South Park Gardens (SW19) CofE schools

[newtoSW19area]

Hi, we are likely to be moving to the South Park Gardens area in a few months. I am posting in order to learn about recent experiences for Open places at Holy Trinity and The Priory schools. The house we are considering is around 400m away from both the schools. Does this usually suffice to get accepted at Reception level into one of HT or The Priory?

If you could take some time to let me know your experience, that would be very helpful to me. Thank you very much!

You can ask the schools to tell you the furthest offered distance for open places for previous years. This is no guarantee but will at least give you a guide. My gut reaction is 400m is likely too far to get an offer on offer day BUT you could get an offer by the September start or after of course as waiting lists move a great deal thanks to people moving away and going private. It's a gamble & you will need nerves of steal (I speak from experience!). They are both faith schools and you will need to live very, very close (especially for HT) for a non-faith place.
Visit the schools and ask for the info - they have very different feels in my opinion. Good luck.

What would the nearest primary school be for the house you are looking at? Someone posted this on a thread back in 2013 (see below) and I imagine the situation is even worse now. HT tends to be more popular than The Priory though. My two kids are/have been at The Priory so PM me if you have any questions about that school:

"HT is pretty much a no-no. According to HT, the furthest distance they offered a place was 200 metres from the school gate. Of the 30 open places available last year, 100% went to siblings. They said that unless we live within a few hundred metres of the school, we wouldn't get a place and unlikely to get in via the waiting list (180 applications for 60 places last year). "

Thank you very much for your replies! Very helpful :)