Chestnuts Primary, haringey

[merrymuzzie]

Any opinions on this school? It's results seem rather mixed year to year.

Bumping as there most be someone from the area on mn. Any opinions on other local schools valued too.

Daughter lives in Haringey and would have been delighted to get DGD into Chestnuts. Both parents are teachers and it was one of their top choices.

They loved the ethos and thought it was academically solid. SATs aren't everything. Some area schools are known to 'teach to the test', which doesn't really give children a solid academic foundation. Like most London schools, Chestnuts has a mixed intake, and DD thought the school actually cared more about teaching than test prep. We think that's better for children in the long run.

Haringey is vastly oversubscribed. As distances shrink, more and more families find themselves in black holes. You probably want to carefully check last year's furthest distance admitted and see which, if any, schools you're likely to get a place in.

I'm jealous if you live within Chestnuts admissions distance!

She didn't get a place at Chestnuts. She did get a last-minute waiting-list place at her closest school - where she had, in fact, gone to nursery (also off the waiting list), although several nursery friends failed to make the distance for infants.

It's only a breather as the attached juniors has separate admissions, so she could well get kicked out in two years. And her brother is four years younger, so no sibling preference at any stage. It's an ongoing nightmare.

I think Chestnuts is the better school, but hers is perfectly decent, and there's a lot to be said for neighbourhood schools for little ones, unless they're truly dreadful.