London advice - schools for Jan 2020?

[Frankfurt2017]

Good morning - I was just hoping for a steer if anybody had any experience of mid year places becoming available? Any point in trying a school like St Anthonys (recommended to me) or Southbank International (appears solid into school) I have no first hand experience of the British school system, we're coming as a mixed euro family from frankfurt, and am horribly out of my depth! Many thanks

Hi OP what sort of school do you want UK curriculum or international and for what age of child / children. Do you have anyone helping you with the relocation? If you know where you might be living / working that will help too. If you have the budget for central London and private schools then it will most likely be ok - lots of people are moving in the opposite direction at the moment.

Thanks RicStar - we seem to be one of the few going from frankfurt to London and not visa versa! My kids would be 5 and 10 in Jan 2020. Fortunately I will have an allowance for fees..though with a cap. The UK system looks very thorough but I think my guys will be behind? The IB seems a better fit but that limits choices?

If you can get some help from a re-location specialist that is going to seriously reduce your legwork. Otherwise I would find a reason to like an area of london to live (friends/ relatives / colleagues) and start with the private / international schools closest to that area.

Obviously it's hard to recommend places without information you won't want to share on a public forum but just to reassure you there will be spaces in a range of good schools (uk / multi lingual / ib) in and around London even mid year although not necessarily famous schools but nice ones.

I wouldn't worry about being behind - they probably wont be anyway and there is a range of abilities in every class. Depending on your 10 year olds birthday they would be transferring to secondary school soon shortly but then again some preps are until age 13 and IB schools until 18 so you will find something suitable.

How's your children's English? And how long do you plan to stay? Personally I'm very fond of the IB as I did it myself, but find that in and around London international schools are generally full of very transient families. That might suit if you're coming for a couple of years but not ideal if you think you might stay for 10+.

As RicStar says, you could find an area you want to move to and take it from there. Presumably you'll have a generous housing budget and expensive areas tend to have many independent schools.

Thanks, at the moment we are just looking at schools before settling on where to live...we will be paying the rent side of things so that will be an issue too I suppose. The IB wld be great though as the boys wld appear to be headed twds yr 2 and 6 both text heavy which I wld be very doubtful they'd sadly though!

and sorry for delay in reply - we're just back to school here today.

Back to school already! Wow! Don't want to generalise, but I think that in an international school they'd probably receive better support in bringing their English on. It'll be also nice that they won't be joining classes where everyone has been friends since age 3 but children have been coming and going.

yeah I think for me in the end that might be what makes the difference..I can't imagine the stress of being the new kid in a class of friends...certainly shortens the list of possibilities!

Best to just call around a lot of places! St A's is good option, as well as Abercorn, Arnold House, The hall, he reward house, Lyndhurst, Devonshire house, highgate, ucs...
All of these are difficult to get into, but with some luck you can always find a vacancy somehow!

Moving to London in August(hopefully!) with our 3 boys who will be going into Y4, Y3 and Y1. We are looking to live around Hampstead and would love some advice on independent schools that have a good mix of sports and academics, with good pastoral care.

We'll likely not be able to visit the schools, so any help would be much appreciated. Thus far, we have shortlisted based on GSG and some mums net reviews

1. The Academy School - has places for all 3, but seems to be less focused on sports
2. Abercorn - recommended by our education consultant
3. Arnold House - recommended by our education consultant

Any advice from parents with kids in these schools? Thank you in advance..

The academy is very small, we looked at it but decided to not try. It seems very nurturing and kind, but has zero facilities, they do use the attached church hall for activities etc.
They do get kids into academic schools and they often take kids mid way through who are not getting on at their own school for whatever reason. However, personally, I wouldn't send there unless I had a child who was really struggling in mainstream school and needed more close attention. Arnold House and abercorn are both lovely though although no direct experience but have friends with kids at both. They are more 'established' as such. There are lots of options though.

Thank you afewtoomanychoices . Are there any other schools you would recommend?

Call around Lyndhurst, St Anthonys, Devonshire house, hereward house, the hall, north bridge house , worth just calling all of them. These are all in Hampstead but of course a lot more, either further into London or surrounding. Also there is no harm looking at all-through schools such as highgate or UCS. Hard you have 3 boys which Ideally you want in the same school! But im sure if you call around all, there will be a spot!