Schools and houses in London - how do parents make their choices?

[Elrond]

Hi everyone,

I am slowly unraveling the complexities of primary education in London, and the biggest unresolved question for me is a chicken-and-egg problem of choosing a place to settle down and choosing a primary school which is likely to be in direct proximity. I was wondering how other parents have approached this problem given the triple uncertainty of (a) successful admission (b) housing availability (c) little insight into the child's preferences in early years.

I was raised abroad and went through a public system where most schools were equally poor, so the wide availability of options and wide variation of outcomes in London is something I had never had to deal with. From what I have been reading on Mumsnet and from speaking to Tiger Mums and Dads, at the top end the "best" independent schools require applications at or even before birth, and there is no guarantee of admission, while the discrepancy in leaving destinations and perceived quality / prestige looks massive. There also seem to be no clear clusters of good schools that would allow local residents to spread their bets so to speak. Add to that the house prices and stamp duty taxes, choosing an area to settle seems like a very expensive bet one has to take for a chance of a better life for their children.

All this bring me to the question in the header: I am wondering how more experienced parents, especially those who moved to London as adults, are approaching this problem? Or am I being unreasonably anxious? Thank you in advance!

Are you looking to go private? Or state? How old are your DC? Do you have any necessities in terms of commuting?

A brief message as with my baby
But.. for state schools bear in mind:

• the framework for ofsted is changing. 80%ish of schools which were outstanding will be come good. Helpful to bear in mind as more and more schools get downgraded.
• I think of choosing a school like buying a house. You can have two 3-bedroom £1million houses on the same road. But when you walk in you love one and just don’t much like the other.

Housing, stamp duty etc is so expensive. If I could o would look for somewhere that could cater for primary and secondary options.
But if not, then I’d look for an area I liked for commuting, distance to family or friends etc, then I would go and visit the good schools in that area. It really helps
To see them.

@sunrise16 all good questions - I am biased towards private, but maybe this is a fallacy as it seems there are genuinely good state schools. DC is a year and half old, and last year we have made early registrations of interest in a dozen schools or so. Commute wise having tube or rail access is a must to be able to get to Central London in under an hour

@Thinking2041 precisely, as if buying a house alone was not stressful enough!

very interesting point on Ofsted changes - however at least statistically it doesn't seem to be a massive downgrade: www.gov.uk/government/statistics/changes-to-ofsteds-statistical-reporting-of-inspection-outcomes-for-state-funded-schools-an-analysis-of-the-changes/changes-to-ofsteds-statistical-reporting-of-inspection-outcomes-for-state-funded-schools-main-findings

I live in an area of London where we are spoilt for choice with good primaries, so would not consider going private (plus could never afford it!). The problem with moving too early if your heart is set on a particular school is that catchments/ last distance offered changes all the time. I would move somewhere with a few good primaries, so you would be happy with any of your top 3/4 choices.

Which private schools will you be looking at?

Many of them will have registrations of interest but will actually for 3+/4+ assessments.

If you wish to go state then perhaps rent where you’d like to be within catchment of and then purchase?
Catchment areas for some schools are very small!
Deadline for state primary applications in January of the September they would start.

@Elrond London is fantastically well served for both state and private schools. I would decide whether you want/can afford to go private (bearing in mind inflation, associated costs eg uniform, potential future siblings) then you can be better advised. Is single sex schooling important? If so private much more likely to offer that. Is sport? Would you rather be south or north?

@Unoriginal43 that would be a very broad list - I was looking at all "top" girls' schools outside of completely unaffordable areas like Highgate or Hampstead. It's very difficult to see any practical difference because all seem to be well regarded and with COVID/running around with DC have not been able to see much in person.

It’s a tricky one. We lived in Zone 1 and
bought a house within spitting distance and in catchment for an Outstanding primary (this was 12 years ago) when I was pg with DC1. In the time between buying the house and DC1 going to school, the Borough built 400 flats between us and the school (how, I don’t know, the land was postage stamp sized!) and we were promptly out of catchment and within catchment of a failing school which was notorious. We ended up going private, which was not an easy option either because every other local(ish) private primary had closed their application lists within months of birth - we were very, very lucky with one and were pulled out a ballot for a place at that school! We would have - very reluctantly - been moving otherwise.

My point is that you can really do your research, but it’s still a minefield in central London. When we realised the issue it was church every week for us as a baptised and confirmed Catholic with a Catholic education (DH) and lapsed Catholic by heritage (me), but the criteria at the local, distinctly average, RC primary was still so tight that we would have been borderline for a place even with a glowing priest reference and living within 1/2 mile, because DC had not been baptised within 3 months of birth and only one parent was confirmed.

@sunrise16 I should be able to afford going private, and from what I can tell single sex schooling leads to somewhat better outcomes. I am a bit indifferent to sports (have been exempt for most of childhood :( ) but it seems to be a big thing in the UK. I don't have a strong North/South preference, have lived on both sides but really appreciated having some green lungs around

@madeinchorley so glad it worked out for you in the end and can imagine how nerve-wracking it must have been. Relocating with a baby is no small task and doing this just to find out a few months down the road that there are no viable options for schooling is hard to get over with.

I only know north but I would say you don't have to live in the villages of Highgate / Hampstead themselves in order to look at those schools. One of my DC is at Channing for example and we don't live in Highgate proper but are still within walking distance - plus you have the Heath etc on your doorstep.

What about something like HABS or NLCS for a bit further out (though very hard to get into as well)

I think you are being a little anxious and overcomplicating it a bit.
School choice for your small child is only one of the factors for choosing a place you as a family want to be. And personally - I think it’s more important for the adults to like where you settle - and be able to afford the sort of place you would like to raise your kid(s) in.
Most places in London would have a choice of schools - either private or state.
Once you decide on the area - then you can pick among the schools there.
It looks like you already registered in some schools anyway. In that case - that gives you a rough area to look for a property.

I think it's a good idea to ask here on MN whether people would recommend their local area for your situation, and see what kind of ideas that throws up.

For example I would recommend Blackheath as it has an outstanding state school (John Ball), other good state schools, and also a number of private schools. Lots of green and easy commute to central.

If you can get a lot of suggestions then at least you can go through and start listing possibilities or ruling places out.

We have opted to go private, and chose to apply for a range of schools across London. We needed to move house anyway for more space, so we decided we'd choose a location based on the school where we decided DD would go, once offers came out. It's not ideal, as 4+ offers don't come out until late January (of the year she starts reception), so we expect we'll have to commute to her prep until we complete on a new house. If we were renting, there would probably be enough time to move into a new property, but buying is much slower and there's not much on the market right now. With the more selective schools for 4+ entry, you usually don't put names down until the year before entry or later.

If we had been looking at state schools, I would probably have aimed to move within 0.1m of a specific school, targeting one with 2 form entry, and only moving 1 or 2 years before the deadline for applications. The most popular school near here has had a smallest cutoff distance of 0.14m within the past 5 years so that would be a pretty safe bet. It will limit your options a lot if buying somewhere, rentals are definitely more flexible but in most LAs you need to have sold your previous property to be able to use a rental address so that all takes time and planning. The problem with just moving to a general area where there are a few good schools nearby, is that you may well not get into any of them, even if they're a short walk away. You need to look carefully at the cut off distance for the previous few years, take a guess at sibling intake (which is why 2 form entry is a bit safer than 1 form), look at birth rate trends, and then position yourself so that you'd get one of the remaining distance places. In the end we decided that the small class sizes and extra curricular opportunities made it worth going private, although we did make a state application and we'll probably get into a nearby outstanding primary.

@lotsoflists this does sound like a bit of rocket science doesn't it!

We live in the Herne Hill/Dulwich area. Our DD is in year 3 at a local state school. From what I have seen, all the local state schools are great and at the present time due to people leaving London there are 'only' 25 children in her class. Kids seem to go to a broad selection of schools from here, state and independent. I wish we had thought further ahead to secondary as we can't afford to go private so will need to move for one of our preferred secondaries But the great thing about this area from our perspective is that even though our DC are at state school they have their pick of amazing extra-curricular activities and holiday clubs, some of which are run by and based at local private schools. I wouldn't personally like to go single sex for primary, partly because we have a boy and a girl, but I think it's a shame to restrict their friendships that young.