Primary schools in Crouch End - Coleridge, Ashmount, Whitehall Park, Stroud Green, St Aidans

[Maxxyjazz1818]

My family (DD is 3 and DS is 18 months) is moving to Crouch End during the summer. We’re currently house sitting in Islington and have found a rented house we like in Crouch End - it’s perfect but probably on the very edge of the catchment for Coleridge and Ashmount. I can’t decide whether to go for it, or wait for one that is definitely in the catchment for our preferred. The problem is I don’t know much about local schools beyond reading the Ofstwd reports and advice from my friend who lived in a Crouch End nearly a decade ago - she said Coleridge was fantastic, which seems to be the general concensus. Any more recent advice would be much appreciated.

Is there a CE school you’d be certain to get based on distance to the property? If so I’d go for the property you like. I don’ t think there are dud schools in CE. The worry may be not getting any school, but maybe that’s less of a problem now than it used to be?

Other schools To Coleridge do exist and are just as “good”, just not as fashionable.

I’d agree with PP, all the schools you mentioned seem pretty good, there can be little differences in ethos, for instance Whitehall Park has a uniform, Coleridge doesn’t. Have you any opportunity to have a look round the schools? sometimes you can just get a vibe about a place. Dd is leaving Coleridge this summer and has really enjoyed her time there. I do think it’s a good school, lots of learning through play in the early years, not a Sats factory. The cohort isn’t fantastically diverse by London standards but as it’s such a big school lots of nationalities are represented and among so many people it’s pretty easy to find like-minded souls but of course not everyone wants a big primary school.

Good luck with whatever you decide.