Moving to east sheen and sheen mount primary

[user1492346620]

Hi everyone
We are in the process of selling our house in SW11 and have been looking in east sheen.
We have 2 young children and buying in the catchment area of an outstanding school is a major factor
We have seen a nice house in East Sheen which is in the catchment for Sheen Mount

We don’t know the area well, but have always lived in the south west and have family in Richmond so have some experience of it

Would anyone be able to give me their experience of living in East Sheen and also of Sheen Mount school. Is there a good sense of community there. Is the school friendly with good results?
Also, my hope would be that my children may end up going to an independent secondary school - does anyone have experience of sending their children to godolphin and latymer or Putney High from East Sheen (obviously they have to get in, but I’m more interested from a logistical perspective)

Thanks so much for your help!

www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/102897/sheen-mount-primary-school/primary

Here are the stats. The Ofsted inspection was 12 years ago so not very up to date at all.

Thankyou that’s really helpful.

Do you or anyone have recent personal experience of the school or area they would be happy to share?

Thanks

Not sure I can be of much help as this was pre-children 15 years ago, but we lived on the East Sheen/Mortlake border for a few years before moving out of London shortly after DS1 was born.

We loved the area and probably would have stayed there if we hadn't wanted to be nearer to family and could afford a family sized home there! Certainly in our time it was a friendly area with a fair few young families, and loads of coffee shops, restaurants etc. The GP surgery was absolutely brilliant when I had a bloody awful pregnancy with DS1. We used to have lovely walks into Barnes and along the Thames, or into Richmond through Richmond Park.

I don't know exactly where Putney High is but East Sheen to Putney is a very easy journey. I know nothing useful about any of the schools though I'm afraid.

I hope the above info is a tiny bit of use!

Hi my sister sent her children to Sheen Mount and was very happy with it. One went to Godolphin and the other Surbiton High. No issue with logistics - except Hammersmith bridge is shut to traffic so it is quite a walk to the school from Hammersmith Bridge. The school does not prepare your children for 11+ so she had to do a lot of work with them.

The "catchment" for Sheen Mount is largely irrelevant as it's alaways massively oversubscribed -- this is a common estate agent trick.

It's not quite as bad as it used to be -- in 2017 you'd need to have lived within 500 metres of the school to get a place, but that's been creeping upwards.

Good news is that the other local schools are also all very good -- hard to go wrong with Sheen primary schools.

(Don't live in Sheen, but Sheen-adjacent and involved with local activities for that age group so know a LOT of families with children at Sheen schools including plenty from Sheen Mount)

Thanks everyone
All really useful
I went to Godolphin myself so have a little hope that my girls might end up there too! So the above makes me very happy

But they are too little to know how things will end up

I appreciate that catchment distances changes. The house wouldn’t have been in the catchment in 2017, but would have been in 2018 and 2019.

Thanks for the info so far

Hi @user1492346620
We are about to do the same as you and move to East Sheen. Did you get into Sheen Mount and if so are you happy?
Thanks

Hello, also relocating to Richmond, East Sheen from Edinburgh.
I would appreciate thoughts on this as we are also an international family and never lived in England before but lots of people have recommended Richmond for living with kids. I will working in The City so train/commuting is a key factor we are considering.

Thanks!

Sheen Mount primary is very over subscribed as it's a desirable school but depends on which school year you are looking for as parents tend to move from state primary to private prep from year 3 onwards. All the state primaries in borough Of Richmond are good as well as many of the state secondaries and there are Tiffin grammar schools in Kingston.

Thanks @hockeygrass
My oldest would be joining school in September 2023, so when he is 7 years old.
He goes to private school here in Edinburgh which is affordable for us as property prices are not as high as in London.
Moving to London means we will be paying more in rent and when potentially buying after a few years, but this means now that housing cost completely eats the family budget for private education.

I have the impression that is most common to see families moving out of London to Scotland, but for my work the next career move is in London, so I am trying to make it work for all of us without feeling I am compromising on my children's education.

I truly believe that outstanding schools are exceptional and I won't regret the move from this point of view.

Hope this all makes sense!

Thanks a lot

@Cmamumoftwo , you might want to consider moving to a cheaper area outside London and commuting in to London and moving your dc to a prep school instead. Others wise if you get lucky with a Richmond upon Thames primary space from year 3 that is entirely possible and if you are renting you can move to a catchment for a good secondary like Orleans Park in st Margaret's later on. Make sure you check train times as trains from Teddington and Hampton are slower to London than Richmond and Twickenham.

thanks a lot @hockeygrass
We don't know much London outside of the main attractions... and I don't think we will be able to move in to an area where significant commute is involved. We have two DS and my DH also works full time so Richmond is actually the farthest area we are considering that I understand is between 45-60min away from The City.

I know what you mean with getting a place, I've read that the schools in the area are oversubscribed and would be frustrating moving there for a specific school and not getting a place.

@user1492346620 Did you get into the school and how is your experience so far?

Thanks!

@ the good news is that all the primaries in the borough are excellent and if you are planning to stay in the state sector at 11 you might do better to get a primary place at somewhere like St Stephen's in St Margarets where a large percentage of the year move to the local secondary - Orleans Park - rather than some primaries where half the class is being tutored from year 5 for the private entrance exams that take place in year 6. Don't underestimate how big the percentage move from state primary to grammar, private secondary & out of London is at 11 in the Richmond area.

I think you need to phone the primaries you want & ask quite how long the wait list is. Then ask what the turnover is like normally. You may never get in specific ones.

I truly believe that outstanding schools are exceptional and I won't regret the move from this point of view.

I would be VERY wary of taking this attitude.

Sheen Mount may still be a very good school. However, it was last inspected in 2007. That means that the Y6 children whose SATs results most informed that result were born in c 1996 and are now 26 years old. There may be few, if any, staff now in the school who were there for that inspection. More importantly for judging the quality of education, the criteria for being ‘Outstanding’ in 2007 were very different, and at face value are now pretty much the criteria needed for a ‘Good’ grading today.

An ‘Outstanding’ judgement from 2022 is an indication that a school is meeting a particular type of standard (not necessarily a standard everyone would see as representing the most important aspects if education) today. One from 2007 is largely irrelevant, and schools still ‘resting on those laurels’ from 15 years ago are not necessarily the best quality educational establishments.

(58% of primary schools that were previously graded as ‘Outstanding’ were downgraded when inspected in the Autumn term of this academic year. This follows a change from previous arrangements in which ‘Outstanding ’ schools were exempt from inspections under most circumstances, and indicates that it us no means certain that a historical grade will reflect current reality)

Anyone local will know Sheen Mount is more like a private prep than a state school. It's on the edge of Richmond park and the housing in the catchment include roads of houses worth £1.5million plus each. I'm sure it will be on Ofsted's list for inspection soon and will do well but it's not a normal state primary.

It is completely true that Ofsted grading, in both its older and newer incarnations, is closely linked to intake, with those schools with the most privileged intakes being more likely to get the higher grades.

Sheen Mount was recently visited by Ofted so their new grading will be out soon.

Sheen Mount’s new Ofsted grade is ‘Good’, no longer ‘Outstanding’, possibly a reflection of the changes in what Ofsted is looking for in its new framework.