A state school that is like/close to a private school

[HungryDam]

Hi,

Do you know of a state school that is like or similar to a private school? Maybe one that offers plenty of extra curricular activities like a debating society for example for a fee after school hours?

@claraagain

Well you are right of course, but it hasnt stopped some Free Schools from CLAIMING that they will have small class sizes. Its a false claim of course, except where it is one of the large number of Free Schools that have seriously under recruited. It must be presumed that once the special start up funding runs out, and there is less of that than there was, they will experience a sharp financial squeeze.

It will almost certainly be cheaper to go private, then to live within catchment of the best school in London (however you define best)

Schools with small classes tend to be villiage schools. To get good wrap around care and after school activites you usually need a bigger school so that there are enough kids to make the activites viable.

What aspects of private education are important to you?

West London Free School?
Cobham Free School?

Or these have a very affluent catchment so probably less worry about results... but to live in the catchment is extremely pricey so you may as well live elsewhere and go private!
St Mary Abbots Primary
Fox Primary
Bousfield Primary
Hampden Gurney C of E

If you can move out of London Surrey has some very affulent village schools
Puttenham Infants
Shackleford Infants
Bramley Infants
etc

What about Thomson house school in mortlake

Cobham Free School sounds like what you need.
They specifically say that they are modelled on independent schools. Currently year All primary, up to Y7 - next year will be 8, then 9 etc.
Have a longer school day, like indies, and follow indie school hols.
If you look a their website, lots of info about extra-curricular, Latin etc.
PE lessons run by Chelsea Football Club, Music by the Yehudi Menuhin school.
(I have no connection with the school btw, just read about it... )

Cobham Free School had a "catchment" area last year of 0.48km. Although 20% of places were reserved for children receiving pupil premium funding apparently no one in the electoral wards specified ( Cobham, Oxshott and Stoke D'Abernon) applied and matched this criteria!! Have you seen the prices of houses in this area? School fees would probably be cheaper!

Do you mean South Farnham manic? Very expensive catchment area - the person I knew who moved into that catchment was buying a £2million mansion house

could well be squidgyapple - I just remember that it was in farnham

This is an interesting post; I can't imagine choosing a state school on the grounds of how like a private school it is.
There are lots of excellent schools in London that

This is a really odd thread.

Even if you were able to nail down the school you wanted, there's no guarantee you'd be able to find a property in the catchment area.

....argh! Mobile phone decided it would post for me.
As I was saying, London has lots of excellent schools that offer an enormous range of extra-curricular activities. My DDs' state primary offers choirs, football, basketball, sewing, rock band, music ensemble, brass, woodwind and violin lessons, debating (Y5-6) and various different clubs across the year. It's nothing like a private school though! Results are very important and the school are under pressure from the LA all the time which leads to before/after school booster classes for the poor Y6 children. In a private school, the LA have no say in what happens. In state schools, teachers are paid properly, receive ongoing training and are expected to implement endless policies at the drop of a hat. Private schools make up their own curriculum and pay scales and some offer little in the way of teacher training. Private school uniforms round here seem to include strange hats and wool blazers. A number of the local state schools don't have a uniform. From my experience of both sectors, I'd say that state is likely to offer a greater pool of friends as the classes are usually bigger and the intake more mixed.

Apart from not having to wear an Enid Blyton-esque school uniform, I believe my DDs are receiving far better teaching at their Lewisham state school than I've seen on offer at local private schools.

Don't be swayed by private schools saying they work a year ahead of state schools, they are often out of touch with reality.

Apart from issues of uniform I wonder if you'd like Brindishe Lee, Halstow or Edmund Waller schools in Lewisham and Greenwich boroughs.

Op, you must have to get for a specific place for work? Suggesting harpenden schools if your work is in Clapham junction.

..is not much help!

I don't think that harpenden state schools are anything like private schools. There are still big classes and distruptive kids who can't easily be excluded. (Even Rich kids can be brats!) The cost of living in Harpenden is astronomical. Its cheaper to live somewhere like Hemel or Luton and pay for private education.

I meant that as an example of why "London and outer London" weren't really specific enough!

Check out Honeywell and Belleville primary schools in Clapham (disclaimer - my kids don't go there so I know nothing of debating clubs etc) but they have that kind of reputation. They are also feeder schools for Bolingbroke, a free school that's been set up quite recently. Be prepared to pay A LOT to get into the tiny catchment areas though - it might be cheaper to pay for an independent school.

OP despite the other posters giving you a hard time, I know exactly what you mean. A state school most like an independent school - I.e. naice, middle class intake, lots of activities on offer blah blah
However. There is a big difference: a state school just can't be the same as an independent school. They are obliged to operate within certain parameters that independent schools are exempt from.
So for high academic achievement you should look to ofsted reports and league tables. You'll find the top London state schools select by academic ability (so, selective comps or grammar schools in Surrey and Kent and Bucks), or they select by religion (and the top schools not only require you to live close but also demand high levels of religious commitment, mass attendance, early baptism etc). The truly academic schools that only require you to live on their doorstep are relatively few and far between.

I noticed with some amusement that not many actual school names are being mentioned on this thread....

Are you looking for Primary or secondary? We can help if you let us know which bits of London you are able to move to. No point telling you that the greycoat school in Westminster is awesome if you have no chance of getting if you are neither the right religion nor live close enough

Don't discount the benefits of not being surrounded by an exclusively 'naice middle class intake'. My DS goes to a primary with an extremely diverse intake and IMO that is was trumps the local private schools. Unless a primary is dire then if a child is academically bright they will succeed. Especially with an involved parent. If your child is not academically bright then it is most likely that a selective secondary won't be the right place for them, even if you can 'prep' them for it. My daughter goes to a private nursery which feeds to local preps and though she is cosseted and exposed to the most ridiculous range of activities she really misses out on the diversity that comes with living in london.

Honeywell in Wandsworth; don't know anybody who goes there though. Here is a link of best state primaries:

www.tatler.com/news/articles/january-2014/the-tatler-guide-to-state-schools---part-one