Sutton or Harrow for Education.

[sparkles311]

Hi Lovely mums,

Hope you all are well and much excited that things are opening after this long monotonous spell of the pandemic. I need some help to take a big decision. We are in watford currently. My son is 2.5 years. And I am wondering for education which would be a better place Sutton or Harrow. We are open to other places as well. Only point is that we have to live within a commtable distance from London. It's a big decision. And considering the fact we just cannot keep shifting after every years. Sutton has got 3 top grammar schools for boys. But I dont see much options with primary. Again if we see Harrow has lots of outstanding state primary schools. So I am in a confused state of mind if we should go and settle in sutton right now or have our child in some outstanding primary school in harrow and then move. Which is again a very big decision considering the way property prices are increasing. And it's a big hassle selling the current property and buying a new property. I would love to hear from you all. What have you done in such situations. Definitely secondary education is more important than primary. But to get into a good grammar school a primary school also play a part isn't it ? Give me ideas.

Take care

At 2.5 years, how do you know that grammar will be right for your child? In Sutton or Harrow, only the top few % get into grammar and you have to be extremely academic.
You might be better to consider private education for primary at least?

Hi onthebrink1

Yeah true for grammar it's too early to say anything now. But if we have to move to a primary we have to start deciding on the place now. We don't mind private education. Can you suggest some good prep schools in either of these places. This is a completely new thing. I was wondering if locrating is good site to get info.

Sadly I can’t recommend any private schools but I did grow up near Sutton so know the area.
If I was in your position and was considering prep for primary, I would move to an area with good grammar schools (that can be commuted to / within the catchment of) and then look for good prep primary school in that area. The view would be prep until secondary and then either grammar or continue with prep secondary if not

In Sutte, you could consider Homefield prep as a private primary school. But as a PP has said, the three grammars in Sutton are incredibly difficult to get into, with very narrow selection criteria (your son has to excel at maths and English, they don't select on anything else, eg cognitive ability). They are also super selective, which means there is only a very slight advantage in being local upon application, anyone can be offered a place apart from in the tied situations at the bottom of the list. If you don't get into them, would you be happy with the other secondaries in Sutton eg Glenthorne? You really do need a back up plan, especially this young as at the moment there is a high chance your son will not get in because you don't really know how academic he is going to be.

Almost all the primaries in the Borough of Sutton are good or outstanding, so I'm not sure why you are concerned. Some have become academies so their last (outstanding in some cases) result doesn't show. When looking at Ofsted, do check the date of inspection too. An outstanding grade 10 years ago is pretty meaningless.

I don't know Harrow at all to compare, but I would aim to commit to one rough area for longer term. Moving north to south in 7 years time is likely to be awkward. You would need to leave friends behind and do an in year school application. Of course plenty do big moves but if you don't have to that makes life easier.

Have you been looking in a very specific area of Sutton? The London Borough of Sutton has several outstanding primary schools. And almost all are Good or Outstanding.
Try here: www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/schools-by-type?step=default&table=schools&region=319&la-name=sutton&geographic=la&for=primary&basedon=Overall%20performance&show=All%20pupils&orderby=ks2.0.PTRWM_EXP&orderdir=asc

In case you hadn't come across it in your search yet, there's also Tiffin Boys, which has a big catchment that includes LB of Sutton. Most of the Sutton places are no catchment, so you don't have to actually be in Sutton.
There are also outstanding state secondary schools in Sutton if the grammars don't come through.

There are no grammar schools in Harrow though, so I wouldn't move there if you want grammar schools, actually there are Harrow people moving to Watford for schools. Have you looked at the SW Herts Consortium? There are partially selective schools in Watford.