiff of control-freakery from the HT. A lot of talk about the 'North Harringay way' (of doing things).... I suggest that this may be connected to the increased staff turnover!

What has gone on in Muswell Hill this year?

Someone posted further up the thread - her child and others in Muswell Hill don't have places as yet.

The catchment for North Haringey shrunk from well over a mile last year to 0.4 this year, so they seem to be doing something right .....

But, as someone has said above, all the schools along Green Lanes have shrinking catchments.

It makes no difference to me whether North Harringay is regarded as good or bad, I am nowhere near there, but I did spend 45 minutes in the company of the HT and those were my observations.

On the other hand, I thought that Chestnuts was a gorgeous school - warm, inclusive and caring.

Downhills is a lovely school, though also over subscribed.

Chestnuts? I know it's well regarded but I didn't love it when I went to look round. I don't doubt that pastorally it's a nice school, but results poor given the intake. Same situation at South Haringey, actually - both below floor target.

I admit that I have never looked at Chestnuts results, as I was not lookIng at it from that perspective.

However, it is worth bearing in mind that a HT who cheeses off their staff will, sooner or later, be on the receiving end of a lot of turnover. I know of a school with a very middle class intake, albeit a bit coasting, which suffered from high turnover due to poor management. The final straw was when an experienced year 6 teacher left halfway through a year, they failed to staff the vacancy properly and results plummeted. Next ofsted was failed...

That bring us back to the original advice given to OP - people have different perspectives on, and experiences of, individual schools. Things can change quickly in schools, either because of a changing demographic or changes in Head etc, so there's not necessarily any telling where particular schools will be in a few years.

A friend of mine's children have had many happy years at North Haringey - she's very happy with the school and is a teacher herself. She really rates the new Head. She has a different opinion to you - neither of you are right or wrong, you just see things differently.

Chestnuts and South Haringey also targeted for academy conversion, btw, if that's important to anyone.

A friend's little boy has just got into Noel Park and she was very happy with it when looking round. He's still down to go to Belmont if a miracle happens possible though. She disn't rate Earlham at all.

Really curious about why Chestnuts and South Haringey are being targeted for academy conversion. What are the reasons given and are the schools fighting this?

Neither Chestnuts nor S Haringey junior school do well academically, despite having a many, many fewer FSMs etc than nearby schools. In DfE speak, they've been 'consistently under performing' as consistently below floor targets.

There's a more political agenda behind the scenes (Haringey LA in cahoots with the DfE), but they are both on the list of 19 that the DfE identified as ones they want to convert last year.

No idea if they're fighting it - there's an unpleasant culture of denial and secrecy around.

Lordship lane primary was not a good school for my cousin, their anti bullying policy failed badly, there were new children starting every week and a large percentage are at an early stage of learning English as an additional language and they failed to accommodate both these children and the children who did have English as their first language. She left the school in yr2 and went to earlsmead primary on broad lane. The head teacher there is amazing and she is doing really well, they are excellent in regard to helping the children who are learning English as well as pushing the children who are "above average"
My aunt lives on lordship lane, but I'm not sure if she was in the catchment area or if she got a place as it was an in year admission?

SchoolsNightmare you may disapprove of the practise, but there's nothing about renting a flat closer to a desired school that is against the rules. As long as you actually live there (as opposed to solely using this as a postal address) then there's no being "found out" or any such thing. As you are renting a property, you will be paying council tax on such property, having post delivered etc. which makes it actually your home (albeit temporary).

BTW I haven't done this myself, but I do know several people who have. Successfully.

Does anyone know much about Devonshire Hill in Tottenham? Close to Great Cambridge Road/White Hart Lane. The more I look in to local schools the more strands of hair I lose. I don't think renting anywhere desirable will be an option for me, but I have family members with room for more closeby to Devonshire Hill, but the only things I know about it are about 15 years out of date!

I believe that it recently had a very good Ofsted, but don't know anything about the school itself.

Alexandra school is a really nice school and it is a SINGLE FORM ENTRY. Can't go wrong with one form per year. Nightingale has a very mixed intake and will probably pick up now that the Head's left and it is on special measures. Put it this way, it has potential.

In the end, most kids don't care whether their school is good or bad. They play, they learn, that's more or less it. What they really want is mates that live nearby and a school they can walk to. Schools in Haringey go up and down all the time and it's largely parent power that affects the school's reputation.

There are hundreds of children in any one school - they can't all be bad, and the teachers can't either. How about you get together with some nursery parents you get on with and all agree to go to the same school?

Nightingale school is on a 'notice to improve'. It's never been below the 'floor target' by the way, so even when judged to be 'inadequate' it's still been doing much better than thousands of other schools. The general sense is that there have been massive improvements since the old Head left, and that the school is getting much better very quickly.

It's going to become an AET academy in September. The communication about this to staff and parents is exceptionally poor ie there isn't any.