Best schools near Finsbury Park / Highbury & Islington - advice please

[JRD]

Hi everyone,

My partner and I are planning on moving to Finsbury Park / Highbury & Islington area soon and raising a family there. I'm currently struggling to decide exactly where because we want to maximise our chances of getting kids into a good school and the catchment areas are sometimes so small - it seems you need to be within a 5 minute walk to have a good chance of getting in. We're open to either state or private but would ideally like to be within a 15 min walk of both school and train/tube station. I've looked at the school websites and Ofsted ratings etc but can't seem to find many recent parent reviews on forums etc to whittle things down further.

Does anyone have any experience of schools like the below?

• Ambler Primary School
• Gillespie Primary School
• St John Highbury Value (although we'd prefer non-religious)
• Cannonbury
• William Tyndale
• St Paul's Steiner
• The Children's House School
• The Gower

Particularly interested to hear where pupils from these schools go on to for secondary / if they do above average at 11+ etc. Also if there are any other sites / forums you'd recommend exploring.

Any advice much appreciated!

Thanks,

Some children leave William Tyndale for 7+, 9+ and 10+. From our class 4 kids went to Highgate and City boys at different ages. But those are kids that were tutored privately since year 1.
Every year at 11+ out of 60 children, approx 10-15 end up in private secondaries.
Usually all that apply for private get a place.

Hi there, I see that Drayton Park is not on your list which is where my child has been for a few years now. I wanted to come here to say that Drayton Park was my 4th choice and this is what we ended up with. Like many, I had reservations about that school as it was not seen as one of the desirable ones. A few years in, I realise how prejudiced I was and what a great school it is. I even turned down an offer to another school once my child had started there.

Last year, their Y6 finished 2nd place in their exams, out of about 70 schools in the wider area (and I believe above all of the schools on your list). My child (and us parents) have made great friends with other parents at that school. It is a very diverse, happy and supportive community. I have not yet ruled out putting my child in private education from the secondary onwards but, for now, this has been a great educational start, with lots of regular progress being made in all areas. I would strongly advise to not rule out this school if it is near you!

It is not a school without problems of course but, talking to other local parent friends, the issues are similar in all of them. But if I would have to put my choice of schools down again, I would now put Drayton Park first.

I’m looking in the same sort of area as you and having exactly the same thoughts! The distance last offered for Gillespie was 0.148 last year and the year before, 11 siblings. This limits you to buying a house on about 3 streets! 1/3 of leavers from this school go to city of London academy Highbury grove, 20% to Stoke Newington, and 20% to Highbury fields 8% SMMA. I was thinking if I can buy on the roads in between ambler and Gillespie I should get into one of them.

I would echo the views of AnonymousBadger and urge local parents to consider Drayton Park if looking for a Highbury primary school. My daughter was there from Y2 to Y6 (left last year). It's a wonderful warm, friendly school, which achieves excellent results (they were 2nd in the Borough in last year's SATS). The school community is really broad, with children coming in from a whole range of backgrounds. Their support for SEN children is super. They offer a good value breakfast and extended day club as well which is essential for working parents (and also my child's favourite thing about the school because they get to know all the older and younger children). It's just a really supportive place and a great choice.

On the question of private schools, it is totally possible to go from a good state primary like Drayton Park (and I'm sure many others) to a private secondary school. We prepared using Atom Learning (an online subscription tool) and it was fantastic, plus much cheaper than tutoring. You do need to put in the effort with your child to get them to practice though.

For Drayton Park, quite a few children got last-minute places at Mary Mags secondary school this year, despite being a bit outside their catchment, as well as the usual Highbury Fields and COLA schools.

Thanks so much, I’ve just had a look and for us drayton park is likely a much more sensible option to target as the catchment is bigger and overlaps with Highbury fields. Looks like 23% went to SMMA.

William Tyndale would be the best of the bunch. But it is a school surrounded by council houses, so very tight catchment area.

Anyone got any experience of St Mary Mags Primary school? That would be my preferred option as it’s CoE although it looks like we are slightly outside the catchment area. Our other option is Catholic though and I’d prefer CoE.

I think you get guaranteed progression to the senior school as well?

I know that statistics aren't everything, but if you look at the statistics on primary performance, Stroud Green Primary is probably the best in that area. Last year 24% of kids achieved 'above average' in their SATS - much higher than Gillespie (18%), William Tyndale (17%) or Ambler (10%)

Stroud Green is indeed a terrific school and I know many happy parents there, but I suspect that number is inflated by a generous year 6 teacher marking many more of the students as greater depth than the other schools.

Writing is teacher-assessed unlike the other subjects, and for the score you listed, a student has to have greater depth in all reading, maths AND writing to count. The writing scores for Stroud Green are dramatically higher than those of the other schools. I find it hard to believe that more than twice as many kids at SG are writing at a greater depth than at Gillespie, say, or William Tyndale, when the reading scores of the schools are roughly equivalent.

But maybe I'm wrong! Even if I am, the SATs of all these schools are so excellent that it's not really a reason to choose between them. The lesson is that primary schools in the area are really amazing!

Coming back to add that I hope this does not come across as a slur against the excellent Stroud Green or its staff! SG really may be doing something exceptional with their writing instruction.

I used to live off Stroud Green Road and did love the area. Would definitely recommend it as an area for the OP to look at.

This thread has been so helpful for me. It’s so reassuring to know how good these schools are and how happy people are with them. I will definitely be going to open days, but ahead of that do people know what the after school provision is like at these schools?

Its something thats very hard to tell from the websites - how oversubscribed the wrap around care might be. For example I saw some Facebook posts about south Haringey primary having long wait lists.

how would people rate these 4 school from best to worst? They are in different boroughs but we are sort of in between them all:
stroud green
kings cross academy
Whitehall park
ambler
Hackney new primary school

I would also add to that - how much does wraparound care cost. Breakfast club can be £2 - £6, per session, which adds up over the course of the week. After school club can be £10 -£20. One school not mentioned yet is Ashmount - my niece goes and there is totally free wraparound on site for all age 6+ with no waiting lists.

I’ve had a terrible experience with the children’s house school recently where they broke the law with my child by holding a class to disclose his private medical information without our consent and referring to my son as having superpowers something we had specifically said we didn’t like, this has left him so traumatised and upset he refused to go back and we are still dealing with the emotional fallout of the schools unlawful disclosure. The school admitted they made a disclosure without consent and reported themselves to the ICO but have done a complete 180 when I requested my fees back (we only joined in January and by March they did this to my child). They have handled the whole thing appallingly going so far as now trying to blame my 6 year old vulnerable child for what happened. I would not recommend them at all. They only seem to care about their schools financial position and not the welfare of the children in their care.

Just wanted to add something to this discussion. For context, here is the league table of performance in Islington Primary Schools in 2024.

www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/schools-by-type?step=default&table=schools&region=206&geographic=la&for=primary

The question was first asked mentioning a set of schools. A version of that list is so often the schools asked about in Islington. I grew up in Islington and have two kids now. They first went to a less sought-after school (Drayton Park) where they excelled academically and holistically. It was right next to our house so was the only place we were ever going to send them for all the positives that come from community proximity to primary school. It just so happens that the school is also amazing. If you asked certain people they'd be snotty about the school and only want schools in the poster's list.

It seems it takes a generation or more to turn around the way people speak about a school. Professional childminders I'd spoken to in the area would even say 'oh, Drayton Park isn't the best you really want to go to XYZ other school'. When pointed out that that X other school might not be doing so well, or a head having left, some other flux, reports from parents they don't like it, reports of exoduses from the school for negative reasons, people often don't listen because their view is long held and inflexible.

I shared the results table not because that's the most important thing to me, but just to show that even though certain schools aren't trendy, they perform fantastically. Usually this is because of something great happening with a senior leadership team. Drayton Park also achieved those results with a more challenging demographic than many of those other schools.

We moved house and my kids now go to Yerbury, which is the closest non-faith school to our house. Yerbury is absolutely one of the trendy schools in Islington that people move to the area for. But I can say having had kids in both schools now, that they're both fantastic and if we hadn't moved house, I'd not have moved my kids out of Drayton Park.

Go to each school. Speak to the head teacher. See if what they're saying is what you like. Look at Ofsted reports, not for the one word grade, but for what observation are made about the culture of the school. Cross check this with what you've seen yourself.

Many schools are done a huge disservice and, by proxy, people's kids done an even bigger disservice by often antiquated trendiness scales of schools ruling out places that they would thrive in.

This is really helpful insight, thank you. I’m still looking to move to the area and one thing I’m trying to factor in to my property search is the cut off distances for each school (the furthest distance away from the school a pupil was offered a place in the last year). Are these as rigid as people make them sound? Eg if the the cut off distance for Gillespie (taken as the example is so extreme) has historically been ~0.14 miles and you’re considering a property ~0.18 miles away, would you interpret that as “very little chance of getting a place”? Seems crazy how tightly defined the catchment areas are. Also, does anyone have a view on whether these distances are generally increasing/stable/decreasing? So many influencing factors it seems hard to tell…

With the catchment distances, some boroughs publish these based on offers day in April, and some publish based on offers on first day of term. Schools in London generally have a lot of movement on waiting lists, so those numbers can vary wildly. In general, with people leaving London and declining birth rate, you'd expect the cutoff distances to be increasing. I think that is generally true, but also need to factor in that a number of Islington primary schools will be closing down soon.

I would urge you to pay for Locrating access LondonMum and look at the catchment areas for these schools - there is absolutely no way you will be in the catchment area for all of these simultaneously (even allowing for the recent local drop in primary admissions).

If your child is a looked after child (and so likely guaranteed a place) I would still suggest you would be mad to travel 40min+ to a primary school when there is likely an excellent one 5min away.

Accidental reply - please ignore

Wow, a whole extra factor to consider! I had read about primary schools in Hackney closing (it was actually one of the reasons I was put off considering De Beauvoir, despite how nice the area feels) but, from a quick skim, it sounds like “only” Highbury Quadrant and St Jude’s are due for closure in Islington. Does anyone have a view on whether the schools listed in the original post (or particularly Drayton Park, SMM, Gillespie, Ambler) are at risk of closing?

I don’t think any of those primaries you listed are in danger of closing anytime soon, admissions are still pretty high, their reception classes are full and other undersubscribed schools closing will push them up further giving them a few more years of safety. But it certainly is a weird situation in Hackney/Islington with catchment areas growing and things changing fast. General trends of falling birth rates and an aging population mean these school closures are likely to be seen in lots of areas in the coming years.

No expert here but I did some research this last year as my kid is starting reception this September. The catchments are generally coming down again, not to say they can’t go back up but if you really want to guarantee yourself at a particular school, I would look in the existing catchment size. Eg the .14 for Gillespie. Or be ok that it is likely a risk if you go outside it. Or Hope you get off the waitlist. We know a few people this year who got none of their 6 and then got allocated an undersubscribed school. One got off waitlist for a much better one but most still haven’t. They may by September but it is nerve wracking!

Also to your private school question, we are most likely going to do the the 7+ or 11+ exams and everything I’m hearing is, you need a tutor. It is possible without but even kids at the best state schools in Islington will not get into private without a tutor. And most kids have one.

Depends how much risk / flexibility you’re willing to go with. Eg is Ambler fine if you don’t get Gillespie. But you do have your pickings in the area as the primaries are generally all quite good.

https://www.islingtongazette.co.uk/news/25210635.capacity-primary-secondary-schools-islington/

These figures are from 2023/24 but there are lot of excess spaces in Islington schools. Obviously, these figures are across the whole school not just reception/Y7 and those listed above are unlikely to close. Islington have already closed at least 2 primaries with the next 2 this summer. Camden have closed some too.
I work in an undersubscribed Camden secondary school where the intake is falling each year so will these closures spread to secondary schools too??
This isn't unique to London either, the birth rate is dropping nationally.

To echo PP on secondary, if you get your kids into one of the feeder schools for SMMA then I think it will help and they are a good secondary. Some love Stokey but others not.
I'd say any of the smaller primary options ie 1 class will be fine. I know parents who had kids at St Thomas and Joan of Arc and both very happy and neither particularly religious.
Children's house as a private has a good reputation but you end up having to move them early. Charterhouse Square is another option if you can stomach the travel into the city (from Fins park it's a 15 min train).