which areas of Greater London have most top state schools

[cuhk]

We are relocating to areas near to London and would like to know which areas in Greater London have most top/outstanding state schools to choose from, in order to increase in-year admission offer chances. Our kids are going for in-year admission to Year 3 and 5. We appreciate any advice. Thank you very much.

I may be leading you up the garden path if separate infant and junior schools are not a thing in these parts of London or if their admission rules are different.

Here it is as simple as there are say 90 in a year group in infants and 96 in juniors, so the school head count might be 3x90 = 270 for infants and 4 X 96 = 384 in juniors. There's unlikely to be an extra class in the year group at juniors unless the school has multiple feeder schools. It's just that class sizes aren't strictly tied to 30 in juniors. But the point I was trying to make is that in some areas, being in the infant school doesn't necessarily give the infant school children priority over other children in the area. Where we are - which is not directly relevant to you but I'm not aware of us being unusual - if you move into the catchment area before the main admission round deadline, your child would be on an equal footing for a junior school place with those already in the infant school. Your child would get a place ahead of another who lives further away and attended the infant school, assuming neither have siblings in school. This is not a universal rule.

The takeaway is not how it works in my area, but that you really need to read the detailed admissions criteria for the specific area you're looking at. I wouldn't be looking at the PANs particularly, I'd be looking at where the "other" (non sibling, non feeder, in-catchment children) come in the pecking order. And if you end up not moving until July it'll all be moot as you'll have missed the main admissions round.

Sorry, I didn't realise y3 intake was a thing. I haven't seen it and am on the border of quite a few councils in South London which all use the same system - though there may be a few outliers and I don't know anything about church schools which again, have different admission criteria. Sorry - may be worth checking the councils' websites for their primary admissions info

I’d take a look at Barnet borough for both junior and secondary schools.

Thank you soooo much for all the valuable advice !!!

I would also like to ask if councils usually require at least 12-month council tax record before any school application. But would it be difficult if we are relocating from abroad?

I emailed a council but the auto reply says it will take 10 days for them to reply...

Thank you for your advice.

No councils do not require 12 month record of council tax - they will likely want your council tax reference as a proof of address. You need a permanent UK address to apply so you need to be settled before you apply but that is just having a rental agreement etc.

Sorry, would like to clarify, do you mean no council requires a 12-month council tax record? We can just submit a purchase proof or rental agreement?

Thank you very much for your advice

No council requires a 12 month council tax record that would not be an allowed criteria in the UK state school admissions system. Each local authority will have it's own requirements for proving your address, in our area it would be, council tax number and a utility bill for the parent and a proof of address for the child such as a child benefit letter. But it varies a lot from area to area.