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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Calling all great primaries

19 replies

Suslik · 18/05/2009 21:45

Hi all,
I am sure i am not the first one to come to this point, hence hoping that someone out there has already done good research and can share some wisdom.

I am trying to use the current market as an opportunity to buy and get out of my small rental apartment. We have worked out that we will not be able to afford private school fees all the way, so we were hoping to buy near an excellent state primary and save up towards the time when dd will go to secondary school so she can go private for that.

I have started from the GSG but they have i think 18 state primaries in total in greater london area in their guide. clearly with the current thin real estate market i need a few more than that so i can expand my house search a bit. i am looking for an easy way to search for excellent primaries.

ofsted website seems very user unfriendly and i have not worked out how i can get a query with 'excellent-rated' ofsted state primaries all in one place. does anyone have ideas on how to do that, or what other rankings/indicators i can use to come up with a shortlist of schools i want to target and therefore estate agents etc.

all advice will be much appreciated!
suslik

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Many · 18/05/2009 21:58

Hi Suslik
Not easy if you don't live in the area, but talking to parents who have their children at primaries already helps. They know the best schools around their area. Also the LEA websites should publish how many people applied to each school in their area. You can then see which schools are oversubscribed or not. Also , although sure you're aware already , are the league tables printed in all papers..showing Key stage 2 results for primary schools. Hope that helps. Where are you looking exactly?
Loulou

sleepwhenidie · 18/05/2009 22:02

I think that Richmond has the best state primaries in the country - in terms of league tables (The Times) rather than Ofsted reports though...

Original poster

Suslik · 18/05/2009 22:10

Loulou,
I am looking mostly in two areas - near where i live which is camden, more specifically west hampstead; then highgate, tufnell park.

and then separately down south - between clapham and wandsworth common, clapham south, clapham old town, balham.

i made an offer but the deal is about to fall through, so i have 5 months on existing mortgage to find and close a new purchase, hence talking to people in the area will not work well.

what's the best indicator to look out for in league tables or KS2 results? thanks!

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Original poster

Suslik · 18/05/2009 22:12

and we won't get another mortgage (as one of us lost a job...) sadly. so it's now or not in the forseable future...

OP posts:

Many · 18/05/2009 22:16

Hi Suslik
Well I think that the KS2 results show you results in English, Maths and Science when children are in Year 6 i.e just before going to secondary school. If you look in The Times they will tell you how you should read the results and what they mean. You can look schools up individually or the whole borough..i.e if you're looking in South London..it would be Lambeth I guess or maybe Wandsworth? The Times will list all the primaries in Lameth in order of KS2 results for example. Hope that helps..Loulou

Original poster

Suslik · 18/05/2009 22:17

Another option i've been thinking about is to buy slightly outside of the desired school catchment area (as the stock is so low these days there just is very little choice) and then try to rent someplace nearer the school towards the time when dd has to register in school. i wonder if people do this in this country? i know it's cheeky but i am not sure if i will have a choice, because no stock in catchment area and no chance to wait with flat purchase. so what if i had to rent a flat specifically to get into a good school? how long would you need to rent for and how does one make this work? or don't they?

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Many · 18/05/2009 22:18

Also think it is worth looking at the LEA websites...

sleepwhenidie · 18/05/2009 22:20

I think maybe you need to do it the other way round, ie, look for suitable properties then search on ofsted website for ratings for 3 or 4 closest schools. If you can't find at least a couple of local ones you think you would be happy with then don't bother looking at the property and keep a note of the area not being any good for you.

The only other way I can see of doing it is to wade through ofsted reports for local schools in each postcode you are considering and keep lists of ratings - but this would get huge with the number of areas you are looking at.

Many · 18/05/2009 22:20

I don't really know about renting in the desired school catchment area....it all seems so tricky..how old is your child?

sleepwhenidie · 18/05/2009 22:23

People definitely do the rental thing, yes, but I think schools are tightening up on it and it probably wouldn't go down well if you got found out.

madrose · 18/05/2009 22:23

even if you live next door to 'desired' primary' - there is no guarantee that your child will get a place.

Original poster

Suslik · 18/05/2009 22:30

I think i'll go down the route of list of schools, but indeed rather time consuming.

my dd is 14m old now. but then i have no idea when partner will get a new job so it may be 2 years before we are back in the market you know.

i don't know if you to hide the rental thing all that much - i mean i would not tell them upfront that i am just renting for the sake of getting in, but i know that many people 'legitimately' move out of catchment area as it tends to be more expensive, once their child is in.

OP posts:

SamJamsmum · 18/05/2009 22:40

I can help with the North London area.
West Hampstead - don't bother focusing on primary school choice unless you are a church attender. Emmanuel is probably the best and then up into Hampstead for parochial and Christchurch.

Highgate primary schools are surprisingly so-so. I am more familiar with the area around Highgate village. You have the very good St Michaels which is Church again. Towards Crouch End there is Coleridge which is excellent. Just North of there is Muswell Hill. There is a cluster of excellent primary schools in that area - Tetherdown, St James (CofE again),Coldfall among others. Obviously the church schools are trickier with your short term rental proposal as you also have to have a church attending committment.

sleepwhenidie · 18/05/2009 22:45

Camden is not too bad either - St Silas has excellent ofsted results (and is apparently not too stickly for church attendance) and Hawley Infants also excellent. Robinsfield in St John's Wood apparently excellent and Primrose Hill very much improved in last couple of years. There are also lots of highly rated church schools if you qualify (something else to think about...if you are prepared to rent somewhere to get into a school, would you consider attending church regularly to achieve same aim (assuming, possibly wrongly, that you don't already?)Plenty of people also do this, rightly or wrongly.

SamJamsmum · 18/05/2009 22:55

Yes, Robinsfield infants is very good (actually a Westminster school).
I used to teach in Westminster and lived in West Hampstead. We left West Hampstead because we were so disappointed with school choice. Not church-goers. Lots of people leave West Hampstead to go further out to find schools. My entire NCT group left for Mill Hill/ Muswell Hill/ Hertfordshire/ Cayman Islands (perhaps the last one not solely down the schools!).

PortAndLemon · 18/05/2009 23:59

A lot of good primaries in London fill up, or very nearly fill up, with sibling places. So you can be living virtually on the doorstep and not get a place.

Are you religious? That may affect your decision, too.

SamJamsmum · 19/05/2009 06:44

That happened local to us. One year people had to be 0.15 miles away to get a place!!! Don't assume the size of a catchment area is known as it changes from year to year. The local LEA admissions team can tell you about the last few years but there is variation.
I'm on this thread more than the OP!! Apologies. Can you tell I am slightly obsessed with this subject?

swampster · 19/05/2009 21:48

On www.upmystreet.com you can type in a postcode and get a list of the nearest schools and their scores in various categories.

Original poster

Suslik · 21/05/2009 13:07

Thanks everyone! as it happens, our purchase has finally gone through exchange, so i am hoping that means that we are close to certain to get the place. it's a stone through away from honeywell school in clapham (nappy valley) and close to belleville which is also very good i hear. so hopefully i won't have to engineer rentals etc.

I know most good primaries are church ones and unfortunately for this purpose we belong to a different religion, although not religious really we would not want to confuse our child with which religious orientation she is.

so will now breath a sigh of relief and start focusing on my nappy valley...

interesting facts about north london- thanks SamJamsmum. i live in hampstead and indeed not aware of much state schools around here. fleet is supposed to be excellent, otherwise fantastic private schools around here. wish i could...

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