Help! Wimbledon or Richmond?

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Hi, we need to move to the SW of London from Beckenham with a boy starting Y5 in September and a girl applying for a place in reception for 2018. We can move very near the school since we will be renting.

We like Wimbledon or Richmond, both convenient for our respective jobs in terms of location.

The doubts we have are in relation to schools, Sir Richard Reynolds in Richmond or St Mary in Wimbledon, both catholic schools. In the case of Wimbledon with the idea of Wimbledon College for him and Ursiline for her as secondary schools. If Richmond Sir Richard Reynolds for both for secondary school.

Given how fast we need to move for starting a new job in September we will not be able to visit the schools so we will really appreciate the feedback of someone living in those areas and sending their children to any of those schools.
Also are these areas very different or are they similar?

Thank you in advance!!!

Sir Richard Reynolds is not in Richmond, it's in Twickenham. It's a very new school, it only opened in 2013 and so it's primary school will not have a year 5 or 6 this year and it's currently a total building site.

I don't know anything about schools in Wimbledon so I can't help you with that. The areas are not too dissimilar generally, a similar demographic depending on which parts you're looking at. I do think you need to do more research into your chosen schools. Schools in Richmond (and Twickenham) can be massively oversubscribed and even if you move very close then you'll probably end up on a waiting list for a while.

Lots of primary schools in places like Richmond and Wimbledon have spaces at the top end of the school because parents have either moved out of London or taken the dive into private education. I'd start by speaking to the local authorities about spaces and go from there

Agree that you will probably be able to to get a space for your y5 child in most schools and then will get your reception child in on a sibling place. I'd ring quickly before they all break up for holidays though. I suspect if you call schools direct they will probably be able to tell you if they have spaces too.