Yet another question on Muswell Hill primaries!

[Paris17001]

We live close to Planet Organic in Muswell Hill and looking at the latest catchment info we are realistically only possibly getting into Tetherdown. Sounds like you have to attend tchurch for 2 years to even think of St James and Muswell Hill primary is probably not in our catchment.

Is Tetherdown good? Do we really have to go to church all the time to even think of St James? Is Muswell Hill way too far way?

Some feedback would be great!

Or us it really people not admitting they are putting their kids up for Latymer and fee paying schools?

It's possible - I am thankfully done with school admissions. But my friend seemed pretty certain that she knew quite a few people who were definitely tutoring just for the top set at fortismere. It could, I suppose, be surreptitious for grammar but you'd think the kids would talk about the tests

Okay! Is she tutoring for maths, science and languages? The subjects that are settled at Fortismere?

Ok I see that the Latymer is a grammar school and is pretty far away from MH. How do kids go there if you don't drive them? Same about Henrietta Barnett? It equally looks tricky to get to as well!

I don't know anything about tutoring so not getting into that debate but I am slightly worried hearing about tutoring at Tetherdown. Can someone give any feedback if this is the case in other MH primaries if you wish for your child to attend a grammar/private secondary? Of course I have no idea knowing if my child is academic as she's really young but I am/was so it's worth knowing.

Re our lady of Muswell it’s straight on the 43 or 134 from your house or the other one I forget that goes along fortis green, so while it’s not a 200m walk like tetherdown you would easily get there with maybe 100m walking total and going the ‘wrong’ way so not fighting the get to work crowd into the bus with your child. And then straight back to Highgate tube, door to door. So it’s very straightforward. I do almost the exact reverse for nursery which is very much the get to work crowd!

And doesn’t everyone in north London tutor for getting into the grammars / privates? To me that’s the sole advantage of paying for private from 4yo (which I won’t do)- you could find a through school and not have to worry about all that tutoring and entrance exams.

As this is a post about primaries, I am a parent of a child at Tetherdown and can offer my perspective. Tetherdown is a caring school with a great sense of community and it puts the well-being of children first, perhaps sometimes at slight expense of pure academics. The parents (who given the area are likely to target selectives/ private sector for secondary) tend to do some tutoring as the school does not explicitly prepare for the entrance exams, no shocker there.

My child is very happy at Tetherdown and has a positive attitude to learning, in a broad sense. To be clear, tutoring is a function of parents’ own aspirations, and does not reflect on any particular shortcomings of the school. As far as Muswell Hill is concerned, given this is a relatively well off area and most kids attend local state primaries, I would be surprised to see a major variation in quality of learning, and it boils down to individual preferences in the end.

And to be clear re academics - children at Tetherdown get given work to reflect their abilities (in higher years, at least), to reflect ‘working towards/ working at expected/ exceeding expected’ tiering. Whatever OFSTED picked up during the last review, is naturally top of the school management agenda ....

@NoExpectations68 thank you for sharing your experience with the school.
At the end of the day this is a school closest to us and makes sense to go there if we get in!

Latymer has a bus service for kids in north london - a lot of them travel a long way to get there. For Henrietta Barnett the 102 from Muswell Hill goes to Market place on the Falloden Way and then they walk from there or get the H2. It's nearer than Latymer but stupid competitive.

I know people who tutored for Latymer and Highgate (private) - no where else.